ADA Depot - A Forum To Support Users of ADA Amplification Gear

Let's Get Technical => Schematics & Modifications (mods) => Topic started by: peoriashows on August 07, 2018, 10:49:27 AM

Title: Batteryless EEPROM mod
Post by: peoriashows on August 07, 2018, 10:49:27 AM
Sorry if this has been discussed before, but this guy's shows a batteryless EEPROM mod he did. Seems a bit more sophisticated than I want to get into, but I thought it was worth sharing.

www.stagecue.com/ada.html
Title: Re: Batteryless EEPROM mod
Post by: Griphook on August 07, 2018, 11:45:42 AM
Hey peoria,
This looks exactly the same: http://adadepot.com/index.php?topic=1464.msg13968#msg13968 and MJMP stated some concerns with this mod.
There is even an instruction, how to do it  ;)
greetsGriphook
Title: Re: Batteryless EEPROM mod
Post by: peoriashows on August 07, 2018, 12:35:36 PM
Hey peoria,
This looks exactly the same: http://adadepot.com/index.php?topic=1464.msg13968#msg13968 and MJMP stated some concerns with this mod.
There is even an instruction, how to do it  ;)
greetsGriphook

Good catch.  Thanks. Marshal made a good point about not being able to reset it if the memory gets corrupted,  but otherwise sounds interesting,  though nothing I feel like getting into. I just replaced the original battery in my MB-1, so I'm not too concerned with having a battery in there. They last for a long time.
Title: Re: Batteryless EEPROM mod
Post by: Griphook on August 07, 2018, 01:29:44 PM
Yep. Same over here.

At least its nice to see, that other People are trying to keepall this ADA Stuff alive, although I think, everyone, who buys an old ADA-Unit should know about this board and all the beatiful people around here  :thumb-up: ::)
Title: Re: Batteryless EEPROM mod
Post by: MarshallJMP on August 07, 2018, 03:22:37 PM
Also some MP-1's don't like this mod. I had one in repair a few months ago that did some strange things and it had this mod. I ended up replacing it with the original RAM chip and battery and it functioned fine again. This was also discussed on the old forum, some people had trouble with NVRam and with some it worked fine.
I think it's a timing issue, it takes times before the flash memory is written into the Sram of the NV chip at startup. If that time is longer then the reset circuit time then you could get problems. (I guess).

Now it's easy and cheap to put in a battery holder, much cheaper then this mod and you're sure you won't run into problems. And if you make a backup of your presets on your pc and the battery  goes dead, replace the battery, put the presets back in (take only a minute ) and you're good to go.
Title: Re: Batteryless EEPROM mod
Post by: rnolan on August 08, 2018, 08:16:21 AM
While I'm attracted to the battery less idea  :banana-jazz-smiley-emoticon: , as MJMP says, it's allot less expensive to do either the battery holder mod or just replace the battery with one with the lugs pre soldered (which are also available).  Either way will buy you plenty of time.  The battery holder mod is probably the better of the 2 as the newer CR2032 batteries probably don't have the same longevity as the original batteries  :dunno: .  Whatever choice, write down any presets/patches you really care about (and or dump them to your PC etc)  :thumb-up:
Title: Re: Batteryless EEPROM mod
Post by: peoriashows on August 08, 2018, 08:24:40 AM
Yeah,  it's not like it's the same annoyance as changing batteries on your on-board active electronics on your bass which has to be done every few weeks. The EEPROM batteries will last a long time.

 While I'm on that tangent, it reminds me of why i love the MB-1 so much.  A lot of fellow bass players say they like having active electronics to shape their tone on the fly at their fingertips. I tell them i don't need that because i get my active electronics from my amp and can change my tone on the fly at my foot tips.  Ha!
Title: Re: Batteryless EEPROM mod
Post by: rnolan on August 08, 2018, 08:44:17 AM
I've done one battery change in my Alembic SC Brown (in more than 2 years) I took one of the 3 x 9v batteries that power the fingerboard leds, I rarely switch them on), not that it got allot of playing though to drain the main preamp battery.  But it did die  :facepalm: .  MP1/2 and MB1 batteries have lasted at least 18 years go figure  :headbanger: