Jomox o9

[arron]

 I am about to start work on a Jomox that was part exchanged, has anyone had any success with these units, or horror stories?

[arron]

 Just opened the unit up and started to find some interesting stuff, I have found an excellent overdrive that takes this machine to the extreeeeems of madness. The machine that I am working on is one of the original Jomox prototypes and just looks a mess, it has hand stamped/punched parameter names and looks as if it has been left in a bucket of  acid over night.

There is no info on the net regarding mods or any videos of circuit bent examples, I hope I get some good stuff before blowing it up

[Gordonjcp]

Can you get some good high-resolution pics of both sides of the board?  It would be useful to see what's in these things.  Maybe I can point out the bits to avoid before you blow it up...

[Circuitbenders]

Does it look like it'd be possible to replace the crappy pots with something a bit less shit?

A mate of mine has one of these and the pots are just dire. Half the time they jump all over the place. Another wierd thing is that the official power supply he got with it plainly isn't up to actually powering the thing, as the step buttons were somewhat unresponsive until he got a more PSU capable of delivering a lot more milliamps.

[arron]

Can you get some good high-resolution pics of both sides of the board?  It would be useful to see what's in these things.  Maybe I can point out the bits to avoid before you blow it up...

Thankyou Gordon, that is very nice of you to offer your help and advice. I will get some images and post them some time soon. What I have found so far is that I can add bend points that replicate the original panel controls, but I am just poking around with caution at the moment. I have been using an led to jump round the board, that way I at least get a 50/50 chance of knowing that there is a voltage line there. I am also hoping that the led will blow before any damage has been caused by my poking in the dark.

[arron]

Does it look like it'd be possible to replace the crappy pots with something a bit less shit?

A mate of mine has one of these and the pots are just dire. Half the time they jump all over the place. Another wierd thing is that the official power supply he got with it plainly isn't up to actually powering the thing, as the step buttons were somewhat unresponsive until he got a more PSU capable of delivering a lot more milliamps.

I have not removed the board yet and the pots are on the underside, but yes they are bad. I am using an original alesis HR-16 Ac/AC PSU with the unit, which seems to do the job. I am planning to replace all of the small red led switches in the unit, just so it becomes asier to program. Just a fiddly little box really. I have compared it to my TR-909 and it just does not have the same feel. It remind me of the Korg esx-1, which I think I prefer.

I will keep you posted on any updates as I find them....

[arron]

 Easy to replace the pots, all are 10KB. I found a few bends but nothing worth connecting except for a switch that alternates between hat - ride and snare - clap. Such an annoying machine though, it's not for me and I sold it on.

[LoneStar81]

I'm afraid you just didn't look close enough! The XBase 09 has analog bassdrum, snare and toms, and then some 8bit (?) samples for hihats, claps and ride/crash. There would have been your target
I recommend you get educated in electronics so that you recognise a memory chip when you see one. Maybe you'll even figure out how amplifiers are built from transistors, and how opamps work (your "awesome overdrive" comes from mangling with those).
You stressed a lot of times that you are living off this, and it's been years, so I just can't understand how you can NOT get knowledgeable in the field you are working in.
If you continue like that, you'll keep poking circuits randomly with your finger forever. Guess what: I never did that, I came up with all my bends through thinking, planning, figuring out and THEN trying out stuff.

[arron]

If you continue like that, you'll keep poking circuits randomly with your finger forever. Guess what: I never did that, I came up with all my bends through thinking, planning, figuring out and THEN trying out stuff.

Necessity is the mother of all invention. We sell all of our machines on ebay and earn a decent living, so why change it? If it ain't broke then dont fix it. It is more than circuit bending that sells the machines, the look of the finished product is 50% of the reason that they sell. We both went to art school and that helps alot when it comes to the design work. We are also both electronic musicians and the ears tell us what works, not text book electronics. We obviously are learning alot from poking around, after all the connections are drawn and recorded for future reference.

We are also just embarking on our first manufactured device, which came around from our experimenting and experience in the music industry, we have also studied in bussiness and that has a large part to play in the day to day running of our circuit bending business.

We also see your point and do have a large collection of books that we use as reference material, so once we have the knowledge that you seem to have then we will be streets ahead due to all the other factors.

Be lucky!

Arron and Abi @ S-CAT

[arron]

I'm afraid you just didn't look close enough! The XBase 09 has analog bassdrum, snare and toms, and then some 8bit (?) samples for hihats, claps and ride/crash. There would have been your target

Forgot to mention, as it is an analogue machine that has lots of sound editing features on the front then most of the analogue bends that we found were already achievable. There was no point in duplicating what was already there. Have you worked on one of these units? And could you tell us what to connect where and what the audio results would be?

[Gordonjcp]

Have you worked on one of these units? And could you tell us what to connect where and what the audio results would be?

I haven't worked on one, but I'm fairly certain I could find a lot of interesting modifications - and why?  Because I look at what the bits are, and draw out the circuit so I know how it works.  Poking it with bits of wire won't really tell me much.  Having drawn out a circuit diagram I could tell you exactly what affects what, but I'm not going to.  You'll notice throughout just about every post I've posted here, none of my answers are "connect a wire here and here and here" type of thing.  Finding ways to modify equipment - particularly analogue drum machines, which are really quite simple - is a matter of learning how to understand what's in front of you.  It's not hard, the information is all right there.

[arron]

Have you worked on one of these units? And could you tell us what to connect where and what the audio results would be?
Having drawn out a circuit diagram I could tell you exactly what affects what, but I'm not going to. 

We were not asking to be told, we were asking if Lonestar had those skills. He does seem very sure of himself. We did manage to duplicate most ofthe front controls, so they are simple machines to work on. Poking around will lead us on to bigger and better things and what we have learned about electronics so far is paying dividends now.

[arron]

Have you worked on one of these units? And could you tell us what to connect where and what the audio results would be?

You'll notice throughout just about every post I've posted here, none of my answers are "connect a wire here and here and here" type of thing. 

We are traditional circuit  benders, rather than circuit modifiers then? We understood the spirit of circuit bending as anarchy and not precise knowledge. Or are we wrong there? And surley the end results are what is important.

[Circuitbenders]

We understood the spirit of circuit bending as anarchy and not precise knowledge.

A little from column A and a little from column B i'd say. It probably depends what you're working on and how hideous it'd be it you broke it. I'd probably go for knowledge on this one

Is there such a thing as a schematic or service manual for the Xbase 09? I'm guessing that Jomox aren't big enough to need separate service centres so they'd never release them.

[Gordonjcp]

Is there such a thing as a schematic or service manual for the Xbase 09? I'm guessing that Jomox aren't big enough to need separate service centres so they'd never release them.

Give me one - even a non-runner, just as long as it's complete - and I'll see what I can do ;-)

If you even give me some good, high-resolution photos of both sides of the boards I can take a stab at identifying different sections.