Card builder thread!

[dojoe]

Built your own card(s)? Leave a comment in here so we know how far our design is spreading :) We'd be interested in your rough location too (out of pure curiosity) but we'll also be happy if you just say hi! (Please keep this issue on topic and only say hi if you built a card here - open a new issue for anything else.)

[MrMojoRisinGottaKeepOnRisin]

I'm on the East Coast, U.S.A. I purchased a pre-built Roland Multi-Bank MRAM Card back in 2021. One of the coolest new gadgets I own! I'm very grateful to the designer for the newly released BOM, schematics and plans. I commend DOJOE for supplying all of this free info and for supporting the DIY community. Very generous, indeed!! I have built three of these new cards from scratch so far and they all work great. Assembly was easy because the components are spaced out on the PCB with minimal crowding. I was able to solder all components by hand and did not use solder paste or a solder plate. Lots of flux. I used OSHPark to fabricate the PCB's and have always had outstanding luck with that company over the years. Quick turnaround and Free Shipping to anywhere in the world!

[maddmannmatt]

Forgive my confusion on this matter, but does OSHPark build the whole card for you or do they just provide the PCBs?

[MrMojoRisinGottaKeepOnRisin]

> Forgive my confusion on this matter, but does OSHPark build the whole card for you or do they just provide the PCBs?

OSHPark only supplies the PCB's. You need to source all of the parts and solder all of the components yourself.

[andyc2k]

Thanks for open-sourcing this! FYI, it looks like the Panasonic EXB-E10C103J resistor network is out of stock on both DigiKey & Mouser, but there are still some Bourns CAT25-103JALF available from RS.

[MartyMidi]

The board (sent Gerbers to PCBWAY) with all components installed is an extremely tight to fit into the card slot. The main RAM chip actually has a line/mark down it from being inserted into the card slot. What thickness were the original production boards?

[Benito-H]

I'm from Vancouver BC, and will be building one of these for my D-110. I have all the data sheets, but have a question about the surface mount capacitors and resistors. What rating should I get (operating voltage/power rating), as there is a wide range to choose from, and this info is not included in the data sheets? I am a newbie at this so apologize for my ignorance.

[MrMojoRisinGottaKeepOnRisin]

The board (sent Gerbers to PCBWAY) with all components installed is an extremely tight to fit into the card slot. The main RAM chip actually has a line/mark down it from being inserted into the card slot. What thickness were the original production boards?

I measured my original production PCB and it is 1.5mm. The DIY PCB's I bought from OSHPark are 1.4mm. I don't get any lines/marks when using either on a U-20, D-110 or JV-880 and both versions are a good fit on these three synths when inserting/removing.

[MrMojoRisinGottaKeepOnRisin]

I have all the data sheets, but have a question about the surface mount capacitors and resistors. What rating should I get (operating voltage/power rating)?

For my DIY synth projects using SMD components, when choosing resistors and capacitors without any specs shown in the BOM (just to play it safe) I always use Resistors 100V or greater @1/4W and Capacitors 35V or greater. Prior to the component shortage and price hikes of 2020, the extra cost for this high Voltage ceiling was minimal. Nowadays, urrrghhhhh!

These are the resistors and capacitors I used for my build: 100 Ohm - PANASONIC P/N: ERJ-PA3F1000V 10K Array - PANASONIC P/N: EXB-E10C103J 100pF - MURATA P/N: GCM1885C2A101FA16D 100nF - TDK P/N: C1608X7S2A104K080AB 1uF - TDK P/N: CGA3E1X7R1V105K080AE

[Benito-H]

Hi MrMojo,

Great. thank you for your help. I am ordering the components from mouser, but there is a back order on the MIC5265-3.3YD5 chip until October. I'll have to be patient, I guess. Grrrr!

[andyc2k]

I've built a couple of cards here in Tokyo using PCBs from OSHPark. I'm planning to use this to make a permanent backup of the Akai VX600 factory presets and ideally dump the data to a file. Next step will be to build the test jig - has anyone else tried this yet?

[dojoe]

The board (sent Gerbers to PCBWAY) with all components installed is an extremely tight to fit into the card slot. The main RAM chip actually has a line/mark down it from being inserted into the card slot. What thickness were the original production boards?

@MartyMidi The original boards were 1.6mm plus parts. Some devices' slots have a habit to warp and become tighter with age; that's when they scrape the main memory chip. This is known to happen in JD-1080s for example and isn't causing any kind of problem.

What rating should I get (operating voltage/power rating), as there is a wide range to choose from, and this info is not included in the data sheets?

@Benito-H For caps, the board runs at 3.3V or 5V; I usually pick twice that for margin, so 10V should be plenty. As for stability rating, go with X7R; at the capacitances the board uses the X7Rs aren't more expensive than the lesser ratings these days.

For the resistors, use the ubiquitous 1/10W type, that's the cheap jellybean type for 0603 sizes and none of these will be seeing any significant current.

Next step will be to build the test jig - has anyone else tried this yet?

@andyc2k Not that I'm aware of; you'll probably have to redesign most of the board (I take it you already saw the big fat warning in the README) and add the actual ATmega part plus support components instead of the devboard header I had on there. If you do I would be delighted about a PR :)

I am ordering the components from mouser, but there is a back order on the MIC5265-3.3YD5 chip until October.

@Benito-H You may want to check out #5 :)

[Benito-H]

@dojoe Thanks for the pointer to #5 I have ordered the alternate part, and all the other components.

[tsanderakis]

Cantt get my card running. Its for a Roland D550 but it is allways telling me "illegal card" Can`t find really good information on how formatting cards with my D550. Think this is a different procedure like the Keyboard D50 version. The solder on the card is on the right side for 256 at JP1. PCB is from JLCPCB and 1.6mm. I was thinking that 0.1mm more is not that much and in my opinion and feeling when pushing it in it fits well. https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/roland-d-550-saving-ram-card/ Arrays are again avaiable at Mouser.

[dojoe]

There must be an "initialize" option in some tools menu. That's what formatting is called on some Rolands. Illegal card usually just means it needs to be initialized. Remember that you have to initialize each bank separately. (Also remember to read the manual if you haven't already.)

If after initialization the card is still "illegal" there might be something bad about the hardware (like a badly connected address or data line).

[tsanderakis]

The dokumentation of the D550 seems a little bit confusing. In the service manual, found one on the net, they are writing for testmode press and hold patch bank 2, patch bank 6, and edit and turn machine on. Looks like there is a translation error in the manual. If you use exit instead of edit its working.

Einschalten, während Sie die folgenden Tasten gedrückt halten:

1> PB2+PN6+edit=ROM-Versionsnummer identifizieren 2> PB2+PN6+exit=Testmodus aufrufen 3> PB2+PN6+enter=Initialisierung (Werkseinstellung wiederherstellen) 4> PB2+PN6+write=D/A-Anpassungsmodus aufrufen found this on the net.

In test mode the card shows no read no write so no wonder not initialized but finds something. So what I try tomorrow is building a second card. I have 2xD550 and on both same problems. Found in the original owners manual just only somewhere press 2x enter when it is not possible to write to the card. ??? Soldering? Not a total beginner. Did some STMs in the last few years and 0603. Nothing like for D50 keyboard version. Data Transfer, Int->Crd, Split-Point press and hold, press Enter

sorry, rough location is Upper Neanderthal

[tsanderakis]

Ready with No. 2. This one is working so everything fine. For initializing you have just to press Data Transfer, with cursor button go to int->card, press enter button, when you see illegal Card push enter again and then once more enter. This is for D550 not for D50. So now I have to find out whats wrong with No. 1. @dojoe Thanks for your help

[andyc2k]

Hi. I was able to build the test jig and dump the binary data from my VX600. I used a standard Arduino Micro and a custom card-to-pin header adapter to connect it to a breadboard. The test however fails at "Reading first 32K again" at a seemingly random (high offset) address, which seems to change if I uncomment the delays in test.c. I'll look into it some other time - it seems to work fine regardless.

Notes:

• PD5 (data bit 6) is used for the TX LED on the Arduino Micro. I held a jump wire against a nearby via as a workaround.
• There's no PE2 pin on the Arduino Micro. I added an 'S' command for start/stop instead.
• I used the same spring contacts and held the card down with my hand, but there has to be a better way. The orientation of the pins is important because they're designed to be forced downward in the direction of insertion.

[DocRV]

Hallo DoJoe, I'm located near Paris. I've created this account just to thank you. I bought you a card, long ago and now I built few cards by my own (6 so far). I sold some of them. I saw your comments on VintageSynth forums and I stick to a fair price. It is incredibly generous from you to share your work. I really admire your schematic design, even if I complain so many times you've used 0603 CMS components. My old eyes hate you ! ;-). You're great ! Vielen Dank ! Tschüss,

[dojoe]

The test however fails at "Reading first 32K again" at a seemingly random (high offset) address, which seems to change if I uncomment the delays in test.c. I'll look into it some other time - it seems to work fine regardless.

There's a 99.9% chance it's the spring contacts. Don't ask me how many mods I had to make to the test jig until those contacts worked even semi reliably. In the testbench photo you'll notice a slab of bare PCB taped to the jig surface. That's to make sure the memory card doesn't bottom out on the spring contacts; if it does the contacts' casings will randomly contact the next pin over. Took me a while to figure out.

[guytaylor]

Hi everyone! I've made a few of these cards, and they are working fine. But I do get a bit worried about them being fragile and potentially knocking components off. Has anyone tried sealing it with some kind of protective coating? or something like that?

[guytaylor]

Also, the 74LVX4245MTCX are not available from the usual big suppliers anymore. But are available here (albeit with very high shipping :( ) https://www.utmel.com/productdetail/onsemiconductor-74lvx4245mtcx-7586388

[Hydrot]

Hello, I've been following your old blog to get to here. I'm building the card now. I'm wonder if anyone has a picture of when inserted the card on Roland D-50 how much of the card goes inside. I'm planning to build a case for it and include some holes on the PCB. I also would like to congratulate Dojoe for this fantastic work he spent all time to get to here. This is some serious Engineering. I belong a to a huge community on facebook and there's a lot of people interested on this. I'm PCB Designer and Engineer as well. I also want to get your blessing to sell the board with some modifications. Please let me know! I'm not trying to copy your design and make money but help the great community of D-50. So, my plan is to run some lot of boards with my changes. I own a D-50 and a Juno DS.

[sagamusix]

@Hydrot the final card has pretty much the same dimensions in terms of width and height as an original RAM/ROM card, so you can use those for reference, but here's a picture of the card in my D-50:

Note that card slot depths vary between synths, so any changes to the card's dimensions may not work with other devices. Our initial card design was a bit shorter, so that the card wouldn't stick out as much on a D-50, but then it was too short for other synths.

[dojoe]

@Hydrot Thanks for the nice feedback, it's great to see that there is so much interest in our card!

It will be hard to design a case for the card since with components mounted it is exactly as thick as an original; I had to switch the voltage regulator because the part I had originally selected was too thick, and we've had multiple reports of synths where the slot had warped a tiny bit over time and left scrape marks on the memory chip. So any additional thickness is likely going to cause problems. With some cutouts it may be possible to design a top plate that makes the card uniform thickness however.

Feel free to make modifications and sell the modified cards, the world needs more of these :) I'd like to ask a few things though:

1. In accordance with the CC-BY-SA license please attribute me somewhere (maybe shrink my dojoe logo on the card and add yours next to it :) ), and share your updated design sources like I did mine.
2. The entire project was started in reaction to price gouging on the originals, and we've already spotted people reselling our cards for way over 100$ which made us very sad - our original selling price was ~80$ new and we still made profit on that. Please respect the intent of this project and don't be greedy with your price point :)

[Hydrot]

Hello, Great to see the picture. I ordered the very first lot of 5 boards. Here is the looking of it. I added 4 3mm holes for me to work on the 3D printing. I'm going to protect the switches. I can see the card will be very tight. Price is what I'm working on. I should be very close to the targets. Project is now in Altium Designer. I spend a week importing all and reworking little things here and there. I hope you Enjoy it! It's your baby!

[MrMojoRisinGottaKeepOnRisin]

FWIW,

Dimensions for other synths

JV-880:  5.6mm

D-110: 20.7mm

U-20: 20.3mm

On 10/9/23 8:28 PM, Hydrot wrote:

/Hello, I've been following your old blog to get to here. I'm building the card now. I'm wonder if anyone has a picture of when inserted the card on Roland D-50 how much of the card goes inside. I'm planning to build a case for it and include some holes on the PCB. I also would like to congratulate Dojoe for this fantastic work he spent all time to get to here. This is some serious Engineering. I belong a to a huge community on facebook and there's a lot of people interested on this. I'm PCB Designer and Engineer as well. I also want to get your blessing to sell the board with some modifications. Please let me know! I'm not trying to copy your design and make money but help the great community of D-50. So, my plan is to run some lot of boards with my changes. I own a D-50 and a Juno DS.

[MrMojoRisinGottaKeepOnRisin]

[Hydrot]

Perfect information. Much appreciated! I can see so far that only the D-50 can have cover. I'll try to adjust for next lot to protect the switches for all. I have some idea of what to do with plastic. I'll add 2 holes on both edges that I can create the plastic only for the switches for the JV-880. At this way it could fit all her on the picture. Cheers!!!

[patriqx]

I also have a D-20 and the "sticking out" dimension on that is 20 mm. I haven't tested the card with that one yet, only with my D-50 so far. And it looks like the JV-1080 and JV-2080 has the same structure as the JV-880.

[Hydrot]

Great, I'm changing here the mounting holes for the plastic now. The JV-880, JV-1080 and JV-2080 will have a T shape plastic, small but it should be ok. look my mounting holes.

[sagamusix]

The JD-800 is taking it to the extremes:

[Hydrot]

Wow, I could not imagine that your card Joachim could fit in so many keyboards! Unbelievable work done! You are the hero saver. We are pupils of your hard work! Anyway, thanks sagamusic to share the sizes... and keyboard pics. I'm thinking what to do. I'm working in steps. The main goal was to cover most of the electronics, but then this has to be very thin. Just with components + board we are at 2.79mm already. I'm starting with the ones will be D and U series. In progress here not done yet... No need more tubes or anything to protect the switches. The plastic will do this.

[sagamusix]

One obvious way to make it compatible with all synths and at the same time protecting all the ICs would be to mimic Roland's own M-512G, i.e. just have the bare circuit board for the full length of the card and put all the ICs and switches beyond the original card length. Then the casing for them can be as thick as you want. Not pretty but to be honest I think it's the only way to maintain compatibility and offering some sort of casing at the same time. WaveReX cards take a different approach, apparently sandwiching two (thinner?) PCBs and putting the components inside. But no idea about the details, the card is too precious to disassemble it. ;)

[Hydrot]

I like this approach, but the card will be a bit bigger. I have no problems to rebuild the PCB. Let me think a bit! Thanks!!!

[DocRV]

Glad to see this great project is still evolving. I'd dream of tactical switches with 7-segment counter, instead of mecanical switches, if I may. Or a rotary switch, as we can find on some clones. With all my respect for the brilliant initial design, the switches are not very handy. No offense ! I'm so grateful to Dojoe & Sagamusix to share this. Actually I was thinking about an optional daughter PCB that would connect to the switches' holes that would provide the 7-segment counter & tact. switches, on the top of the original PCB. But if we are redesigning the entire PCB, that would be amazing. Keep on Roland lovers !

[sagamusix]

With that sort of wishlist, you probably better wait for WaveReX' commercial solution, which will be pretty much exactly that. Keep an eye on https://shop.waverex.de/ - it might still come later this year. Definitely not at the same price point as our card, though.

[DocRV]

Yeah, this is what I had in mind, indeed. but it's not as fun & satisfactory as DIY. Are you involved in that project, btw ?

[sagamusix]

No, I just know the guy behind WaveReX and gave him our okay that he can release his cards now that we're no longer selling ours. His design is completely independent from ours and thus may also work with the few devices that had troubles with our card.

[DocRV]

You're all true gentlemen. So, in return, maybe not so great to 'compete' with Waverex with my proposal...

[sagamusix]

There's obviously nothing wrong with people building their own one-off cards, and even with a commercial solution being available, I think our open-source project will serve a purpose. But while there is still quite a demand for cards, the market is small - two people trying to mass-produce their cards might not end well.

[guytaylor]

hi @dojoe, love your card! I've made 10 of them now, It's great having so many bank available for all my various Roland synths :) I was wondering, would there a problem with me modifying your card? I would like to make a Korg MCR-03 bank switchable card, and I believe there wouldn't be many changes needed to get your card to work as one. Thanks

[sagamusix]

That looks really cool with all the different colors!

I was wondering, would there a problem with me modifying your card? I would like to make a Korg MCR-03 bank switchable card, and I believe there wouldn't be many changes needed to get your card to work as one.

You can absolutely do that, and it would be a very welcome contribution to the community! The card design is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA license, which you can read up here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ The tl;dr version is that you need to mention that the card is based on dojoe's design, and that you card is licensed under the same license as ours.

[patriqx]

There's obviously nothing wrong with people building their own one-off cards, and even with a commercial solution being available, I think our open-source project will serve a purpose. But while there is still quite a demand for cards, the market is small - two people trying to mass-produce their cards might not end well.

I guess there would be a market for these cards since there were so many Rolands made which accept these cards (D-50/550/20, JV-880/1080/2080, U-series, maybe also the R-series drum machines). I would personally be interested in having at least 5-6 cards, now I have one from the original lot, which I use in both my D-50 and JV-1080. Maybe I have to make my own based on these, since the @guytaylor 's picture with 10 cards are very inspiring. Of course, it would be easy to just use midi dumps from a laptop but I'd rather use the cards with selected sounds.

[sagamusix]

Let me reiterate what I meant to say, just to make my point clear: Yes, there is a market, but it's probably not big enough to be commercially viable for two competitors to sell cards. If WaveReX just went ahead and released their cards while dojoe and I were still selling our own cards, this would have been bad for both our and their business. WaveReX had a competing product ready but they were so fair not to sell it at the same time as ours was available. So if anyone here thinks about creating another large (i.e. > 100 or so) batch of cards to sell them, I would urge them to please contact WaveReX first. Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of compatible Roland synths out there probably, but the people who care about these cards are a relatively small group of enthusiasts. Small one-off-quantities of cards are not relevant to this part of the discussion of course, and of course we encourage people to build their own cards if they have the ability to do so!

[Hydrot]

Hello, Could somebody explain the JP6 jumper? Is preselected with track to 1 x 4096 (Left). What happen if you cut the trace and solder to right? I was reading the manual, and nothing is mentioned about switching to right.

[Hydrot]

The JD-800 is taking it to the extremes:

Could you tell me what is the distance from the car edge to flat edge of the keyboard entrance?

[sagamusix]

The distance is pretty much zero. Maybe a millimeter - I don't think I have tools that would be suitable for exact measurements in such a tight environment.

[sagamusix]

Could somebody explain the JP6 jumper? Is preselected with track to 1 x 4096 (Left). What happen if you cut the trace and solder to right?

There's a misunderstanding, it is preselected to not use the 1 x 4096 configuration. In this configuration, the switches don't do anything and you expose one large 4096 kbit card, which is only really useful for emulating ROM cards.

[Hydrot]

Could somebody explain the JP6 jumper? Is preselected with track to 1 x 4096 (Left). What happen if you cut the trace and solder to right?

There's a misunderstanding, it is preselected to not use the 1 x 4096 configuration. In this configuration, the switches don't do anything and you expose one large 4096 kbit card, which is only really useful for emulating ROM cards.

Thank you! It was unclear the standard mode. It means it comes standard to select all sizes (jp1-jp4). Only if you need 1 x 4096 you change to it, which disables switches (jp1-jp4). Is that right?

[sagamusix]

All jumpers work in conjunction. You can imagine them as a bit set, and only one bit can ever be set to true at a time. JP6 does not "disable" the other switches - they all need to be set to the 4M position indicated by the silkscreen, just like you would do it for any of the other possible card configurations.