M3Xpanded pads and keyboard not working woes

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Vim
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Location: Melbourne Australia

M3Xpanded pads and keyboard not working woes

Post by Vim »

Hi everyone,
Hoping someone can help out with a rather niggling problem.

I bought a 2nd hand M3Xpanded73 on behalf of a friend of mine since he already had a Radias Module. When I tested the keyboard, the keyboard was working as were the pads. However the seller said that the digital 9pin cable that was installed on the keyboard will not be given with the board as it was a friends and he needed it back. He had placed an order for the replacement cable.

I brought the keyboard home, hooked the Module up to my Triton Pro and was able to play everything including the pads. The 73 keyboard was dead of course because there was no cable connecting it to the module.

The vendor posted the replacement cable to me and i installed it per the instructions but the 73 key keyboard was not being read by the M3 module. On top of that, the M3Xpanded's pads are no longer working. They were working and then they were not.

I went back to the vendor with the cable connected and he verified that the cable was correct and installed correctly. We replaced the installed cable with the one that he had taken out originally and the 73 key keyboard was still not being recognised by the M3X. The pads were still not working.

Will a system reset fix the issue (pressing RESET CONTROLS +IFX1+IFX2 then power on) and if it does not then what can I do to get both the pads and the 73 key keyboard working again. I've read somewhere that pressing Enter+5 then turning on the keyboard access other system settings including calibrations.

I have tried to calibrate the pads but it keeps giving me the error "can't calibrate' no matter how softly i press the pads. Is there a particular sequence or 'track' to calibrating the pads?

OS is 2.0.5 and the expansions expcm01, 02, 03 and 04 are loaded into the m256 expansion.

When i use my Triton Pro as the controller keyboard, i can use all features of the M3X (including all Karma functions - except for the pads)

I tried to install an earlier OS but the unit is not letting me do so.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.
V Narayan
Australia
ex Fiji
ex Marshall Islands
HardSync
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Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 6:18 pm

Post by HardSync »

OK, so I don't know what the problem is. It's possible that a connector inside the keybed is disconnected, possibly from transporting the board, or something else has gone wrong with the keybed pcbs. It's weird though that the pads on the module itself don't work at all any longer.

So you can try initializing the module as a first step, but do know that this will completely reset all of the patches and combis. Make sure you have the preload.pcg available before initializing, and backup any custom banks or sounds first too. And of course, ensure you know how to load these back into the M3.

I see you confirmed that the cable was properly connected from the keybed to the module. But just to make sure, there are two connector jacks on the keybed. Are you connected to the TO MODULE connector? The other connector, TO MODULE (2nd), is meant for a second module such as the RADIAS. I don't know if attempting to connect to the 2nd connector would be something worth trying if you haven't already.

Also, here's an image of the available test modes: https://imgur.com/UhW1Qfi

page 2: https://imgur.com/PIq3XIk

Test modes ENTER+7 and ENTER +8 seem relevant too. But I don't know what they actually do as I've never tried them.
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Vim
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Posts: 299
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2002 6:03 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia

Post by Vim »

Thanks for the reply HardSync
HardSync wrote:OK, so I don't know what the problem is. It's possible that a connector inside the keybed is disconnected, possibly from transporting the board, or something else has gone wrong with the keybed pcbs. It's weird though that the pads on the module itself don't work at all any longer.
Yes i also think that it's weird that the pads stopped working.

2 things that aren't working.
1 the keyboard ... suspecting something is lose or when the guy took out the cable something got yanked as even using the same cable again does not result in a connection.
2 the pads don't light up anymore and won't calibrate again.
HardSync wrote:So you can try initializing the module as a first step, but do know that this will completely reset all of the patches and combis. Make sure you have the preload.pcg available before initializing, and backup any custom banks or sounds first too. And of course, ensure you know how to load these back into the M3.
yes that's not a problem plus the unit has the original PCGs stored somewhere in its FLASH ROM and I can load it from there ... but i've also done a save all onto a USB thumb drive so have that part covered.
HardSync wrote: I see you confirmed that the cable was properly connected from the keybed to the module. But just to make sure, there are two connector jacks on the keybed. Are you connected to the TO MODULE connector? The other connector, TO MODULE (2nd), is meant for a second module such as the RADIAS. I don't know if attempting to connect to the 2nd connector would be something worth trying if you haven't already.
Yep tried that already and no luck
HardSync wrote: Also, here's an image of the available test modes: https://imgur.com/UhW1Qfi

page 2: https://imgur.com/PIq3XIk

Test modes ENTER+7 and ENTER +8 seem relevant too. But I don't know what they actually do as I've never tried them.
Thanks for the links. I'll have a look and see what happens. Is there anywhere that i can access the entire manual. Having a hard time finding that.
V Narayan
Australia
ex Fiji
ex Marshall Islands
HardSync
Platinum Member
Posts: 849
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 6:18 pm

Post by HardSync »

Vim,

I just sent you a PM to check if Local Control is off or on. Posting here for visibility and notification reasons -- I never get notified by email that I got private messages, but I do get topic notifications by email.
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