EMS synthi Hi-Fli repair

[bsoncini]

Never looked for faders before.  Easy to find replacements?

Not always but sometimes you can find something close enough, firstly what brand are they? Then you'll want to measure the dimensions and take note of how the pins are grouped.

The faders say AB made in the uk.  Allen Bradley?

The good news is the headers arent actually soldered.  They are these scissor things that clip the boards together and thé board came apart easily

That's great news, can you get images of both sides of each board??

I think finding replacement sliders is gonna be tricky, is there any indication of what alues they are??

I already took the pics. Send me your email by PM and I'll send them to you

Yes the values are written on the PCB next to the faders.

[PMowdes2]

Email sent

[bsoncini]

Pics sent. Let me know if you need any help tracing it or verifying values for you

Maybe we should start a thread at diystompboxes on this? Get more people involved in it

[PMowdes2]

Pics sent. Let me know if you need any help tracing it or verifying values for you

Maybe we should start a thread at diystompboxes on this? Get more people involved in it

Thanks, I will have a look at them tonight.

I'll leave it up to you about the thread on DIY.  I think there is probably enough experience on here to make some progress on this so long as you are happy to poke about with a multimeter and check continuity for the bits we cant figure out from the photo's

[Yahoo67]

Lol i love all this detective work ^^ maybe we are seeing the birth of a futur deadend effects project

[PMowdes2]

Lol i love all this detective work ^^ maybe we are seeing the birth of a futur deadend effects project

I had a go at overlaying the board images last night and it was a little tricky since the camera wasn't fixed and the perspective / scale changes slightly.  It should be doable, but it is going to take some time.

[bsoncini]

I can try to take other photos if you want but it'll probably be the same since my only camera is a smartphone.

I tried to see if I could scan the boards. It worked ok but I can't get the board flat with the headers in place

[PMowdes2]

I can try to take other photos if you want but it'll probably be the same since my only camera is a smartphone.

I tried to see if I could scan the boards. It worked ok but I can't get the board flat with the headers in place

Can you prop the board up so at least the board is flat??  Would that work??  or at least if you are using the camera hold it steady with a tripod and move the board underneath, that way the scale and angle of view are consistant

[bsoncini]

I'll try to prop it up tonight.

I don't have a tripod

[PMowdes2]

I'll try to prop it up tonight.

I don't have a tripod

No worries, and thanks for trying.  Dino and I will go over the schematics and board images we have and see what we can do with what we have got.

[peterc]

@bsoncini

I have found the easiest way to get PCBs into the comp is with a scanner, if you have one.
I put the PCB on the scanner, put a white towel or piece of material over it, and scan away.
The size is usually right so no extra manipulation of the image.

Hope this helps
Peter

[PMowdes]

Maiking some progress, we have schematics for the preamp, phaser, vibrato.  And i'm about half way through the fuzz board.  Just the controls to do after that

[somnif]

Maiking some progress, we have schematics for the preamp, phaser, vibrato.  And i'm about half way through the fuzz board.  Just the controls to do after that

Note to self, buy a few pounds of 4148s.....

[Strategy]

This is epic. Since this thread has been going I have had memories of "Live At Pompeii" going on in the background of my brain. Time to rewatch that classic. I will definitely jump for this project if it goes on Deadend Fx.

[JustALittleSolderBoy]

This one is on my bucket list. Having cheated death once already, I say that in the most sincere way. This needs to be traced proper. Somebody please trace this before I die. Again.

Hi folks,

not that I am an electronics engineer nor that kind of blogger and forum writer, but as long-time forum reader I cook effects since end of 2011. Cloning the HiFli is a long-time project of mine. I used the crappy service manual on the web and cooked up first stripboard/vero layouts (gee, these gonna be very big with a shit-load of diodes) but got stuck at some points thanks to the poor quality of the pdf file. I collected as much pictures of gutshots as I could get the past yyears, but never have seen good quality pictures of the trace-side of the boards.

The HiFli seems to be quite interresting, but I have a more modified and more advanced second version in mind too, that would take that beauty to much higher places in the ranking (better signal filtering and a more modular design, maybe something like a patch matrix board aka Synthi VCS3 or AKA or so). But that might be a later story.


I used Libreoffice calc-sheets for developing layouts - because it is quite easy to copy and paste and modify things in these sheets and the layout was intended for my needs. I plan to cut and solder a first stripboard as soon my questions are answered and the layout fixed according to these answers (I got the most need parts allready - except the power transformer and huge power-filter caps).

Juergen Haible made a clone of the Hifli, but unfortunately he died a few months before I started my project and thus I wasn't able to contact him nomore. His clone has been sold before and I wasn't able to get in touch with the present owner.

I asked Ralf Hoffmann aka Randomsource, who obtained the electronic heritage Juergen left, to have a look into his paperwork and files on the Hifli. But got no useful info unfortunately. Maybe he holds them back in order not to get in conflict with Digitana.

Digitana Electronics is remaking the Hifli at the moment (but the lists of preorders is terrible long and the costs a blow) - obviously under license by Robin Wood. I asked Mr. Wood for help with some questions on my project - but he refused to help, which I can understand, too. Ludwig Rehberg, who worked with EMS before, did not provide any info, because when he left EMS he agreed with Mr. Wood not to do so. So Mr. Wood holds all info and files from the EMS side. I wasn't able to get in contact with Mr. David Cockerell - as far as I know he developed the Hifli.

I guess, there are no existing legal rights on the Hifli regarding patents and such nomore, as these must have been expired long ago. The only rights there might be out there are copyrights on schematics, pcb layouts, brand names and manuals. So I think a selfmade vero layout of that beauty would be legal, as long the brand is avoided in the project and no commercial profit made. So I propose to create a new name for the project first.




Dino - I appreciate Your work for the DIY community (I've built almost everything of Your work) and I am happy to read that Your health has recovered so far. I am willing to share my work with You and the folks here as a token of respect and a gift - if You like and if it is of use...

Maybe we get a vero layout faster than a pcb that way (I do't say that a pcb is useless though).

What do You say, guys - interested in?

Regards!

JustALittleSolderBoy