John Bowen Synth Design

Scott_V wrote:Very helpful information about the diagnostics; worth putting into the next revision of the manual if I may suggest so.
Thank you,
Scott

There’s a brief reference to the Self Test menu on page 9 of the manual discussing calibration routines, as well as the note of the full Self Test Menu in Appendix 6, on page 59. The thing is, it’s not stated exactly about the need to check the expression pedal range there, so yes, this could be improved.

Thanks John - that was the ticket! The default state my Solaris was in was Max=0, Min=1016. After following the recalibration step for setting the ranges the correct values are now Max=1017, Min=0. Pedal operates now just fine. Not sure if my particular power-up state was the proper default state, or possibly something leftover from the previous user setup (to refresh your memory my board was a loaner from one of your demo units).
Very helpful information about the diagnostics; worth putting into the next revision of the manual if I may suggest so.
Thank you,
Scott

I should have had you do the pedal diagnostics first:

1) Hold 1-8-3 to get Selftest Menu
2) Select #4 Analog controls
3) Select #5 Pedals
4) Set ranges top and bottom for expression pedal; use Enter to set
5) Press Exit twice to get back to regular play mode

Hello John,
No joy trying that trick (plus the sustain pedal does operate in the correct jack). Note that with the Yamaha FC7 pedal installed in the proper jack (Expression), the pedal will cut off the volume when hard minimum. However, then with any small movement off of full min then the volume goes to full volume (no adjustment - quantum off-to-on). This behavior was what made me originally think that the tip & ring might need to be swapped. However you can see from the earlier reply from Christeck that the Yamaha FC7 works fine on his Solaris with no mod necessary.
Could it be the A/D electronics internally? As an EE I can do some internal checks if that would troubleshoot this problem.
Thanks,
Scott

Scott,

I would check if the jacks are correctly connected...try using the Sustain jack with the FC7 instead of the Expression jack. This would indicate that the connecting cable is reversed.

Hello Christeck - thanks for the helpful information that the Yamaha FC7 should work with the Solaris. Unfortunately I'm not having such luck on my end. I've tried the two various polarities, and mentioned in the original forum listing I even tried swapping the tip & ring configuration of the 1/4 plug (which was a trick I used to get my pedal to work with a Kurzweil PCX3). I wonder if I might have a bad hardware interface?

Any ideas John on what further steps I can try to troubleshoot this problem?

Thanks,
Scott

I run an FC7 with the Solaris here which works well. I assume it's just a setting (per patch, as John pointed out).

Hello John,
I'm having difficulty getting my expression pedal to operate as a volume pedal with the Solaris. I'm using a Yamaha FC7 as the foot controller (a very common pedal I use across all of my keyboards). I've tried both tip & ring of the 1/4 phone jack as the wiper of the potentiometer, but with no joy. Is there a known problem with the expression pedal not responding correctly to external control? And if not, what is the pedal spec & proper wiring for correct operation.
Thank you,
Scott