Last night I upgraded my Juno-60 with the MDCB60 midi kit from D-tronics. Even though I prefer not to use midi, there are situations where midi is nice to have, for example when doing quick sketches that you want to save, or try different sounds without manually having to play the same sequence over and over.
The DCB port
The Juno-60 was an upgraded version of the Juno-6, with the main difference that it had memory section, just like it’s main competitor Polysix. Another addition was the DCB port, which was Rolands predecessor to midi. Remember, this was back in 1982 and midi was first introduced in 1983. Before midi, Roland had DCB, Oberheim had it’s own proprietary protocol etc. Too my knowledge, only the Juno-60 and some of the Jupiter 8s had DCB . The JX-3P was the first Roland synth with midi, so DCB didn’t live more than a year or two. We should be thankful that the manufacturers actually managed to agree on the midi standard, that still lives 32 years later, even though it has its flaws.
Luckily, DCB is quite primitive and therefore simple to convert to midi. The MDCB60 only adds note on/note off, so there’s no pitch bend, program change, arpeggiator sync etc.
Installation
The installation was very straight forward:
Open the Juno
Remove the DCB-connector from the back
Cut one zip tie so the DCB-connector reaches outside the synth
Unsolder all wires
Insulate the green and purple wires
Solder the wires to the MDCB60
Screw it to the back of the Juno-60
Add a new zip tie
Solder the wire from the MDCB60 to the gate pin on the Juno-60 board for 5V power
There’s a video here describing the installation, however, they seem to take the 5V power from another place than the gate pin.
The installation took less than an hour in total, and it worked straight away! I recommend this kit if you need basic midi on your Juno-60.
The Juno-60 in line for surgery
This is the DCB port, the original cover is still there.
Looks quite clean, very little dust inside.
The DCB connector was desoldered and the purple and green wires were insulated according to the instruction manual.
I had to cut one zip tie for the DCB connector and wires to reach outside the case. I added a new one so that the wiring is as original as possible.
The remaining five wires from the DCB connector were soldered to the midi kit board instead. The white/red one is for 5V power and is soldered to the GATE 5V pin on the Juno-60 lower board.
The MDC60 is mounted (upper left corner) and the wires are held by the new zip tie in it’s original position. The white/red wire takes power from the 5V GATE pin to the right.
The backplate integrates very well and looks almost factory. The only visible trace of DCB is the screening above. I like! The button is a combined button/led which is used to set the midi channel, mine was set to channel 1 on default which is fine. The led also flashes on midi events.
I just got added in the waiting list for the Organix JX-3P MIDI Expansion Kit. The JX-3P already has midi, but the Organix kit adds some features. The one I need the most is the ability to use the PG-200 and midi at the same time (this isn’t possible when standard). Another cool feature is that the PG-200 will send midi CC’s, and the JX-3P will receive midi CC’s. This is extra valuable for those who don’t have a PG-200 and want to use a standard midi controller like a Behringer BCR-2000 or Korg nanoKONTROL. Since the JX-3P is from 1983 it can’t even receive midi sysex!
Today I did two things on my DMX that should have been done long ago.
First task was to solder in a new battery. The old battery was removed a couple of months ago, but I never put in the new one (bought from Electrongate). Since I don’t think it’s a good idea to solder the new battery in the same spot due to possible leaking disasters, I soldered two new wires. The battery was then placed in the bottom right corner and insulated with tape.
A non working Chinese iPhone charger cable was used. The battery is placed down to the right, far away from the board.
The next thing to do was installing the Midi upgrade from Electrongate. My Midi upgrade was actually a special order – normally you place the Midi jacks on one of the walnut side panels. I didn’t want to do it for two reasons;
I prefer to have all connections at the rear and second
And most important – mine are mint. It would be shame to drill in them
So I mailed Paul, the owner of Electrongate, asking if it was possible to get the Midi jacks in a breakout box instead. To avoid drilling holes, Paul made a special cable that goes from the Midi board to the 12-pin Molex that was used for triggering. Then the breakout box was connected to the trigger Molex. A very neat solution – the trigger in functionality was sacrificed – on the other hand I don’t need it when I have Midi.
This breakout box is a special order. Since the walnut panels are mint on my DMX I asked Paul for an alternative. He suggested to use the trigger input port back to get the midi cable through without drilling.This cable is also part of my special order. One side goes to the midi card, the other goes to the cable that is connected to the trigger Molex.
Installing the kit is fairly straight forward, there’s an excellent guide with photos that is very simple to follow (so I didn’t take any photos). My DMX had the memory upgrade board, in the guide the upgrade is performed on a non memory upgraded DMX, so there were some differences, however – they are pointed out in the text. The Midi board replaces the memory upgrade board and a bonus is that the Midi board actually upgrades the memory as well.
The midi upgrade card itself.
The installation procedure is mostly about taking chips from one place (the main board or memory board) and putting them on the Midi board. I recommend having both an IC puller and a small flat screw driver for this. The hardest part of the upgrade is soldering two tiny wires (“E1” and “F1”) to the main board. It was hard because in one case you have to solder the wire directly to a copper lane, in a very tight place. Another challenge is to cut the copper lane next to it, and then avoid soldering the wire over the cut so that the cut isn’t cut anymore.
I’m not a soldering expert, but if you know someone that can do it for you, or if you live close to Paul, pay him to do it for you! It took me a couple of hours, and I wasn’t very comfortable cutting and soldering on such an old expensive piece. On the other hand, doing such stuff is the best way to learn.
I took the DMX back to the studio and connected the Midi – it worked flawlessly! Even though the DMX is very fun and easy to program, it’s just more convenient to have Midi. I really feel that I have to modify my Boss DR-110!
The box, yet to be unboxed.
Receipt…
Nice packaging!
A new NiCd battery.
Thumbscrews for the front of the DMX and standoffs for the Midi upgrade card.
The midi upgrade card itself.
This breakout box is a special order. Since the walnut panels are mint on my DMX I asked Paul for an alternative. He suggested to use the trigger input port back to get the midi cable through without drilling.
This cable is also part of my special order. One side goes to the midi card, the other goes to the cable that is connected to the trigger Molex.
I ordered some extra Molexes for future “tuning experiments”…
The DMX is opened and ready for surgery.
The battery was removed right after I bought the DMX, since I believe it was the original battery.
This is the minus joint that I will solder the battery cable to.
This is the new nickel cadmium battery. These tend to leak when they get old. A lot of old Korg Polys have died because of this.
A non working chinese iPhone charger cable was used. The battery is placed down to the right, far away from the board.
The Midi board is installed. In the standard kit from Paul the connectors “IN” and “OUT” goes to the Midi jack console that is normally mounted on the right walnut panel. In this special order, these instead go to another connector. (see next photo)
The TRIGGER IN cable was removed from the board and instead connected to the special cable from Paul.
This is the custom made breakout Midi box, connected to the the TRIGGER IN Molex that no longer go to the main board inside, but instead to the Midi board.
Today the Midi upgrade for the Oberheim DMX and some other stuff arrived from Electrongate. Check out the unboxing pictures with descriptions of the contents!
The box, yet to be unboxed.
Receipt…
Nice packaging!
A new NiCd battery.
Thumbscrews for the front of the DMX and standoffs for the Midi upgrade card.
The midi upgrade card itself.
This breakout box is a special order. Since the walnut panels are mint on my DMX I asked Paul for an alternative. He suggested to use the trigger input port back to get the midi cable through without drilling.
This cable is also part of my special order. One side goes to the midi card, the other goes to the cable that is connected to the trigger Molex.
I ordered some extra Molexes for future “tuning experiments”…
Some time ago I purchased the JX-10 Sysex Enhanced ROM from Colin Fraser which makes the JX-10 respond to sysex the same way the MKS-70 (the rack version of JX-10) does. It’s only £15 including postage to Europe, so no need to hesitate. Remember to buy it directly from Colin, not from other sellers on eBay. Colin has put a lot of work into this!
Note that you have to have an M64-C cartridge to be able to load the original patches with sysex, the firmware upgrade won’t change that. When the patches are on the memory cartridge they can be copied to the internal memory.
The new EPROM arrived in a static bag attached to an important note informing that inserting the EPROM the wrong way will damage it. It also had a non-clickable link to the installation instructions.
I did exactly as in the instructions, but with the following three exceptions:
I checked the versions before and after by pressing H while turning on. This was most for fun.
I unscrewed the two screws underneath before the ones on the sides (note: in Colin’s instructions the screws underneath are described as “two larger bolts” – on my JX-10 they were screws).
I did actually not have to loose the flat cable. It was long enough to give the space needed for the ROM swap.
Delivered in an anti-static bag with instructions not to place the EPROM the wrong way.
Booting the JX-10 before the swap holding down the H-key displays that it is version 1.90 “Rising Sun” from 1986.
I started to unscrew the two big screws underneath the JX-10 the far left.
Then unscrewing the three screws on each side, this is the left side.
The JX-10 is now open!
Here you see one of the mainboards, this is the first of the two “JX-8Ps” it’s made from.
In the middle is the second “JX-8P” board. Above behind the flat cable is the EPROM to be swapped.
To the far right is the PSU.
Plenty of space to remove the EPROM. I used a flat scewdriver, gently bending just a little from each side.
The original EPROM is marked 1.9, just as stated during booting.
The new EPROM from Colin Fraser ready to be inserted.
Before pushing it in place, I made sure that it aligned correctly. Have to be careful with those thin pins.
The new EPROM is pushed all the way in the socket.
Booting pressing H and we see that it’s now 2.30 with some (japanese?) name from 2009.
Booting without H you can see that it now is the JX-10SE. I forgot to take a before photo.
