SR-JV ROMulator Project

[shadowmask]

Having previously owned a JV-1080 in the 90's I picked up a 2080 a few months back to revisit the Roland sound again.

Before long other project ideas came along (as usual!). After a few weeks a ROMulator was created.

It's obvious what the appeal of this would be to most users, but it would be useful to try to crack the Roland format.











Brian

[Saul]

Now THAT looks like a very interesting project Brian! And I can see it being very popular. Could even tempt me into buying a JV

Particularly like the spacecraft motif on the back. I assume it is a 'Romulan' craft but I don't know which?

[shadowmask]

Indeed it is a Romulan craft I'm not sure what one it is, it came up on google images so on it went!

Brian

[Saul]

Indeed it is a Romulan craft I'm not sure what one it is, it came up on google images so on it went!

Brian

Works for me

How far along are you with it?

[Miks]

WOW - great work Brian - as usual!

[shadowmask]

It has been functional for a couple of weeks. I need to change the programmer PCB to include support pillars and make it a little wider.

It will get an enclosure for the programmer as well to tidy it up a bit. Need to get a manual written and more testing / debugging. Another few weeks should have it available (fingers crossed!)

[shadowmask]

Out of curiosity I dumped the Roland JV-2020 Internal Wave ROM to a file.

It appears to be in the same format as the Techno card but the ASCII header is different:

Techno Card:
"Roland JV80"
"SR-JV80-11 Tekno"

JV-2080 Wave ROM:
"RolandJV1080"
"Intwave Ver1,00A"

Brian

[Saul]

Do you have any idea of cost yet Brian or is it too early in the process yet?

[shadowmask]

Nothing on that at the moment, I've yet to create a BOM or do a timestudy.

Brian

[tux]

Very interesting project, but you don't seem to be the only one working on something like this, see here:
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electro ... verex.html

I see you are using an external docking station for the USB connection like with the Waveblade. While this certainly was necessary for the Waveblade as the card itself had to be slim to fit in the slot, this issue doesnt exist with the SR-JV cards, there seems to be enough space to put the USB connector an the chip that interfaces the USB to the flash memory directly onto the SR-JV card, or am I missing something?

[shadowmask]

About a month ago I posted the photos of the ROMulator into the Roland JV Facebook group and it got a lot of attention. About 2 weeks later the WaveRex guy posted a teaser about his card. It just seems to be random that we both were working on this without knowing what the other was doing.

He was hinting that he knows the Roland data format for the card which would be good as I've no clue about that. I dont know if his software will save an image file, or if it will be "upload to USB" only. With his Korg WaveRex card he has the direct-to-PC USB connected worked out, whereas I used the Arduino development board to handle that connection. I used this again for the ROMulator as I was familiar with it. The advantage with this is that users can plug their OEM boards into it and pull images and a library can be made. The problem with the WaveBlade library is that the cards had to come to me to be read using a bespoke adaptor. With the ROMulator programmer unit anyone can create card images.

I did see a couple of photos of another Flash based SR-JV card from another vendor. This did not offer any reprogramming, it was simply a copy of the OEM card using Flash chips.

Brian

[shadowmask]

As mentioned on the Gearslutz thread unless you are logged in to this forum you cannot see this thread.
I tried logging out completely and this is true for the whole Roland Forum. The topics are shown in the list but nothing is 'clickable'.

EDIT: It seems to be the same for all the forums in the Other Brands section.

Brian

[tux]

I used this again for the ROMulator as I was familiar with it. The advantage with this is that users can plug their OEM boards into it and pull images and a library can be made.

Being able to make my own backups of my existing cards sounds like a good reason for this approach indeed.

Will it be possible to just get a different shield for the Romulator and re-use the arduino from the Waveblade for those that already have the Waveblade?

[Saul]

As mentioned on the Gearslutz thread unless you are logged in to this forum you cannot see this thread.
I tried logging out completely and this is true for the whole Roland Forum. The topics are shown in the list but nothing is 'clickable'.

EDIT: It seems to be the same for all the forums in the Other Brands section.

Brian

I have sorted that now Brian. Permissions were not set for this and a few other sections so good thing you mentioned it. Guests should now be able to see the content of nearly all sections of the forum

[shadowmask]

Guests should now be able to see the content of nearly all sections of the forum

Good job, Sir!

Will it be possible to just get a different shield for the Romulator and re-use the arduino from the Waveblade for those that already have the Waveblade?

The firmware in the Romulator programmer is different and hits the ports in a different way so swapping shields won't work.