Techno-Archeology: TimeLine Product Documentation and Upkeep

[MENTION=94267]miroslav[/MENTION] -<<We were wondering what happened to you...must have been a long vacation. >>
Not really a vacation - helped a longtime friend pack up his household and studio to move to Equador, finished working on a pair of custom speaker stands I designed and built, day job, fed the cat, mowed the lawn or vice-versa...
[MENTION=43272]Steenamaroo[/MENTION] - <<Glad to help. If you run into any more snags, I'm only a PM away.>> Thanks so much for all the help. I hesitate to comment on miroslav's offal state of affairs! ;)
[MENTION=31942]jpmorris[/MENTION] - <<Go for it! >> Will do, as soon as I get through a few other details first!
[MENTION=198636]glava[/MENTION] - Good luck and keep us in the loop on your progress. I think the PULLUP COM port may have been designed to give possible external electronic components (resistors, etc.) an easy access to either signal ground, or possibly +V supply, depending on how the ML is internally wired, but I'd have to do a physical circuit trace check to be sure. Let us know what you see if you are ever curious about finding out the EPROM levels of your units, as that info would be useful to the group.
 
Documentation: Cable Schematics - Microlynx

So for the next installment, it's time to include cable schematics originating from the sessioncontrol website before their demise, and thankfully preserved and made available via forum members miroslav and sweetbeats. This is actually a re-posting of the files from the following thread, but repeated for data manageability:
Micro Lynx + Tape Deck + DAW

1. The following document is an extraction of the Transport Port Pinout table from the Microlynx User Manual, and is of critical importance when building cables, or comparing the different TimeLine models:
View attachment Microlynx Transport Port Pinout.pdf

2. The following document was derived from Transport Port Pinout tables in the Lynx 2 and Microlynx User Manuals, and is a port comparison between the two units; which makes it useful as a sort of "Rosetta Stone" to enable reconstruction of cables for the Lynx 2. Included is a feature which uses bold text to signify which pins are probably an exact match between the two units, as opposed to those which are potentially not a match, due to slightly different naming of the ports. If someone out there has both a Microlynx and Lynx 2, could load identical ATR Machine Profiles into both machines, have them respond in sync to commands, and could probe the ports in parallel with the ATR's cable with an oscilloscope or similar, we might be able to verify absolutely the matching port identities, otherwise, there is somewhat of a gamble required. Here it is:
View attachment Lynx-2 to Microlynx Port Comparison.pdf

Stock TimeLine Catalog Cable Schemos -
3. Once more utilizing my file re-naming scheme for easier attribute searching, here they are:

1. View attachment 3M Model 79 (70D070-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
2. View attachment Akai DR-1200 (70D091-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
3. View attachment Akai DR-1200 B (70D091-20B)(04-19-2003).pdf
4. View attachment Ampex ATR-100 (70D063-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
5. View attachment Ampex ATR-124 (70D064-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
6. View attachment Ampex ATR-124 B (70D064-20B)(04-19-2003).pdf
7. View attachment Ampex MM-1200 (70D065-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
8. View attachment Ampex MM-1200 B (70D065-20B)(04-19-2003).pdf
9. View attachment Fostex E Series (70D066-20B)(04-19-2003).pdf
10. View attachment JVC Type A (70D067-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
11. View attachment JVC Type A-Y (70D111-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
12. View attachment JVC Type B (70D068-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
13. View attachment JVC Type B1 (70426-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
14. View attachment JVC Type B-Y (70D112-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
15. View attachment JVC Type C (70D069-20A2)(04-19-2003).pdf
16. View attachment JVC Type C-Y (70D106-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
17. View attachment Mitsubishi X-86 (70D071-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
18. View attachment Mitsubishi X-850 (70D072-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
19. View attachment Otari MTR10-12 (70D073-20A1)(04-19-2003).PDF
20. View attachment Otari MTR90 (70D090-20A1)(04-19-2003).PDF
21. View attachment Otari MTR90 Type I (70D074-20A1)(04-19-2003).PDF
22. View attachment Otari MTR100 (70D092-20A1)(04-19-2003).PDF
23. View attachment Otari MX5050 16-pin (70D075-20A1)(04-19-2003).PDF
24. View attachment Otari MX5050 34-pin (70D076-20A1)(04-19-2003).PDF
25. View attachment Otari MX5050 34-pin Y (70D077-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
26. View attachment Otari Type A MX80 (70D089-20B)(04-19-2003).PDF
27. View attachment Saturn 824 (70D098-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
28. View attachment Sony 7030-FM (71391-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
29. View attachment Sony 7030-FM Finished Cable (71391-10A)(04-19-2003).pdf
30. View attachment Sony BVU-800 Parallel (70D079-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
31. View attachment Sony JH-24 (70D080-20B)(04-19-2003).PDF
32. View attachment Sony JH-24-Y (70D104-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
33. View attachment Sony JH-110 (70D081-20B)(04-19-2003).pdf
34. View attachment Sony JH-110 Y (70D110-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
35. View attachment Sony PCM 3324 (70D082-20C)(04-19-2003).pdf
36. View attachment Sony PCM 3324 D (70D082-20D)(04-19-2003).pdf
37. View attachment Sony Type A (70D078-20B)(04-19-2003).pdf
38. View attachment Sony VD-5850 A (70620-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
39. View attachment Sony VD-5850 A1 (70D105-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
40. View attachment Studer A-80 (70D084-20B)(04-19-2003).pdf
41. View attachment Studer A-800 (70D085-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
42. View attachment Studer Type A (70D083-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
43. View attachment Studer Type B (70D093-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
44. View attachment Tascam DA-800 (70D117-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
45. View attachment Tascam Model 50 (70D087-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
46. View attachment Tascam Type A (70D086-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf
47. View attachment Tascam Type B (70D094-20A1)(04-19-2003).pdf

Partial, Incomplete, or Template Schematics
4. The following are offered for historical completeness, but are known to be unfinished, for whatever reason. They can give clues to the later design processes at TimeLine, or may even be useful for generating new (reconstruction) schematics, depending on effort expended and intended outcome:

1. View attachment Denon 3603-Partial (70D113-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
2. View attachment Fostex Model 20-Partial (71387-20A)(04-19-2003).pdf
3. View attachment Microlynx Starting Diagram-Partial (70DXXX-20A)(04-19-2003.pdf
 
Last edited:
brainditch said:
[MENTION=94267]miroslav[/MENTION] -<<We were wondering what happened to you...must have been a long vacation. >>
Not really a vacation - helped a longtime friend pack up his household and studio to move to Equador, finished working on a pair of custom speaker stands I designed and built, day job, fed the cat, mowed the lawn or vice-versa...
Click to expand...

I'm glad you remembered to feed the cat. :)
So if you don't mind me asking...what part of the world are you in?
When you mention the friend moving to Ecuador...you spell it "Equador", which I think is the more common spelling in France.
Other than that...boy that's a serious house/studio move!
I'm sure it's beautiful there, but too humid for my taste. :D
 
[MENTION=94267]miroslav[/MENTION] - I'm in the Seattle area, so I'm used to the wet, ...and misspelling! The Cat-5 was fine after I left a box of 2-button mice out for him!:)

Yes, quite a serious move, but it all fit into a 20' ConEx trailer (in 5' high stacks). From what my friend tells me, it's actually fairly temperate there, at least where he's moving to. We'll see when he gets there what he really thinks of the weather after a season or two.
[MENTION=31942]jpmorris[/MENTION] - Wow you're right, that's a really weird misload/file defect, thanks for the QC check, I'll try a re-upload in a minute.
 
[MENTION=43272]Steenamaroo[/MENTION], where are you? (making the Dudley Moore raspberry sound from "Bedazzled"). I just sent you a PM regarding the problem I'm having with editing post #62, but got a "Backend fetch error 503" when I tried to send it. Did you get it, or is there someone else I need to try with tech support?
 
Hey [MENTION=198037]brainditch[/MENTION],
Unfortunately the site's been having issues since admin carried out a DB migration.
There's a support thread on the topic and admin has been tagged a few times, but there's been no word back in about 3 weeks.

For whatever it's worth the issues appear to be site-wide but intermittent.
If things are going slow I'd recommend just downing tools and trying again later when the site feels nippy.

Hopefully we'll hear something more before too long.
Sorry fellas! :(
 
miroslav said:
[video=youtube;K8E_zMLCRNg]
All the Audiofanzine sites are crashing
Click to expand...

Oh, if they're all having problems then they're probably all too aware of it!

Hey, is it safe to assume you guys have a backup of all this stuff?
There's no real reason to think anything would happen to this thread...but........
 
[MENTION=31942]jpmorris[/MENTION] - By the way, before I post your lovely contributions of the EPROM images, I have a theory that TimeLine may have produced different EPROM firmware for possibly three variants of the Lynx, depending on installed hardware options. I believe the variants to be:

1. L-XXX (where XXX equals a three digit number representing the revision level of firmware) = the normal, SAL (Stand-ALone) hardware version with no specialized options installed, I believe. Documented evidence from manual addenda in our collection suggest that this firmware designation may have been for the Lynx 1 only, although there isn't enough evidence to be certain yet. They reference "L-409-0" through "L-409-6".

2. V-XXX = the version that supports Video decks?. I can't recall at the moment what installed option card these might contain (if that's what it in fact refers to), but I thought I remembered reading about it in one of the User Manual versions, Installation Guides or Service Bulletins.

Yes, here it is: SB-94-008 (73352-A)(09-20-1994), in which the firmware referenced is "V700-10". They don't discuss whether this firmware only applies to the Lynx 2, but it possibly does, as I remember seeing someone selling a Lynx 2 with V-700 firmware on it back in December of 2017, if I recall correctly.

Also, V-500 is referenced in the following: "Fostex D20 Cabling...(73629A)(09-28-1994)" as being possibly installed on both Lynx 1 and Lynx 2 units, but that the Lynx 1 would require the "Serial Interface Option", whereas the Lynx 2 had that option already included in its design. This implies that there may be a consolidation of the software for the two units (Lynx 1 and Lynx 2) beyond a certain revision level somehow, although I don't have direct evidence of this. Additionally, the Lynx 2 User Manual, CH. 10, pg. 10-1; states that older Lynx modules (Lynx 1's) may be fitted with V-500 or V-600 software.

3. LFI-XXX = the version that supports Film editing machinery, this appears to be for Lynx 2's only, and only if they have the Film Module Option installed, I believe (Lynx 2 User Manual, Ch.10, pg. 10-18).

4. F-XXX = not sure where this firmware exists, but it is referenced in the Lynx 2 Manual called out above.

Anyway, my point with all of this is:
1. Which version of the Lynx 1 do you have jpmorris?
2. Was the point of the filenames for your firmware reduced to 8 characters to allow an older PROM burner to deal with it (i.e., for the 16 bit DOS filename + extension limitations)?
3. The BIN files you posted at the other website were named LYNXL410, and LYNX500. Was the LYNX500 file an L-500 version, or some other letter (V, FL, F)?
 
Steenamaroo said:
Oh, if they're all having problems then they're probably all too aware of it!

Hey, is it safe to assume you guys have a backup of all this stuff?
There's no real reason to think anything would happen to this thread...but........
Click to expand...


Oh I'm sure they are aware of it...it's just a bit disconcerting that after 3 weeks, they haven't been able to sort it out.
For IT work...that's like pyramid building time. :D

I have all my original PDF files that I provided awhile ago...and I'm sure all the other contributors also have theirs.
Now...AFA the stuff that's being specifically compiled here on HR...mmm...I don't think there's any back up of that, though I would think it could be reconstructed if the zombies completely destroy the servers.
 
Hi, don't understand much of this at all but I have several 100G of storage I shall never use. If it is the case that you want this data saved in as many places as possible I can oblige. However, is there a way to "Download All" ?

Dave.
 
Whoops, my last post was a little out of sync with the current flow. [MENTION=43272]Steenamaroo[/MENTION], thanks for the response and info. Yes, thanks to this site, I believe the major players here have exchanged most, if not all the rare files between ourselves as a sort of ad-hoc backup of them, which curiously enough was rather the point of my starting this thread in the first place. :) Not so much the individual posts however, hmm, perhaps I better try saving my lengthier ones as rtf's, or something.

When the site "feel" a little more normal, I need to re-edit post #62, but I'm hoping I didn't hit some kind of policy wall regarding max number of files in a post, that's what my PM to you was about actually.
[MENTION=94267]miroslav[/MENTION] - Never mind the forthcoming Zombie Apocalypse, but do mind the immortal songs of Jiminy - "When you wish upon a star...." and "Give a little whistle, woo-woo". Locusts like Zombie Flesh!
 
[MENTION=89697]ecc83[/MENTION] - Can't hurt to have the data backed-up as many different ways and locations as possible, so sure, do what you can if you've got the time, space and bandwidth. I don't know about a "Download All" function though, which was another reason for me to centralize the data in this thread as much as possible- to make it easier for folks to "bulk save" the files, even though you would have to address them individually.
 
brainditch said:
[MENTION=31942]jpmorris[/MENTION] - By the way, before I post your lovely contributions of the EPROM images, I have a theory that TimeLine may have produced different EPROM firmware for possibly three variants of the Lynx, depending on installed hardware options. I believe the variants to be:

1. L-XXX (where XXX equals a three digit number representing the revision level of firmware) = the normal, SAL (Stand-ALone) hardware version with no specialized options installed, I believe. Documented evidence from manual addenda in our collection suggest that this firmware designation may have been for the Lynx 1 only, although there isn't enough evidence to be certain yet. They reference "L-409-0" through "L-409-6".

2. V-XXX = the version that supports Video decks?. I can't recall at the moment what installed option card these might contain (if that's what it in fact refers to), but I thought I remembered reading about it in one of the User Manual versions, Installation Guides or Service Bulletins.

Yes, here it is: SB-94-008 (73352-A)(09-20-1994), in which the firmware referenced is "V700-10". They don't discuss whether this firmware only applies to the Lynx 2, but it possibly does, as I remember seeing someone selling a Lynx 2 with V-700 firmware on it back in December of 2017, if I recall correctly.

Also, V-500 is referenced in the following: "Fostex D20 Cabling...(73629A)(09-28-1994)" as being possibly installed on both Lynx 1 and Lynx 2 units, but that the Lynx 1 would require the "Serial Interface Option", whereas the Lynx 2 had that option already included in its design. This implies that there may be a consolidation of the software for the two units (Lynx 1 and Lynx 2) beyond a certain revision level somehow, although I don't have direct evidence of this. Additionally, the Lynx 2 User Manual, CH. 10, pg. 10-1; states that older Lynx modules (Lynx 1's) may be fitted with V-500 or V-600 software.

3. LFI-XXX = the version that supports Film editing machinery, this appears to be for Lynx 2's only, and only if they have the Film Module Option installed, I believe (Lynx 2 User Manual, Ch.10, pg. 10-18).

4. F-XXX = not sure where this firmware exists, but it is referenced in the Lynx 2 Manual called out above.

Anyway, my point with all of this is:
1. Which version of the Lynx 1 do you have jpmorris?
2. Was the point of the filenames for your firmware reduced to 8 characters to allow an older PROM burner to deal with it (i.e., for the 16 bit DOS filename + extension limitations)?
3. The BIN files you posted at the other website were named LYNXL410, and LYNX500. Was the LYNX500 file an L-500 version, or some other letter (V, FL, F)?
Click to expand...

I have no real idea which version the Lynxes are. I'd have to remove them from the rack again and inspect the PCBs which is quite a job. AFAIK they both have identical hardware, though as you may have noticed from the pictures, there are at least two spaces for expansion boards to go.

What I can say is that one came with the V5.00 ROM, and this one booted up attempting to do some kind of video editing-related task. It was searching for something, might have been video sync, might have been some kind of master controller unit, I forget now. Whatever signal it was waiting for, it was never going to get it. You had to press a couple of buttons to dismiss that message before it would do what I wanted and I could find no way to stop it from doing that.
The other Lynx running L4.10 booted straight into operating mode, so as an experiment I cloned the L4.10 ROM and stuck it in the other machine. Result: both boot straight into operating mode as desired.

For this reason, I have the original v5.00 ROM chip in front of me. I suspect it may have been copied. The UV window has a label with the following hand-written words: TimeLine V500 26E U16 512 K5 (or KS?)
I'd have to crack open one (probably both) of the machines to read the label on the original L410 ROM chip.

As for the filenames, the EPROM programmer I have is DOS-based. Originally I ran it on an old throwaway Dell, before I discovered that it worked in DOSbox too, using a USB-parallel port.
I suppose I could have renamed the files later but since they were for my own use there wasn't much point.
 
miroslav said:
Oh I'm sure they are aware of it...it's just a bit disconcerting that after 3 weeks, they haven't been able to sort it out.
For IT work...that's like pyramid building time. :D
Click to expand...

It might look like that to an outsider. I just spent three weeks trying to revive a database that got corrupted because of a runaway Joomla plugin. Of course, that's the moment you discover that the backup also contains the same corrupted database, because the corruption built over many months before anyone noticed. A simple upgrade of the database software triggered the problem. The database server refused to start. The first non-corrupt database I found in the backup was nearly ten months old...

Online stuff can get pretty complex to debug. It seems simple, but different visitors come in over different routes. And dealing with the providers in between often takes a lot of time. "it doesn't work at all" is a simple case. "Sometimes it slows down" isn't as simple.
 
cyrano said:
It might look like that to an outsider.

It seems simple....
Click to expand...

I never said it was "simple"...just that 3 weeks without a fix is rather a long time.
This wasn't about a corrupt database...rather a move from one server to another, and then it went south.

We migrated an accounting database in one day, and there were no issues....but there was probably 2-3 weeks of prep before the migration.
Had it been down or full of issues for three weeks...everyone would have been collecting unemployment. :D

And the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"...comes to mind. Upgrades aren't always what they seem. ;)
 
[MENTION=31942]jpmorris[/MENTION] - Thanks for the info. I'm not sure I ever saw pictures, were they in some thread you could point out to me? Either way, it sounds as if the V-500 PROM was missing a vital option of some sort.

Too bad we don't have a copy of an L-500 PROM to upgrade you to, as this would tell us more of the story. The hand-written label might have been a copy, curiously it seems to have included all the right data, in the right order to have been pertinent to TimeLine products-

"TimeLine V500 26E U16 512 K5 (or KS?)"
TimeLine product, V-model, 5.00 rev., 26E logic PROM rev., for device U16, 512......is it possible that the K5 or KS is in fact a scrawled "B", as in KB, as in 512kB? This would make more sense.

OK, well if someday you do get to cracking open one of your machines, it would be useful to know if:
1. The existing (and useful) factory PROM for L-4.10 was printed as many of the TimeLine product EPROM labels were, and;
2. If they referred to the same U number as the V-500 does. This would help us determine whether the PROM was intended for a different machine type or model number, and someone erroneously cloned it (and left it inserted) in your machine, or similar.

Anyway, with your permission I'd like to keep the original BIN image files intact for source ID purposes, but copy and rename the files to more accurately represent what revision they apply to. Something like:
Lynx-1 Rev L-4v10.BIN, and Lynx-X Rev V-5v00.BIN, or similar, unless you think it would be a disadvantage to do so?

I'm not sure if best advise would be to have "spacebarless" naming such as Lynx-1_Rev_L-4v10.BIN, or whether in your opinion most modern EPROM burners still would prefer to see all caps, 8 character-limit filenames, though I would think that their burning software should follow the limits imposed by their host operating system. It would be good to rename them as wisely as possible to allow the most utility for everyone.

And with this I must sign off for a few days- I just found out my car go broken into (for the second time in 2 months) and my work tools stolen- so off I go to replace and fix what I can for a gig I've got tomorrow. GRR!
 
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