Tascam Midiizer MTS-1000 Manual & Cables

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Howdy sweetbeats. All I did was use an 8 conductor cable with one large shield around the entire cable, and then ran a seperate SHIELDED one conductor cable along with it. I didn't take any chances as mine are about 20'. Worked just fine. Still using the ole Midiizer and wouldn't trade it for any digital gear out there. Like some one once said...its MAHVALOUS DAHLING!

fitz

 

[jjones1700]

Hey, guys...trying to help out jjones1700 with this...

Referring to the pinout in this post, how important is that shield around the conductor from pin-7 to pin-7? You'd need a specialized cable OR use, like, balanced snake cable with individually shielded pairs to do it, yes?

What happens if you don't shield #7 and is it just more imperative on long cable runs?

Howdy sweetbeats. All I did was use an 8 conductor cable with one large shield around the entire cable, and then ran a seperate SHIELDED one conductor cable along with it. I didn't take any chances as mine are about 20'. Worked just fine. Still using the ole Midiizer and wouldn't trade it for any digital gear out there. Like some one once said...its MAHVALOUS DAHLING!

fitz

Excellent guys. Thanks for the info. I'll get back with you Cory once I return.

 

[sweetbeats]

Rick,

Okay, that makes sense. You could do it like I was saying though too, right? Like using 4-channel balanced snake cable where the pairs are individually shielded...and then the shield around #7 ties to pin 14 at each end right?

And the global shield is unterminated?

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Seems to me that would work, but I'm not an electronics person per se. But if I understand you correctly, you are using the conductors in the balanced lines for all the connections, but are only using ONE shield for #7, even though there is another conductor within that shield...correct? The other shields arn't connected to anything, right? I would say the other conductors don't have a clue they are surrounded by a shield, so, why not try it

BTW, what tape machines are you using the midiizer for?

Oh, and how is the BEAUTIFUL Ampex coming along?

 

[sweetbeats]

Seems to me that would work, but I'm not an electronics person per se. But if I understand you correctly, you are using the conductors in the balanced lines for all the connections, but are only using ONE shield for #7, even though there is another conductor within that shield...correct? The other shields arn't connected to anything, right? I would say the other conductors don't have a clue they are surrounded by a shield, so, why not try it

You got it...that's what I was thinking about suggesting.

So, in your cable, is the GLOBAL cable shield (the one around all the conductors) connected to anything at either end? jjones1700 sent me the pdf that Tascam sent him and its got messy hand-wrotten notes on it, some of which are hard to interpret and the global shield is hand-drawn in and I can't tell if it is terminated or not.

BTW, what tape machines are you using the midiizer for?

Again, I was just doing a favor for jjones1700. He got a quote from Pro-Co for $120 to make up a cable and I thought "Awww no-no-no". That's absurd. So I was just getting him some info on how easy it'd be to make one up, especially if he can find a surplus DB15 serial cable with removable hoods...open up one end up, swap the conductors for pins 2 and 4 and as long as the cable is shielded he could be done except for the shield on the conductor for pin 7. So that's what I'm trying to get a handle on here.

He's using the MTS-1000 with a TSR-8.

Oh, and how is the BEAUTIFUL Ampex coming along?

You talking about the MM-1000? Haven't hardly touched it in months. Been back on track with some important non-audio projects. I DID do a little work on it a couple days ago getting proper grounding installed...I'll be posting up some detail on that later. Might do a little on it this weekend too.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

So, in your cable, is the GLOBAL cable shield (the one around all the conductors) connected to anything at either end?

No. I just trimmed it back. I don't know if an original Tascam cable has a global shield or not. I never had one. My midiizer came without cables, so I had to make a pair(for 2 MSR-16's). I think I got the pinouts from the manual, but that was a long time ago. I simply drew an Autocad jpg to post here. If the manual had shown a global shield I would have drawn it in and used mine. But it didn't.

Again, I was just doing a favor for jjones1700. He got a quote from Pro-Co for $120 to make up a cable

GAK!! Yea, I remember getting a quote from some company back then too. geeeesushchr...I thought the same thing. The hardest part was finding Dsub15's. At least when I built my second longer pair. And yea, I did the "search the thriftstores" thing for some kind of cable that had them. Actually, I found tons of them on old gaming joystics. Trouble is, they ALL had a copper foil shield soldered within the plastic cover, which was a bitch to remove, and THEN, once removed, all the wires within this void were filled with a resin of some type. Damn near impossible to get to the soldered terminals. I ended up buying a whole bag of them on ebay real cheap. I already had a spool of 8 conductor shielded cable for some other assinine timekiller project

except for the shield on the conductor for pin 7. So that's what I'm trying to get a handle on here.

Yea, like I said, thats why I ran a seperate thin one conductor shielded cable. I just taped them together. I actually priced a cable with the single conductor shielded with other conductors, but it too was absurd. Had to buy 500 feet. GAK! No way. So thats why I decided to do it MY way. Afterall, its just a cable and no one sees it anyway. Its buried in my console..heres a pic.. You can barely see it to the right of the M3700.

You talking about the MM-1000?

I didn't know the model number...but I meant the 8 track with those BEAUTIFUL stainless steel preamps. I've got a ..hmmm..what is it now..er..oh a 440b(I think thats the model) with two of those. I lent it to a friend though. Don't have it here to check it. dang...that was a year ago... I'm gonna have to have a talk with him.

Haven't hardly touched it in months. Been back on track with some important non-audio projects.

Yea, me too. Been remodeling my bathroom this month. After spending 4 months remodeling a mobil home for my father in law. What a joke those things are. NEVER will I remodel a mobile home again. I've had everthing ready to build all my superchunk absorbers and Defractal QRD diffusers for over a year. Heres what its "supposed" to look like....if I EVER get back to it.

But nooooooooo! Seems like everyday gets taken up by one thing or another. But...gotta keep the significant other happy too.

fitZ

 

[sweetbeats]

I don't know if an original Tascam cable has a global shield or not.

It does...jjones1700 got the schematic from Tascam but with all the hand-written stuff on it I just couldn't tell whether or not the global shield was terminated at either end. If yours has worked without it terminated I'd say to all leave it unterminated.

GAK!! Yea, I remember getting a quote from some company back then too. geeeesushchr...I thought the same thing. The hardest part was finding Dsub15's. At least when I built my second longer pair. And yea, I did the "search the thriftstores" thing for some kind of cable that had them. Actually, I found tons of them on old gaming joystics. Trouble is, they ALL had a copper foil shield soldered within the plastic cover, which was a bitch to remove, and THEN, once removed, all the wires within this void were filled with a resin of some type. Damn near impossible to get to the soldered terminals. I ended up buying a whole bag of them on ebay real cheap. I already had a spool of 8 conductor shielded cable for some other assinine timekiller project

Yeah...molded connectors are a pain. DB15 parts are actually easy to come by. I just did a quick check and for people that don't mind the task of making the cable up from parts Redco has everything you'd need to make a 3-meter cable for $10 plus S&H and that would have that pin7-to-pin7 shielded conductor internal to the multi-conductor cable using 4 channel balanced snake cable like I was suggesting. Your solution sounds perfect too if you have an existing cable. Quick cheap fix, but for the more OCD-inclined...

Its buried in my console..heres a pic.. You can barely see it to the right of the M3700.

Yeah...funny...I was just reviewing some other thread from awhile back with pics of your present control room and your proposed stuff...your stupid neat-o furniture with your stupid neat-o M-3700...shame on you for your stupid neat-o stuff...

I didn't know the model number...but I meant the 8 track with those BEAUTIFUL stainless steel preamps.

Yeah, I think you mean the MM-1000...here's a pic of it in its latest condition from last night...updates to come in the related thread for the MM-1000:

 

[Beck]

I used Belden 9935 shielded 10-conductor cable for my ACC2 cables. The shield should be grounded on one end, otherwise it’s not going to work as an RF shield and interference could cause sync problems.

My cables were 14 ft. long and I had no issues using the MTS-1000. You could probably use shielded CAT-5 cable as well if you keep cable lengths as short as possible, since only 8 of the 15 pins are used.

 

[trancedental]

BTW seeing as this thread has been bumped up again, I have a Tascam Midiizer cable so I can open it up & take pictures if anyone needs the details.

Also regarding one of the my Midiizer's, the faulty one mentioned earlier in the thread, I stuck a new battery without any luck, seems that the ROM chip on the lower PCB board is faulty. I've swapped the working Midiizer chip around & this seems to work!

I'm wondering if Tascam parts still have the 2 Midiizer ROM chip models in stock probably not!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sweetbeats]

What kind of chip is it?

Can you put up a picture?

 

[trancedental]

What kind of chip is it?

Can you put up a picture?

See my earlier post 22 in this thread, the PCB pictures with the yellow battery, the ROM chip is a few inches above the battery with a paper label with "MTS-1000, M 2.00" stuck on top

Something on that lower PCB board is faulty as I've swapped it over with a working Midiizer board, I've installed a new battery so I'm assuming the ROM chip is faulty??? As the LCD doesn't seem to register the chip version details on the display either.

There's nothing else that I can see that looks damaged or broken.

 

[jpmorris]

If it's a typical 1980s-type EPROM, say a 27C256 or similar, it's fairly easy - with the right equipment and a working original part - to duplicate them.

I did this for my Studer A807, since it was 22 years old and the EPROMs are only rated to hold their contents for about half of that.

EDIT:

Just seen the photo. Can you read what's printed on the chip? Not the label, the actual silkscreened part...

 

[sweetbeats]

Can you read what's printed on the chip? Not the label, the actual silkscreened part

Yeah, that's what I was going for...

 

[trancedental]

OK I'll see what details are written on the chip, after I peel back the label!!!!!

I'll be back.....................................!

 

[frederic]

I don't know if you solved the battery issue yet but what I've done in the past is replace these weird, hard to find nicad batteries with ordinary AA energizers - if fresh they have a 7 year shelf life.

Since we're talking minimal current, you'll get the 7 years out of them and you can drop the voltage easily with a string of equally ordinary diodes - 0.6V per diode. The other benefit to the diodes is the unit will not be able to charge the batteries, since alkalines don't particularly like that anyway.

And here's a neat trick... instead of waiting for the alkaline batteries to die and losing all your settings, at the 5 year mark power on the unit, open the cover while it's running, and replace the AA batteries. Your settings and patches remain.

The common problem of course is where to put the battery holder where it doesn't interfere with the closing of the case. Some units I've opened I could park a bus in the enclosure and others, well, they jammed things in there pretty good.

 

[trancedental]

Here's the ROM chip details, I'm assuming that these are the Midiizer software operating chips???

There's 2 of the same type of 28 way ROM chip in the Midiizer, the top main PCB has one with the label marked "MTS-1000 C 2.00"

28 Way Tascam Label "MTS-1000 M 2.00" located on the Bottom main PCB

(Japan 8938 00012SS0 PGM 12,5V)

HN27C256G-20

HN27C256G - 32768-WORD x 8-BIT CMOS UV ERASABLE AND PROGRAMMABLE ROM - Hitachi Semiconductor

Would Tascam still have replacement ROM chips available for purchase?? They must have had different software updates / upgrades for these machines as the software versions on my Midiizers are different to each other?

JPMorris, is that the same ROM chip type that you used on your Studer A807?

 

[jpmorris]

HN27C256G-20

HN27C256G - 32768-WORD x 8-BIT CMOS UV ERASABLE AND PROGRAMMABLE ROM - Hitachi Semiconductor

Would Tascam still have replacement ROM chips available for purchase?? They must have had different software updates / upgrades for these machines as the software versions on my Midiizers are different to each other?

JPMorris, is that the same ROM chip type that you used on your Studer A807?

So, it's a 32KB EPROM. Cool. The Studer actually uses a pair 16KB chips, but I was able to use two D27C256D's instead by copying the program twice.

I have a box of these, and given a suitable ROM image they should work as drop-in replacements for the Hitachi chips.

Incidentally, if you know anyone who messes around with car engine management software, they can probably copy the ROMs for you as well. This niche seem to have increased the demand for EPROM programming kit on ebay

 

[trancedental]

So, it's a 32KB EPROM. Cool.

I have a box of these, and given a suitable ROM image they should work as drop-in replacements for the Hitachi chips.

Incidentally, if you know anyone who messes around with car engine management software, they can probably copy the ROMs for you as well.

Wish I knew someone who could copy the ROM image to another ROM!!! I've only got the same chip from my working Midiizer but no way to copy it, Looks like a EPROM copy kit is too much cost!

As I've got a working Midiizer I'm only really trying to get the faulty one working as it seems a waste to throw something so useful (& originally very expensive new!!!) plus maybe I could get back some of the £30+ I paid for it LOL!

Midiizer's are much too potentially useful to be thrown in the rubbish bin!!!!

 

[jpmorris]

Wish I knew someone who could copy the ROM image to another ROM!!! I've only got the same chip from my working Midiizer but no way to copy it, Looks like a EPROM copy kit is too much cost!

Ask TASCAM if they have the ROM first. If not, I could do it, and if you were a bit closer I'd have no hesitations.
However, I would need access to a working unit, which would presumably mean you sending it or bringing it to me. Which would be a bit of a hassle.

 

[coilandmagnet]

Hi all, one further question regarding master timing source... Will a Midiizer receive (slave to) midi time from a hardware midi sequencer (roland mc-300 or tr-707) and then in turn use this as its timing source for running the ATR(s)? It would be a TSR-8 or 238 cassette deck, or both.
I see a couple of promising switches in the pics of the midiizer that seem to show this being very possible, but I haven't heard of anyone doing it, nor can I find the manual.