Sunday, 6 October 2013

Yamaha RM1X OS V1.13


MY GOOGLE DRIVE - RM1X OS V1.13

I bought the above sequencer about 6 months ago for controlling my various external synths - I had seen some great videos of people using it for jamming, and the depth of the real time control and its ease of use really appealed to me.  It felt like it could be the single, central master device that would allow me to banish the computer to recording only.  Oh how wrong I was.

Ok, that isn't strictly true.  It just didn't do what I expected it to do, and the cuplrit was a buggy operating system.  It worked perfectly provided I was only using the internal sounds, but I wasn't interested in the internal sounds, I just wanted it for MIDI generation.  The internal sounds are to my tastes dated and thin - I've never been much of a fan of Yamaha's AWM engines.  The MIDI bug is that it sends a program change message at the beginning of the phrase each time it loops, even if you try to filter it out within the RM1X.

It's a well known bug that people have been complaining about since it launched.  Yamaha offered an OS replacement, where you paid for a new chip and provided you sent the old one back you got a refund.  Roll on nearly 15 years and Yamaha service centres around the world have different responses - many can't even supply them any more.  I was quoted £65 plus shipping, with no refund.  If you ask me, that's terrible service for supplying a feature that should be available straight out of the box.

I gave up hope of trying to fix it and lent it to a friend - I didn't want it's sounds, I have plenty of instruments that sound much better.  Meanwhile I would hunt around for a copy of the OS.  Long story short, there was no .bin file I could find to burn myself, and the only Ebay seller I could find wouldn't ship outside the US.

Through the RM1X yahoo group a great guy called Ivan Schwartz offered to send me his chip so I could copy it.  And so we now have an image of the final version OS V1.13 available.  If you want to burn your own copy, you will need an EPROM programmer capable of programming 27C160 EPROMs.  These are 16 bit chips and many of the cheaper programmers are not capable.

I am able to program them, so contact me if you would like me to burn you one - email me at analogmonster at live dot com or leave a comment and I will get back to you.  I cant give you an exact price as it depends how cheaply I got them myself, but I am certainly going to be cheaper than getting them from Yamaha - I would expect around £5 plus shipping.

If you want to burn them yourself I have made the file available at my google drive, along with a checksum.

49 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. This is interesting. I also see a drop in Flash/EEPROM part M29F1615PC-10 - same pinout, speed, voltage. I am wondering if you can program these as well? The programming algorithm would be different.

    Pricing seems to be a little higher than the EPROM part.

    Also, I found this outfit: www DOT buyicnow DOT com that has both EPROM and Flash versions in stock with programming service. They deal in single unit quantities - about US$10 (Part, programming + shipping). You may want to direct others to this site if you get overloaded with requests. Only thing I don't know is if your BIN file needs to be "byte-swapped" before programming. I guess you could order 2 parts and swap bytes on one to find out which works.

    Cheers, Mike

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  3. Or maybe the checksum would verify the correct byte order?

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  4. I read the data from a chip directly, so any bytes that required swapping would have already been swapped, and I have not swapped them back. I have been just cloning the data from one chip to another with no problems. The checksum was supplied because someone had asked for one to check their file integrity after downloading.

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  5. Update: I received my v1.13 chip last week from www.eprompro.com and it is working fine (US $18 shipped). Also, the checksum for the rm1x113.BIN file (using HxD editor) is $0E02B1FB (32-bit) or $B1FB (16-bit). HxD also computes the MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-256 checksums which match yours.

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  6. Good afternoon, I avec received the EPROM, installed it correctly, the OS is recognized as 1.13, but the RM1x stays blocked at start-up on the big RM1x logo. Is this normal ? please note that the SUB CPU SW version is 1.00.
    Any hint for me ?
    Kind regards,

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  7. Ok, after a factory reset, it works now correctly. thank you for your reliability, even with the french market :-)

    Gauthier

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  8. I verify all my chips as I program them, then once again before I ship them so I am certain that it was properly programmed. Have you attempted to do a factory reset? Power up while holding down oct down oct up and all keys then powering on. Screen will briefly say factory set. Some people said they needed to do this to get the update to work. The SUB CPU SW version doesn't matter. What I am supplying is exactly what Yamaha would send to you if you contacted them for the update, and yamaha only send out the one chip for the main CPU

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  9. Hi, I sent an email the other day. Hoping you are still doing this? Cheers!

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  10. Hi, I am interested for the card, I am France how much you sold it with the shipping costs thank you in advance

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  11. Hi there,

    Thanks for your efforts here. Really great of you to take on burning these chips for us. I live in the U.S. Would you be willing to ship over here and if so, what would your cost for the chip+shipping be? Thanks.

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  12. I have shipped plenty to the US, they are now £11 each plus shipping, £5.50. If you want tracking it is £5 extra. email me at analogmonster at live dot com and I will send you a paypal invoice

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  13. hi olliver, please send me one, i need it soon!
    thanks - stefan
    edorc.now@gmail.com

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  14. what is the benefit or features of version 1.13?

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  15. Between v1.12 and v1.13 there are no actual added features at all, no new sounds or anything like that. It is literally only a bug fix for the program change bug listed above. If you own an RM1X and only use it by itself then I wouldn't bother upgrading. But if you ever want to use it to sequence another device then the final OS or an external MIDI filter may be the only way to make things work (this depends on the device(s) receiving data from the RM1X but many of my older synths would freak out once every 4 or 8 bars when the program change is sent, making them totally unusable with the RM1X)

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  16. Are you still selling these chips? I would love one. Please check your email!

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  17. I'm interested in the new firmware as well. Do you still sell it?

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  18. Helo.
    I also really need need this and would be glad to buy it from you. Is it still possible? thanks
    pf

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  19. halo im interested on this update:
    main rom 1.12
    sub cpu 1.0
    thank you very much in advance!

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  20. hello I am also interested for the card . good work you did .

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  21. Hi, Sent you an email about getting a chip if you still burn them, please let me know if you do. Thanks very much.

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  22. Hello. You still have the RM1X EPROM. Thank You

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  23. Hey man. Are you still selling this ? Where are you from. EU ?

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  24. hello, i am interested in the eprom. thank you

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  25. Hey, this is great, are you still making them?
    And could you tell me how much it cost to send me one to the Netherlands?
    Thnx & cheers,
    AllMyColours

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  26. Hi, I would like to buy one too. Cheers!

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  27. Are the 1.13 roms still for sale please

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  28. Hi
    I to would like to have one of the RM1X EPROM upgrades if you are still making them because after a few months of banging away at it I'm starting to use external synths and sure enough the programme changes jump around.
    Cheers V

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    Replies
    1. I have just programmed a fresh batch. Contact me at analogmonster at live dot com

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  29. i need a EPROM file, anybody can help me? I want to burn it..
    dabloid at gmail dot com
    thanks!

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  30. Is there possibility paste this rom bin on net, cos original googledrive link is not working

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  31. Sorry I've been away, I will be home in a few days and will do something about this when I am back

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  32. Hey man, Just curious how do you like the unit now that you have the new OS on it? Been a few years so it might be worth updating the article with your current thoughts.

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  33. Hi,
    Sorry for another post, but is there possibility to hookup the file, or is there someone who has it ?

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  34. Hi really need this OSchip please let me knoe costs and will sort

    Clive

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  35. Finally i have a bin file - who need - email me!

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  36. I've been mulling over an RM1x on ebay to use as a cheap hardware sequencer, but wary of the ROM situation; when I found this: https://og.kervella.org/synth/yamaha_rm1x/

    I'm a little more inclined to pull the trigger now.
    Hope you all find it useful.

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  37. hi, are you still burning Rm1x chips? I'd like to buy one if you are/have any. Cheers,
    Greg

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  38. Hello,

    Are you by chance still burning these chips? I would be most grateful to purchase on from you if so.

    Thank you,
    Chris

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  39. Is this thread still watched by OP?
    I use mine with internal sounds as a drum/bass machine for Industrial Metal but hate the 'silent record' issue. Does this .bin upgrade address this problem? I have read that the ver1.13 update is supposed to fix it but don't see any talk about it in this thread.
    PS I'm in the US so any contact to get this resolved on my side of the ocean would be greatly appreciated.

    THETA
    SoulSweeper / CReepINgthinGE

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  40. Hello, what external MIDI filter would you recommend to solve the external sequencing problem? Thank you for the informations!

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