RE: RE: RE: JamMan modifications

["Sellon, Bob" <bsellon@lexicon.com>]

Dave wrote:
>Any idea how much the upgrade will cost?  And is it a factory upgrade,
>or something we can do ourselves?
>
>-dave

Dave, I don't know what the upgrade will cost right now but I'd like to   
keep it well under $200. I still have to work out legal issues with   
Lexicon so that may effect it as well.

I should point out here that, though I work for Lexicon, all of this   
upgrade business is a side line of mine and will not be warranted or   
serviceable by Lexicon. The upgrade is NOT a Lexicon upgrade of the   
Jamman, it is an Stec upgrade. Stec is my side and very small   
modification business. The Lexicon sales management has made it very   
clear to me that they are not interested in providing or supporting a ROM  
 
upgrade for the Jamman. The Lexicon service and sales departments will   
not be able to help you with any problems you have with the upgrade. You   
will have to deal with me or someone on my enormous staff (eventually,   
the laughter subsides). Actually, I am going to get someone to help with   
service so I can concentrate on software.

As a performer myself I found the original Jamman to be less than optimal  
 
for a lot of the things I wanted to do so, being the guy who wrote the   
software for the Jamman in the first place, I went in and made some   
changes (and more changes, and more changes, and....).  The current   
software is a result of changes I wanted and requests from the warranty   
cards, email, faxes, phone calls, etc.. of which there have been many.

I am also working on a small Windows app that will probably accompany the  
 
upgrade. So far it provides a virtual mixer for the 4 loop/channel   
 "Pages" but will eventually provide lots of other things as well. Does   
this sort of thing seem like it would be useful to anyone? What kinds of   
things would you like to see in it?

Regarding the factory upgrade vs doing it yourselves; The upgrade will   
probably come in several flavors. Heres why. The basic upgrade is simply   
a rom upgrade that almost anyone could do. The original rom for the   
Jamman, however, was rather small but can be made twice as big by   
installing a jumper on the board. Again, this is simple but does require   
using a soldering iron. I am still working with the small rom but am just  
 
about to run out of space so the larger rom will probably be required.   
Now it starts getting ugly. The original Jamman had no nonvolatile memory  
 
(it can't remember anything when it powers down). When we laid out the   
board, however, we left a spot for a small electronically erasable ROM   
(EEPROM) which could store setup information (MIDI channel, mix settings,  
 
etc. but NO AUDIO). The part was left out of the original product for   
cost reasons but will be supported by the new software. It's an 8 pin IC   
with at resistor that needs to be installed. My gut feeling is that this   
is beyond the capabilities of most users. Will still offer it as a kit   
but will provide Stec factory upgrades for those who don't want to deal   
with it.

I am also looking at audio memory upgrades and  audio performance   
upgrades (improving the converter filters) which, if they ever appear,   
will have to be done at the Stec "factory".

 I will post more info as things solidify.

Bob Sellon
Lexicon/Stec