[Silverfish]

Wow.

I just stumbled across this post and I have to say THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I was having the exact same problem with my Xboard 25, and the calibration menu seemed to have fixed it!

Thanks again!

[Maverick Blues]

I realize this discussion is a few months old at this point, but I wanted to chime in with information that might help the next person looking.

[sisbrains]

Sorry for the bits missing off the end of some of the sentences above, this forum doesn't appear to have an 'edit' function and I can't fix them - but I'm sure all owners of XBoards either have the manual on CD, or can download it from the E-MU site.

I can't tell you how pleased I am to have fixed this! Such an easy fix too! I can even manually calibrate every single key on the keyboard, I didn't realise that. What a great controller it is - no wonder they are still just under £200 in the U.K.


Here's the corrected text- apparently there is an 'edit' button, but it seems to vanish after a few minutes, and I mean - about two minutes!


To Calibrate a Controller Knob, Mod Wheel, or Data Entry Slider:
1.Sweep through all possible values without pressing harder either direction than you normally would. As you adjust, the display shows raw control values, reverting to the name of the control you are adjusting.
2.Press Enter to store the calibration, or press Home to back out of the process. You are returned to the Calibration Standby mode.
3.Press Enter to calibrate another control, or Home to finish.
To Calibrate the Pitch Wheel:
1.Sweep through all possible values without pressing harder in either
direction than you normally would. As you adjust, the display shows raw control values, reverting to the word “Pit” (as in “Pitch Wheel”).
2.Let the Pitch Wheel spring back to its normal position in the center.
3.Press the illuminated Snap Shot button. The Edit LED should say “Ctr” (as in “Center”). You can repeat this step as many times as you want.
4.Press Enter. You are returned to the Calibration Standby mode.
5.Press Enter to calibrate another control, or Home to finish.

[sisbrains]

Problem solved!
After nearly buying another XBoard on Ebay for just under £100 (but thankfully I held back, because I thought I still might find the solution), I searched through the manual...

Page 40: To Select one of the X1 or X2 Functions:
1.Press the Edit button. The Edit LED illuminates.
2.Select X1 or X2.
3.Adjust the data slider or use the Octave Transpose buttons to view the
functions.
4.Press Enter to select the desired function.
5.Select the desired value using the data slider or the Octave Transpose buttons
(except with CAL).
6.Press Enter to confirm your selection. Press Home to cancel the operation.

Calibrate Sub-Menu (CAL)
When you select CAL and press Enter, you are taken to the CAL sub-menu, which contains calibration functions. To select a function, use the data slider to select a Calibration function, and press Enter. To cancel, press Home.
CCM
This feature enables you to calibrate any control on your Xboard, one at a time, optimizing your Xboard’s action for your playing technique. After you select the CCM function and press Enter, all LEDs on the Xboard turn off (except the display, which says “adjust a control”). This is Calibration Standby mode. What you do next depends on which control you want to calibrate.

To Calibrate a Controller Knob, Mod Wheel, or Data En
1.Sweep through all possible values without pressing harder eit
than you normally would. As you adjust, the display shows ra
ues, reverting to the name of the control you are adjusting.
2.Press Enter to store the calibration, or press Home to back ou
cess. You are returned to the Calibration Standby mode.
3.Press Enter to calibrate another control, or Home to finish.
To Calibrate the Pitch Wheel:
1.Sweep through all possible values without pressing harder in
tion than you normally would. As you adjust, the display sho
trol values, reverting to the word “Pit” (as in “Pitch Wheel”).
2.Let the Pitch Wheel spring back to its normal position in the c
3.Press the illuminated Snap Shot button. The Edit LED should
in “Center”). You can repeat this step as many times as you wa
4.Press Enter. You are returned to the Calibration Standby mod
5.Press Enter to calibrate another control, or Home to finish.



(Just in case anybody out there has the same problem, and doesn't want to trawl through the manual).

By the way, the "X2" key is one of the keys on the keyboard itself - the ones on the lower end of the keyboard have functions written above them.

I am so happy! I was just about to spend a fortune on another XBoard, and sell mine off for a fraction of its worth, as 'faulty', and now I've fixed it in two minutes!

I also solved the problem whereby it was defaulting to MIDI channel 1 on startup - I must have accidentally set up keyboard patch no.1 with it transmitting on MIDI channel 2, and hence every time I turned on the keyboard, I had to adjust the MIDI channel output back to 1. I just followed page 25 of the manual and resaved the patch, this time with it outputting on MIDI channel 1.

So everything is fixed, my XBoard is working beautifully, and it works a treat with Proteus X - all 16 main parameters are already mapped to the control knobs, it's wonderful!!!

Thank you all for your help, if I only I had RTFM! (Read the f***ing manual!)

[sisbrains]

Thanks for your reply vtech, I have given up and put it all back together.

When I turn on the XBoard, it always starts with its output set to MIDI channel 2, so I have to change it manually to MIDI channel 1. When I start writing a song and try to output on MIDI channel 2 (or any other channel apart from 1), nothing is received by my sequencer, even though it has just been receiving on MIDI channel 1. I use Proteus X and that shows me MIDI activity on each track, so I can clearly see that it is outputting on channel 1, but not on any other channel. Perhaps it's a major 'something' that's broken down in the logic circuits.

[vtech]

Definitely sounds like a digital problem. It could be anything from corrupted software(doubt that) to a leaky steering diode or a gate issue. Without some sort of a diagram it is rather difficult to pinpoint. It sounds like the data line is latched to a specific word or some sort of a A to D network tied to the analog pot is inoperable?

[sisbrains]

And I should say, to anybody else who experiences this sort of problem, the first thing to try is swapping the leads, not trying to clean the components.

[sisbrains]

I tried swapping the leads from the 'Slide' socket, with the 'Modu' socket (the mod wheel (obviously!) goes into the 'Modu' socket normally, and the Data Entry slider goes into the 'Slide' socket), and tested the output with MIDI-OX, and the mod wheel pot itself is working fine, it gave out data correctly. The Data Entry slider then exhibited exactly the same output problem as the mod wheel had been showing before - jumping straight from 0 to 127, the moment I moved it a tiny amount.
So it's definitely not the pot, probably not the encoder either (for MIDI CC on knob no.2), and probably much worse, as the 'Modu' socket itself leads to wherever the real problem is. I know that one of the tracks from it goes to the microcontroller that vtech talked about.

I have carefully scanned the whole of the board for any cold solder joints (I don't know if this is likely) but couldn't see any.

[sisbrains]

E-MU support say they no longer support the XBoard range as they no longer produce them, and it isn't viable to repair them. (Or words to that effect.)

If any of you have any other suggestions, I would be very grateful.

[sisbrains]

I've e-mailed E-MU support, to see if they can give me an idea of how much it would cost to fix it. I am hoping I can send them just the circuit board, not the entire keyboard!