Casio rz 1

tommi · March 09, 2007, 10:16:52 AM

Hi everybody,
I am going to get a Casio rz 1 and I 'd like to bend it in the patchbay way. I want to use it to make music as you can see in http://www.myspace.com/tommasofiori and not to sell it. If you want to check my ebay name is berber481.
Does anybody have any suggestion about bending the Rz-1, like wich are the best points to short, wich ones to avoid and even how to cut the metallic surface of it?
Of course I saw and listen to the example that I found on this site and I liked it so that I bought one!
Thanks!

Circuitbenders · March 09, 2007, 02:21:51 PM

i don't have an RZ1 to open up at the moment but if you take a photo of the board and post it i'll let you know where you should be trying for bends. i know its two chips to the left but i can't remember which ones offhand.

Theres some fun accidental bends on the RZ that reset the operating system to display only japanese characters on the screen. Now theres a panic moment

The RZ-1 doesn't have a metallic surface does it, its all chunky plastic $:-\$

tommi · March 09, 2007, 03:24:52 PM

Thank you.
But for the moment I am waiting for it and and I don't have. I think I'll have in a couple of weeks. Sure that when I 'll got it I 'll post you a picture of his board. Hope you was joking about the very painful japanese bending, but I 'm afraid you don't!

tommi · March 19, 2007, 04:40:53 PM

Hi,
I took a picture of the Rz 1's main board by the component side. Cheers.

Circuitbenders · March 20, 2007, 06:33:10 PM

If i recall correctly the RAM and sound ROM chips are the two chips on the left just to the right of the blue wire. The one with what appears to be two gold spots on it where the light has reflected and the one above it.

Shorting the pins of one will effect the built in sounds and the other will effect the sampled sounds although it is possible to short from one chip to another.

If you are going to try to bend this be very very carefull of the transformer and power supply to the right. You should also make sure that any switches or sockets you fit don't interfere with the power supply area.

tommi · March 20, 2007, 07:58:18 PM

Very thankful for your suggestions. I 'll be careful! I also have done a quick google search about the ICs signed NEC etc. etc. (the ones that are just to the right of the gold spotted ones) and I found that they are RAMs. So, it seems (I guess) that there's two ICs for rams (samples) and two for roms (stored sounds).

Ok, in the next days I 'll try and, if my bendings will work maybe I'll post you some sound.

Circuitbenders · March 20, 2007, 08:35:30 PM

I think those NEC ones might be RAM for storing pattern and song memory rather than audio samples.

According to my notes the one with the gold dots is the sample RAM and the one above it and slightly to the left is the onboard sound ROM.

The NEC ones do look tempting so messing with them may be how i managed to turn the operating system japanese $:-\$

gmeredith · March 27, 2007, 12:29:03 AM

You know that you can do a sample memory expansion for the RZ-1, exactly the same as the sample expansion I did on my SK-8. I expanded my SK-8 from 4 samples (just like the RZ) to 128 samples! That sample RAM chip you pointed out can be taken out and replaced by a much bigger capacity RAM chip. The expansion won't give you longer sample times, however, just more samples of the RZ's standard sample times. For the RZ, it will give you 128 banks of the 4 samples = 512 samples, at the push of a button!!

According to the datasheets that I have, the chips labelled " D4364-15L" are the RAM chips, which are 8 x 8kb SRAM chips. I presume one is the sample RAM, and the other is the song/pattern RAM. You could expand both, if you wanted, and have 128x more songs and patterns!

I have attached the expansion instructions for my SK-8, which should be similar for the RZ-1. The SK-8 expands by 32x with this chip, but because the RZ's chip is 4x smaller than the SK-8, it will give you 128x sample expansion, which with 4 samples in the RZ, will give 512 samples!!

Also, you can buy the RZ-1 service manual here, which will tell you everything you need to know about the RZ-1's innards. Essential reading for serious circuitbenders! Email them for a price:

http://www.wdgreenhill.com/manu/casio.htm

Cheers, Graham

tommi · March 28, 2007, 10:05:02 PM

Really, really interesting. But I 'll need the service manual wich would help me to find +5V supply and write enable tracks on the circuit board. I emailed wdgreenhill but the answer was that they don't deal with drum machines. I made a research for service manual on the web but it seems hard to find.
Does anyone have the rz1 service manual or knows where can i find it?

gmeredith · March 29, 2007, 01:50:53 AM

Hi Tommi,

You don't need the service manual to find the +5V supply on the board, or the write enable tracks. I have attached the datasheet for the RAM chips below. That will show you which pins are the WE pin (pin 27 on the datasheet).

As for the +5V supply, pin 28 on the chip (the Vcc pin) is the +5V supply pin to the chip, so the track on the circuit board that attaches to this pin is your +5V supply. You can confirm this with a multimeter.

Cheers, Graham

gmeredith · March 30, 2007, 06:14:14 AM

I can confirm that the chip with the gold dots is the onboard sound ROM chips. A guy I know has got an RZ with a ROM expansion mod done to it, and it sits in that ROM's position. It has 2 ROMs fiited on a board that plugs into a socket where the original ROM used to be, and you switch between the 2 of them for different banks of ROM sounds. Seems like there is a lot of work going on with these machines for ROM/RAM expansion at the moment.

Check out here:

http://www.cosmods.de/en/my-bends/retro-drum-machine-casio-r-1-plus.html

Here is a picture of the ROM expansion board. Compare it with your picture of your board below it to confirm that it is in the same position of your ROM chip with the gold dots.

Cheers, Graham

aeldritch · October 14, 2009, 06:21:33 PM

Hello, I have a RZ1, when I turn on, all the samples are linked into one.
What is the problem (battery)?

Greetings.

Circuitbenders · October 14, 2009, 06:33:45 PM

what does that mean exactly?

aeldritch · October 14, 2009, 08:00:33 PM

Hi!

I record a different sound in each of the four samples, when restart the machine, these sounds are heard together when press any sample pad, and not separate. $:-\$

thanks!

electoyd · October 18, 2009, 09:12:30 PM

Hi!

by plays all together do you mean one after the other or does it play them all at once i.e. or stacked on top of each other? You could try replacing the internal battery, or it might well be a problem with your sample ram or os in which case that would be trickier......