+Drive from eBay

Elektron Gear Machinedrum
#1

So… on a whim I bought a MnM/MD +Drive from eBay. I haven’t seen these pop up much and the seller claims it is new. In the picture I can see “Elektron plus drive” written on the PCB. I used Paypal and should be protected from a con at least but I also don’t want to kill my MD.

So how legit do you guys think this is? Anyone ever install their own +Drive before? I have seen some pictures out there of one installed and it seems simple enough. I build my own computers and my MD is out of warranty so I have no reservations on pulling it apart and doing this myself. Any idea if another software patch is needed or is the latest OS fine? From what I understand, the current OS should be all that is needed.

Lets say everything works out well. The seller said it comes with the full MD sound packs the same as if I bought this through Elektron. I do not want any of these. How do I clear full snapshots so they are blank?

#2

I think there was some dude on electron-users, that tried to swap the +drive
for some reason I forgot… (and that’s why I cant google it for ya)…

I really wish I could remember the details or how that turned out…
a vague memory says : it could be that he tried to swap the inside of a makeII monomachine into a monomachine-keyboard …

But +drives on ebay (as in a small pcb) never heard of it… a bit curious
my monomachine doesn’t have +drive…

#3

http://www.elektron-users.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=2&func=view&id=180764&catid=9&limit=10&limitstart=0

There ya go…

#4

was this a single item for sale or did the seller have multiples?

#5

I have only seen the +Drive one other time on ebay and no one was biting on this one so I grabbed it at the last minute for $160 shipped. It is just the small PCB that plugs into the main board and has two little riser pieces to keep it stable. I found pictures elsewhere of the +Drive and the model numbers and board layout look identical.

If it is a clone then it is a damn close one, could be sticky fingers from inside Elektron :confused: , or maybe just a 3rd party of theirs that does the upgrades and is selling off some extra stock. It was listed as new in packaging and never used so it shouldn’t have been harvested from another box.

Well hopefully this goes well. I am also planning on a face plate upgrade and LCD change :smiley:

#6

Just the single. Only other item they have listed is a used Tascam DM3200 digital mixer. Maybe cleaning out a studio but still, where did he get this new? Not many prior sales but 100% good feedback.

#7

Just the single. Only other item they have listed is a used Tascam DM3200 digital mixer. Maybe cleaning out a studio but still, where did he get this new? Not many prior sales but 100% good feedback.[/quote]
quite possible that it just came from a damaged unit…

#8

Everything was a success!

I was already on the latest OS and after the MD was first turned on after the installation it did some very quick maintenance and asked to restart the unit. After that I had the +Drive options. To answer one of my own questions, there is a “Format +Drive” option. So if I feel like killing off all the preloaded kits and patterns then it should be simple.

Some stuff not immediately obvious to a +Drive noob like me. The preloaded snapshots only take up to snapshot 35 or so leaving over 90 blank snapshots. Also, best I can tell, you NEED to save your current MD snapshot from prior to the upgrade to a blank snapshot slot before loading a new snapshot or you will lose everything you had before. I did make sure I got a few good sysex dumps prior to opening the unit, but I did notice this before loading a new snapshot.