A4 teardown (and infrared pics)

plusn · 2013-09-28T20:11:42.000Z

Wow, thank you for the “inside job”. Excellent findings!

MX · 2013-09-29T10:52:18.000Z

Wow! Amazing analysis

switchbox · 2013-09-30T10:35:32.000Z

great…what is the j1 25 pole connector all about?..just for programming the fpga?..or for upgrading something? …maybe like a +drive?

jgb · 2013-09-30T11:16:24.000Z

Thanks! Interesting read, and lovely pictures.

jaalmadakan · 2013-09-30T11:30:07.000Z

"what is the j1 25 pole connector all about?..just for programming the fpga?..or for upgrading something? "

FPGAs are not “programmed” per se. The chip reads its configuration from a non-volatile memory chip at startup and reconfigures itself according to that. Kind of like a CPU program that would be loaded in RAM at startup.

The jumper is most likely used to load the configuration binary file in the memory and/or for functional testing during production… nothing really interesting for modding (unless you are willing to re-design the FPGA program from scratch).

Cocker · 2013-11-13T14:51:19.000Z

Wow. Unreal. Not really sure what I’m looking at for most of this but is there anything there that hints at future upgradeability / expansion ?

avantronica · 2013-11-13T14:57:02.000Z

[quote=“” Cocker""]
Wow. Unreal. Not really sure what I’m looking at for most of this but is there anything there that hints at future upgradeability / expansion ?
[/quote]

…"Next to that we have a Micron 256 SDRam chip (2WG22) and a Toshiba flash memory chip. My guess is it’s a 2GB chip but I couldn’t find the datasheet to verify. "…

make of this what you will ! ? 2GB, potentially ? hmm, room for all sorts in there, we can but hope

void · 2013-11-13T15:28:34.000Z

yea wondering what this is for… strange!

udenjoe · 2015-04-29T13:30:23.000Z

My guess is the larger memory is for the +drive, the next smaller is for your saved content that isn’t in the +drive. Then the other memory is for storing your changes constantly, your sandbox, undos, parameter changes, etc.
Just my blind guess.

vos · 2015-04-29T15:26:57.000Z

Very interesting - even if this is allmost Chinese to me - Thanx.
I allways had this feeling with Elektron instruments - they’re developed with passion and love - I wish I understood electronics - must be so interesting. Well it’s never to late to lurn I guess.
Great info Guys ! I’m very happy about the quality of the long - term memoty ( Hey !! I understood somethig !! )

Greatings

TrabanT · 2015-04-29T15:46:50.000Z

awesome thread! thanks for the work OP !!!

henning · 2020-02-19T21:19:58.090Z

Even today cool and interesting! Too bad the virus pics are not working anymore, probably they updated their forum?

It’s an interesting observation how Elektron builds quality hardware, and hopefully this is still true for current devices. But I assume it’s worth to invest in the more expensive devices, as surely there’s not much benefit for a company to make even the cheapest model:samples (that I got as my first Elektron) for 300€ as robust that it will last for 10 or even 20 years or more.

(found this while researching a bit for this discussion: Firmware + overlay = new machine?!)

Toumal · 2020-02-20T23:01:52.528Z

Sorry the Virus pics don’t work anymore, unfortunately I used imageshack which wiped everything.
I fully agree with Elektron hardware being built to last. Every button just oozes ruggedness. And the fact that they chose a long-lasting long term flash storage is awesome too. No leaky batteries.

swiss · 2020-02-21T00:30:43.470Z

Coolaudio is owned by behringer right ?

plusn · 2020-02-21T07:03:58.142Z

Yes

Noumenaut · 2021-12-15T05:05:07.213Z

Was just thinking today how it would be cool to see the innards of an A4 without opening up my own. Forum delivers again! Great post.

Andreas_R · 2021-12-15T05:49:16.516Z

Very interesting and fun to read! Good to know the machine is a solid build in a world where the engineers have to design machines that die 1sec after warranty expires😅

Thanks a lot bro!

yoyz2k · 2021-12-18T11:56:39.551Z

Really like this post !

darwiniandude · 2024-11-13T05:01:15.757Z

Love this. Fascinating. Mentioned elsewhere on this forums is that the unpopulated 8 pin header at one end is individual outputs Unfortunately you can’t remove a track from the main outs though.

MichaalHell · 2024-11-13T07:38:11.217Z

So one could solder individual outs if they were brave enough?