Switching between OS 1.51 and 2.00 using a card

[Watermelon]

While discussing what the next VC card should be, some people mentioned the usefulness of a card giving access to the old 1.51 operating system and original waveset "on the fly".

I found a way to make such a card oneself. In fact, I did two cards: one with 1.51 and the other with 2.00. Now, I can easily boot my V-Synth in any of the two modes, in a simple way, without any computer connected.

Here it is:

Use this trick at your own risk... I feel not responsible of any damage ...blah-blah... Powering down the V-Synth while the update is running, may irretrievably damage your V-Synth...

1. Rescued two old 16MB CF cards from the trash
2. Downloaded both 1.51 and 2.00 operating systems updates from http://www.roland.com/products/en/_supp ... 0&iCncd=21
3. Downloaded SYRB1.BIN from http://v-tribe.info/gear/v-synth/update/SYRB1.BIN (it seems that this file instructs the V-Synth to automatically update from an external card).
4. Transfered "V-Synth.rom" and "V-SynthDiskImage.bin" (those files are found in the OS updates) and "SYRB1.BIN" to the root folder of the CF card. Did two cards, one for each OS.
5. Plugging one of these cards into the V-Synth, automatically triggers the update when the V-Synth powers on.
6. Once the update is finished, remove the card and cycle power the V-Synth once again.

Beware: this procedure may be risky if the card ever fails during the update. Transfering the update files though USB into V-Synth's internal drive may be more reliable in such a respect.

[philicorda]

Wow. This also opens up the possibility of booting other non roland OSs!

[LivePsy]

Very useful to have an OS backup which doesn't need a computer if you ever need to reflash the V-Synth. Thanks for the tip!

B

[obrazcov]

Thanks for the tip

[ArghBlarg_]

Keep in mind guys, that some flash devices have a limited number of read-write cycles. The internal flash chips of the V-Synth which hold the OS may, depending on what brand they are, have only 1000 to 10,000 read-write cycles. Might sound like a lot, but wouldn't it suck to wear out the V-Synth's internal flash!

Error 144 - Reboot? Y/N

[ArghBlarg_]

Just for kicks, before doing the 2.0 upgrade I looked at the files with a hex editor... they might be encrypted. One I could recognize some English text in, patch names etc. Probably the 2.0 patch set; the other had nothing recognizable in it. I also tried loading both files into Sound Forge as various formats to see if the wave sets were available.. no luck, so who knows how they're encrypted/encoded.

People here have mentioned the V-synth has an SH chip, same as the Fantom (and the Nintendo Gamecube?). An open source OS would be possible if people spent enough time reverse-engineering things.. I suppose Roland's custom chips would be a pain the butt to figure out though.

Error 144 - Reboot? Y/N

[ArghBlarg_]

Yep, there *are* people out there who will do all this reverse-engineering stuff. It's amazing what people can take apart and figure out .

True, the Variphrase stuff may indeed be assisted by hardware, I don't think an SH-4 at 133MHz (I think? That's the Fantom-X clock speed I think) would have much spare time after doing real-time stretching on 8 or more samples at once. But who knows... I have no idea about the math involved in such transformations.

heck, people have ported Linux to all kinds of wierd PDAs, watches, toasters...

Error 144 - Reboot? Y/N

[Artemiy]

Hmm, I'd like to get my hands on the V-Synth service manual to find out about it's CPU.

[mockba]

Hi ArghBlarg,

In fact the images are not encrypted/encoded. They are compressed with inflate (1.1.3) by Mark Adler (google it).
In fact, if you look at the deflate (inflate, in fact) source code you will find the exact same code inside the VariOS update (1.07) release (varios_update.rom) using a HEX editor.
So I guess they use a simple compression just to make the image smaller due to the very limited space on the Hitachi (Renesas) 32MB cards they use.
The VariOS uses the Hitachi (Renesas) SuperH4 (SH4) platform, which is a simple Risc platform, very good however to this kind of application.
Korg uses the SH2 on their Korg Radias, and they don't compress the image, so you can do a lot of reverse engineering there.
I believe the V-Synth would use the SH4 too. The Fantom XR does.

Cheers,
Mockba the Borg.

[Nord72]

So its possible to load variOS instruments into the V-Synth somehow ? (via syrb1.bin)
And if its working this way maybe the VariOS editor could be another option with the driver files of course.....running Jupiter8 on the V and the editor on the PC/Mac.
It would be interesting!

[mockba]

Hi Nord72,

Unfortunately I don't think you could mix and match between the VariOS and V-Synth, because of the hardware differences.
A software written for the VariOS expects to "see" a VariOS hadware, with a LCD on some memory position, and a few knobs on other memory position.
But the information I gave you holds the key, for example, to develop homebrew application for the VariOS.
Maybe the VariOS is one of the most underrated pieces of hardware Roland has ever created.
I think the world was not ready for it in 2003, but now? in 2011? closer to the end of the world? an API to create your own Synths and run on that beast is golden to many of the programmers/musicians like me.
Can you imagine a community writing their own emulations of the Juno, Jupiter, tb808, etc.. etc.. or even their own custom VA synths? All loaded on a Flash card and ran from the VariOS?
This is the same concept Roland uses for the VC-1 and VC-2 cards. Those are just simple applications running from inside a 32MB Hitachi (now Renesas) flash card. There's no special hardware inside those cards, those are just PCMCIA Flash ATAs.
The Jupiter8 is even simpler, as it runs from inside the VariOS internal flash, so I guess it only checks if its runing from inside a VariOS somehow.
Therefore, in theory, and with some hard effort, people (who knows how to use well a disassembler of the SH4 CPU, and IDA Pro) could reverse engineer the VariOS8 app, for example, and create homebrew apps that would run on the VariOS. Just like we do on our iPhones.
Of course there are a lot if legal issues involved, but I would be much happier to write and run a simple 2 OSC synth for one of my VariOS than for SynthMaker or Reaktor.
But now let's stop dreaming that Roland would care about such product, and go make some music ...

Cheers,
Mockba.

[vsyn7425]

Does anyone still have the SYRB1.BIN file available which they could post? To be able to load an older V-Synth OS from PC Card sounds more preferable than writing an OS to flash if there is only a limited number of times that it can be written to. Thanks.

[robbie50]

I want the file to because http://v-tribe.info/gear/v-synth/update/SYRB1.BIN is close!

greetings,


rob

[Arghblarg]

I had these files archived. ZIP file with v1.51 OS, ROM, etc. Hope that helps.

VSynthv151_ROM_DSK_SYRB1.zip

I want the file to because http://v-tribe.info/gear/v-synth/update/SYRB1.BIN is close!

greetings,


rob

[robbie50]

Argb.......

THANKS!!!!!!!!!, i've download them.....

GREAT!


rob