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The original system had a dedicated MIDI breakout box, connected using an EDAC connector. There was another box for the audio connections. It was hard to find, but I managed to find a picture showing the original box: It uses the same midi and jack connectors as the Zyklus MPS. So I set out to […]

Not a whole lot to update lately. Just a few things: The PCB Paul created for the memory card came in. It’s again a work of art….   I’m going to arrange for a company to map out the old memory card connections towards the IDC. The pins are too thin to measure by hand, […]

Although some details still remain to be done or finished, Direct is now fully running and usable. There were a few issues trying to get it to this point: There was a short on the newly soldered joints for the replacement button panel, which caused Track and Thru switch 4 and 5 to trigger simultaneously. […]

I’ll elaborate more soon on what the hiccups were, but here she is, running Version 1.7, which is actually 1.5 but slightly modified by me. I can’t connect it yet to any keyboards as I’m still working on making the breakout box, but here she is, alive and kicking!    

When I first got the original code, I set out to find the correct compilers and linker, as I did for Zyklus as well. Looking at the batch scripts used for compiling as well as some map files that remained, it was quickly discovered that the used tool chain was by Microtec.  Through the ‘internet […]

A lot has been happening. Since the hardware restoration was pretty much done, it was time to start focusing on getting the OS to work. There were quite a few hurdles to take. These were the options so far: Use the MCL68+ CPU emulator.  This wouldn’t work out of the box, for the simple reason […]

Have a few days off for the holidays which allows me to get some of the more tedious work done. I mapped out the complete MIDI EDAC connector to the main board. It includes signals for an RS232 port and two foot switches. I also rebuild the Metronome level pot. It was jerry-rigged with a […]

Here’s some imagery of where it is at now. Focus for the next few weeks will be on refurbishing the audio section, creating the MIDI breakout box, which includes tracing all the midi connections to the mainboard and further and mapping these out in the EDAC connector. And finally, we’re mapping out the IDC40 connector […]

This took a lot of tinkering and quite a bit of frustration too, but I’ve finally got Direct working with new EPROMS that I wrote myself. Going through a lot of issues with various assemblers (being on a Mac) and not knowing all the details obviously of coding ASM for Motorola which is still quite […]

Where you just can’t stop tinkering. The machine started somewhat and I did a quick check to see that the HALT line and RESET line were both ok, indicating that the CPU is in working mode. I was googleing on various 68000 related diagnostics issues when a single post caught my eye that talked about […]

A very long day of building. Today the new panel board came in, so I assembled that and the fit was perfect. I also reinstalled the powersupply in the case, along with a slight modification to make it somewhat better accesible, using some connector blocks. Also some small parts were delivered so I could finish […]

I repainted most of the case. I didn’t want to paint over the existing “direct” labels and other text, but everything else is painted. It came out ok enough, certainly a lot better than it was. To get it really good though, the whole case should have been stripped & sandblasted. Some rusty area’s really […]

While other parts of the renovation are calmly cooking, I thought I’d spend some time on actual coding. I dumped the original EPROM’s, analyzed its contents (even tried to disassemble), but they are hopelessly corrupt. No real problem, code is available so I can build new ones. I had two avenue’s to choose from. In […]

That was a really quick turnaround! Here’s the new switchboard.   I build it up with the switches, diodes, resistors and new extra long header pins.     A test fit to the front panel showed that it was nearly perfect. Only the lower row could use a nudge (less than 1 mm) up and […]

I have to replace a few components on the mainboard as well as a voltage regulator on the powersupply and some other bits & pieces. So first up is checking in detail what I need. Some of the coding on diodes etc has been worn off, so I’m using a desktop microscope to see if […]

Went to a local specialized paintsshop yesterday to have the colors scanned and mixed in machine grade paints. There will always be a color difference because the current paint is old and was subject to years of wear and stuff. But it will be better than rust. 🙂 Also included a high end primer, the […]

Thanks to Paul, who did the Zyklus boards as well, a new panel board is taking shape. I’ve been toying a bit with Kicad, but Paul is such a master in it, it takes me a day to do what he can do in a minute. With a pinch of luck, in about a week […]

Upon close inspection, the panel board suffered enough moisture damage to decide to scrap the board and create a new one. It’s not a complex board at all, thankfully. I started by removing all the switches so all the traces could be reviewed. During this process it became obvious that most switches have snuffed it […]

And I got to inspect it up close to see where we’re at. First I took a ton of close up pictures I can use for referencing wiring etc. Next up was to remove the mainboard. This yielded a surprise on the backside. Some kind of rubbery substance was splashed over the backside. I noticed […]

Here starts an important and cool restoration project. A lot has been said and written in the past about Vangelis custom “Direct” machine – as a result, this particular device has retained a certain ‘mystique’ on what exactly it did. We’ll probably never fully know for sure as some things like the most recent software […]

There is a little update, now that I’ve receieved one of the Most Amazing frontpanels created by Paul – and holy cow does it look good! He made one for himself compleet with wooden sides etc, and oh my…. I’m working on the Teensy version as well and mostly actually on the software, which is […]

So now that we have succesfully cloned the Zyklus with that learned a great deal on how it all works from a hardware perspective, it’s time to get deep with the code and try a new hardware platform. Obviously the Z80 is limited, which is why the code included some very handy bank switching to […]

The original Zyklus code was written in Z80 Assmebly, using a Macro assembler from 1985. Thanks to the current popularity of retro computing and the vast resources of the internet, I managed to obtain a copy of the assembler (though not the linker, although I’m fairly certain I have one from an earlier release that […]