Hi Craig and anyone intersted in memory suitable for Juno's and my Fantom G.I received mine today from Funky Giraffe(on E-Bay) ie 512mb of new low density sdram PC133 168 pin for £7.99 + 3.00 postage,total £10.99 (inc vat,there ref number 360169945545.I only ordered it on tuesday and recieved it today and its now in and fitted and working correctly, Thanks once again Craig for the advice about the low density bit.Chris
Hi Chris,
I'm glad you're up and running....That's great news (and a great price). I'll make a note of the supplier.
The RAM has been really useful... A mate of mine has also bought a Juno G (lives at the opposite end of the country) and we are doing a lot of collaborating with midi and Audio recording and sharing the files over the web.... It's actually been working well!!
It's a bit geeky and it's about how the memory chips are actually made.
Each memory chip is made up of smaller memory chips grouped together and soldered onto one larger "green" board. They are the little 'black lumps' you will see on the memory module.
- All low density 1GB modules are made with 16 chips (8 chips on each side) using 64Mx8 device.
- All high density 1GB modules are made with 16 chips (8 chips on each side) using 128Mx4 device.
(see http://www.overclock.net/faqs/113885-info-what-difference-between-low-density.html)
The spec set out in the Roland hand book is the same type of memory used in PCs etc. Some PCs will accept both high density and low density RAM and high density is cheaper to manufacture which is why they are so plentiful! However, because of the way their internal architecture is set out, the Fantom and the Juno will only work with low density modules. If you put high density chips in the Juno / Fantom, the keyboard initially thinks it's got twice the amount of memory you actually put in (so displays 1024mb rather than 512mb), but then it fails to function correctly.
So when ordering memory, you have to explicitly order a LOW DENSITY memory chip from your vendor. For the Juno G, the max RAM size is 512Mb, for the Fantom I think it's 1Gb (Check with your docs). When you buy RAM chips, it will usually state if it is low or high density. If it doesn't state, you should explicitly check first. Roland recommend Crucial Memory. Having spoken with Crucial, I think it's because all of their chips of this type are Low Density, and of a high quality. However, the one I purchased from Ebay gets a LOT of use without any problems and cost <£15 delivered rather than £45.
So a 512Mb Chip would be:
Type: SDRAM DIMM, Unbuffered
Slots: 1
Number of pins: 168-pin
Speed: 100 MHz (PC100 CL=2) 133 MHz (PC133 CL=3)
Voltage: 3.3 V
Board height: 38 mm or less
LOW DENSITY (32 x 8)
and I think a 1Gb chip would be:
Type: SDRAM DIMM, Unbuffered
Slots: 1
Number of pins: 168-pin
Speed: 100 MHz (PC100 CL=2) 133 MHz (PC133 CL=3)
Voltage: 3.3 V
Board height: 38 mm or less
LOW DENSITY (64 x 8)
If any of the Roland guys want to "chip" in (sorry - couldn't help myself!) then do go ahead!!
The last geek fest post was a reply to a post that's now been removed asking:
<QUOTE>
Title: Upgrading Fantom G memory
Message:So... The message here is that it doesn't seem to matter about the brand of memory (I've got Infinion I think), the key is to explicitly order LOW DENSITY DIMMs with the exact spec provided by Roland, NOT HIGH DENSITY.
The low desntiy stuff is a bit more expensive (older tech), but ours was purchased from a reputable dealer on Ebay (Fast Flash Store), and it only cost £13.95. The guys there were very helpful and forgiving about my 'trial and error' approach!
Hi,im having a prob understanding this part..Could your further elaborate?
Thanks!
</QUOTE>
Thanks to Chris's Ebay link I was able to buy 512 Mb DIMMS from Funky Giraffe for £5.99 + £3 postage.
It works fine, I don't know how they make them at that price let alone sell them.
Spike
Hi, I'm Italian in Florence, I have a roland vs-2480 and
during an update, I think he deleted file.bin of flash memory and, when you start the machine, the screen remains lit but all empty. I have a car that I really like and that's fine, but the engineers tell me that Florence should change the main bord. Crazy! Costs almost as much as the VS-2480 used. I unplugged the harddrive, but all the same. I need a miracle, Help me. Thank you, thank you. Carmains
Glad to hear it!!
