Saturday 15 July 2017

Line 6 Echo Park

The other Line 6 green delay. The ToneCore series was released around 2004, after the larger 4x4 stompbox modeller series. The series looks like they were intended to be small factor versions of models from the previous series, the Echo Park is something like a refined DL4, smaller and cheaper and shares a lot of the same delay models. It has the advantage of running off a standard 9V supply but omitted the looper that made the DL4 such a success.


Echo Park

In an unusual design choice, the pedals are split into two components, the "dock" (containing the main chassis, DSP, switches, jacks, power supplies and input/output buffers & amplifiers) and the "module" (holding the knobs, switches, a microcontroller and the program code for the DSP). This is the same idea as the DL4/FM4/MM4 series using the same PCBs with different program code, but allows different pedals to have different numbers or types of knobs and switches instead of shoe-horning everything into one shared format.

Modules and docks were sold separately and marketed as interchangeable. Red Panda even made a third-party module. Line6 released a programmable Developer's Kit module in 2008 that allowed hobbyists to create DSP effects that ran on the platform. This is a very cool idea but it doesn't look like it ever took off, there are very few examples online of anyone actually building anything.

This Echo Park was bought used and needing repair. The LED would flash once on when power was applied, but it was otherwise completely dead. I was hoping that I could easly isolate the problem to either the module or dock.

Unlike the DL4, there are no service manuals online. However, Line 6 did publish a ToneCore SDK Hardware Guide which has block diagrams and some slightly blurry schematics for the dock and the programmable Developer Kit module. The Developer module is not the same as the product modules, but it should be close enough to make repairs possible.

 ToneCore Dock



Dock, backside. Note test points.

Dock PCB, topside.

The insides of the dock look familiar, there is a DSP56364 dsp and some power and analog stuff. I managed to connect the dock and module together lying flying flat on my bench using some right-angle headers and some jumper wires so I could probe the signals between them. I was getting power and some of the clock signals were present, but I couldn't see any signs of the module programming the DSP when applying power (as the module contains the "effect", the DSP code must be stored there and transferred to the dock on startup).
There are testpoints on the backside of the PCB for MCU, DSP and ADC/DAC clocks, this is the place to look with an oscilloscope if you are debugging one of these.

Negative voltage generator

One interesting feature of this series is that they were the first (possibly only?) Line 6 pedal to run with a standard 9V DC supply instead of shipping with a bulky AC supply. The dock uses the 9V power and one of the clock signals from the DSP to form a curde charge pump to create a negative voltage rail of about -7V. This is pretty smart! I'm surprised it isn't more common in digital pedals.

Echo Park Module



Module PCB, as found

After opening the module it was pretty clear that someone had been in here before. Some traces were damaged and a SOT23 package device (Q1) was missing. A red jumper wire has been added. There are a lot of similarities with the schematic in the SDK manuals, the MCU is different (it's a P89LPC935F, an 80C51 derivative like in the 4x4 pedals) and the product modules add an SST25F512 SPI flash memory chip but otherwise it looks close enough to use as a reference for repair. The manual schematic shows that the missing SOT23 package is a PMBT4401, I didn't have one at hand but I did have some BC847C that should be a good alternative. The schematic also had enough information to replace the damaged traces with some jumper wires after beeping things out with a DMM.

After repair attempts. One of the switches was removed temporarily to help with following hidden traces.

So I added transistor and the jumpers, and... nothing. Just one short LED flash when it's powered up and nothing else. I suspected either the flash memory or the MCU in the module were bad, but the MCU was now expensive to replace and difficult to source, and I had no copy of the contents of the memory so there wasn't much that could be done. So this went back into the box and into the "fix" pile and stayed there for a year.

Second attempt:

 

The line-up


Eventually I got two more non-working Echo Parks to look at from Moose Electronics. Maybe I could mix and match modules and docks to figure out which were good, maybe I could even fix all three. I labelled these to keep track, mine is #1 and the new ones are #2 and #3.

Starting out, none of the pedals worked. The immediate good news from swapping parts was that my dock (#1) worked with the modules from #2 & #3. No other permutations gave me a working pedal, so I knew my module was bad and docks #2 & #3 were bad. I opened the bad docks and one of them had a battery cable pinched between some header pins and sockets. Nothing else looked obviously bad. When I tested it again it worked perfectly. Either moving that cable or reseating the header pin/socket connection must have restored power.
The other bad dock had no obvious damage, and looked like it had a dead DSP. None of the test signals on the backside of the PCB were present, and they should be generated by the DSP, which did have power. In this case it's actually cheaper to buy a less desirable ToneCore pedal just for the dock than attempting to swap out the DSP, so this Echo Park will be getting a replacement instead of a repair.

This just leaves my bad module, #1. Suspecting the serial flash or the MCU, I decided to desolder the serial flash and see if it could be read in my programmer, and what data was on there. The chip ID was correctly identified, but the contents were all 0xFF! Effectively this was blank and there was no program code for the pedal to run. I pulled one of the flash chips from one of the working modules and dumped it, and re-programmed the empty chip. After resoldering it, the pedal lit up and worked just like the other one. I can only assume that the soldering "accident" I saw either caused the memory to be erased or was an attempt to fix it, I can't be sure.

Desoldering U1

Dumping U1


So, if I had had a memory dump of this a year ago I could have fixed my pedal then. In the interest of helping someone out, here is the contents of the flash.

31 comments:

  1. Nice blog - bookmarked! I was looking around for some info about Tonecore pedals. I have a Line 6 Constrictor which has a problem with the Level control. At minimum position I get a signal. As I turn it up the signal goes. As it gets towards the max position the signal returns. In circuit, it's reading very high/open at min & max. Hopefully just needs a new pot. Any idea where to source replacements? All 3 of the pots on this board are marked 452F 103B2. Cheers

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  2. You post about false electronics is amazing, I enjoyed it really. circuit board

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  3. Hello,
    Thanks for posting this, not much information on these out there. Ok, so I’ve got a base unit with a blackened A107c capacitor, I don’t have any surface mounted, but I think I’ve got a yellow 107. Any idea if it would work? I think the guy who traded this used the wrong psu, so I don’t think anything else is wrong with it. Thanks

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    1. A 100uF capacitor should work. You will need to match the polarity of the original part too.

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  4. Bought a couple of these tonecore pedals off ebay recently. The one shipping out has a bad dock. Hopefully it's fixable; if not I can use the dock from the first one I bought. For some reason I got both of these pedals for around 20 bucks each. An uber metal and a crunchtone. Most of these units seem to have a stupid price tag if they're working correctly. Thanks for the write up.

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  5. U5 is smoked along with a puffy 6.3v cap on the dock motherboard. Keeping it around for parts as I'm not able to solder a 16 pin surface mount chip.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. can you put this SST25F512 SPI flash memory chip in ToneCore Programmable Module ? or do you have some idea how to do that :) thanks

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    1. I don't know if you can transfer the flash chip (I assume you want to turn a programmable dock into an Echo Park or something similar?)

      The schematic for the Programmable Module is linked above in the developer manuals - you will need to check if the MCUs are different (I think they might be) or if they are any other major changes between the modules.

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  8. This post is awesome! It got me excited to pull out my old Echo Park that stopped working and check it out. When powered up, the light goes on and changes from red to green and flashes with the tap tempo. In bypass, sound comes through, but when it's on, no sound at all. Do you perhaps have any idea where to start looking? My gut feel is that it has something to do with the bypass itself... So probably the dock?

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    1. I got almost exactly that malfunction last night. Green light kept coming on at stomping, tempo changes were visible but no sound (neither in bypass or FX).

      After changing most of the bigger capacitors on the main board it jumped back to life. I suspect the largest 1000uF or possibly the 100uF ones.

      Yet now it works again. Happy happy! :D

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  9. Can you comment about the analog aspects of the circuitry: are they just perfunctory or do they play a part in the tone shaping, filtering, saturation etc of the sound?

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  10. Curious about red/ orange switch on back circuit
    Display on, 1 and 2
    Anyone know what what is that and how it work to use

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  11. Hi,
    such a great page, lots of useful information!

    Can you help me with my Echo Park? It's constantly making strange noises, with changing pitch all the time. There are repeats, but too slow, and everything seems to be always changing. What I checked: The dock is working, everything is ok with other modules. But the module show the same behaviour in another dock. Somehow it reacts to all pots and switches, and there are (strange) repeats. SO, I'd guess that the serial flash is ok, too. I cleaned all pots and switches a hundred times, I resoldered them, I swapped the electrolytic cap in the module and I placed a piece of plastic above the contacts to give it a bit more pressure there. No changes... What could cause this strange behaviour and what could I try next?

    Regards from germany,
    Ingo

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  12. Hello, I think the flash chip on mine may have also been erased - the pedal turns on with a red light but the dials and bypass don't do anything! According to the previous owner, the dock is fine.

    Any suggestions on the easiest way to re-flash this? I found a CH341A programmer on ebay but not sure how to upload your BIN file.
    Thanks!

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    1. I used a TL866 and just followed the software's instructions. No idea how to use a CH341A programmer, sorry. It does look like it should be possible, if your programmer supports this model of chip.

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  13. Same problem here.. when i activate de switch it flashes One green and to red.. i'm debuguing it but try to Flash the memory. CH 341A programer in the way. If i get any sucess i will post. Thanks for the all information.

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  14. My Echopark shows the red light and doesn't do anything. I have reflashed the memory multiple times and it still doesn't work. Everytime I turn the Echopark on the flash memory gets erased and I need to program it again. Anyone have any suggestions on what to look for. Thanks

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  15. Wonderful page. Thank you.

    From reading this I worked through my suddenly silent Echo Park delay; capacitor for capacitor (starting with the big-ish ones).

    For any of you out there with an Line 6 Echo Park suddenly going silent: check the capacitors. They are a bit tricky to change, but the through-hole ones are possible with patience.

    I started with changing the 47 uF, then the 100 uF, 1000 uF (6.3 V) and at the second 1000 uF, the pedal jumped back to life.

    It really is a wonderful pedal, I tried several and nothing emulates tape delay with extreme feedback so well. Really happy it appears save-able. :) Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Did you change the capacitors in the module or the dock?

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    2. I have had a few tone core bases crashing to I had spare Echo Park modules. All digital modules work fine. But the tone core bases... yikes... shortly after posting here it went dead again.

      And just now a second went down (I'm feeding them perfect power so that is not the problem). I'll try to check the voltages on this second failing one and see if I can spot a suspicious drop... but I also would like to play more music and solder a bit less.... ;)

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  16. @jacobsteel that solution only works for you

    ch341a with neoprogrammer software works

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  17. Awsome presentation however I can't access the spi flash content.
    Can someone provide a copy? Thanks

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  18. Could it be possible if you could repost a new link of the data dump from the DSP chip as the original link is now broken?

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    1. It should be working again now.

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    2. Thank you so very much for that and your quicl reply.

      I bought a preloved but faulty L6 Echo Park module about six months ago with the intension of getting just a cheap stereo Tonecore dock to run it off (not so cheap these days to buy). However, was very lucky enough to get a slightly beaten up (at a very cheap price) but descibed as working Echo Park pedal outright just last week. I have briefly bench tested it to see if turns on and functions with the tap tempo without testing the audio side of the pedal (to be done at a later date). I then swapped out the working module for the faulty one and yes I got a solid red light on, so could have possible issues with a blank DSP chip and wanted to make my life easier without disturbing the working module and using your image as a template to reflash the chip again.

      One last question, what programmer/reprogrammed board and interface did you use to reprogrammed your DSP IC?

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  19. Do you happen to have any schematics available for a Variax 300 acoustic (Steel) Board? These have been impossible to find ever since 2013 or earlier :( i managed to find a board that is also faulty(less faulty) and i'm trying to find a way to resurrect at least one of them for my guitar :/ I came here looking for info about the p89lpc935f chip... If you have any spare time and your willing to give it a shot i can send you high res images and microscope footage from both boards! Thanks in advance anyways ^^

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    1. http://remontradio.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Line-6-Variax-Service-Manual.pdf This is all I've seen of the Variax. Best of luck.

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    2. This looks nothing like the variax acoustic board :/ i have seen that schematic, unfortunately it doesn't help :/ The 300 acoustic board Is totally different... Thank you for the link though :)

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