Astro Sys 9K HCN1078F Conversion to HLN1073D for Conv. Ops.

[Plurb]

Is there any way to convert these control heads to work in an A9A (fract. p/n) model? Jumpers or Pin out changes any help appreciated. The HCN1078F's are marked in Blue Astro the others are in our systems alreadyas System 9000's. Currently the Astro marked Control Heads come up dark when connected to our DEKs and Control cables.

[Mike B]

Take the U0007 PROM from the PLCC socket in a late model HCN1073 and swap it into the HCN1078F control head. Other late model heads like the HCN1066, HCN1067, HCN1068, HCN1069 or HCN1071 can also be used to get a U0007 "donor" chip.

http://www.open.org/~blenderm/images/smdheadc_t.gif

The HCN1078 will work as an A9 after the firmware change (mark the back of the head as non-Astro after the conversion). There were jumper changes in the circuit boards in the late models:

http://www.open.org/~blenderm/images/smdheadc_b.gif
http://www.open.org/~blenderm/images/hln6284c.gif

I do not know if the firmware was changed for these or not, however it is likely that you could use a U0007 chip from an early control head as well. So, even though I said late model you can really use whatever you find works.

BTW, you want to use a real PLCC chip puller. There are printed circuit board traces under the PLCC socket that can easily be cut/broken when using the wrong removal method.