Ales is Q20: battery and EFTP.

[abstamaria]

Charlie Hall sent me an Alesis Q20 with EFTP patches many years ago. Because I had several other echo machines since, I set it aside and hasn’t used it in more than a decade. Out of curiosity, I tried it today and was surprised it still worked. It sounds good, actually.


I recall that Charlie told me there was a battery that needed periodic replacement. If they died, the patches will disappear. Did I remember correctly? Is it easy to replace the battery? Thee Q20 manual warns of high voltages inside the unit. Will taking out the old battery to replace it erase the patches?

I’ll appreciate advice please. I’ve lost Charlie’s contact information and would appreciate that too

Many thanks, and best wishes for the New Year,

Andy

[Gruntfuttock]

Hi Andy. This is Charlie Halls site: http://charliehall.proboards.com/
I don’t have his personal details. Hope this helps.
Dave

[abstamaria]

Thank you, Dave!

Andy

[RogerCook]

Removing the battery will lead to the loss of stored patches. From memory the battery is soldered to the circuit board so it's not that simple a job to replace it. It is possible to connect a temporary battery whilst the permanent one is replaced so the patches can be retained.

I have a copy of the service manual I can and you of it helps.

Roger

[abstamaria]

Roger, I will appreciate it. Even just the relevant pages on the battery.

My address is abstamaria@gmail.com.

Best regards,

Andy

[RogerCook]

Sent!

[abstamaria]

Many thanks, Roger!

[SJB]

Just reading through the above posts - I was interested in that no-one suggested backing up the patches before attempting the battery change.
I Downloaded the Q20 manual and found that it may well be possible to backup the patches to a PC or for example another Q20.

Chapter 6 page 89.

Like the Zoom RFX2000 etc - its done via midi.

Just a thought.

Good Luck.

[scouserjoe2]

Hi,

I have considered this problem because I have a Q20 with a now 'ageing' battery. I would very much like to keep the Q20 as a spare for my TVS3 but my concern is that sooner or later that battery will fail. I do have a Q20 manual and wondered about this workaround, but I thought that Charlie Hall had disabled this download function from machines that he had programmed in order to protect his copyright of the patches. Am I wrong in that assumption ?

Cheers,

Ian

[RogerCook]

I think Charlie Hall disabled the capability to back up patches from the Q20s and Q2s that he supplied. Later, he made the patches available for purchase so they could be installed in "regular" Quadraverbs. If the patches can't be backed up, a temporary battery can be hooked up to the pcb whilst the old battery is replaced (it's soldered to the board iirc).