Re: MMD VirtualRoll MIDI Interface System MMD

[ Tom Noble wrote in  250903 MMDigest:

> Does anyone know who has control of the late Spencer Chase's and
> Bob Hunt's Duo-Art MIDI conversion systems?  I have a couple of
> Duo-art systems that I would like to add MIDI to and am aware of
> these systems and would like to get more info.

I designed the electronics for the e-Valve system Spencer made.
Spencer gave me the coil winding machine and the tooling for the
16-note valve blocks. These were intended to be CNC manufactured.
I have quite a few of the magnet armatures as well. That part would
be tricky to duplicate.

This was the system Gene Gerety patented. I suspect the patent is now
expired. Technically the inventors of this system are Spencer, myself,
Jack Breen and Gene. This was discussed at the 2001 MBSI banquet, when
Spencer and Jack explained magnetic return shielding to me.

Spencer was always tweaking the design. Then he went with the Bob Hunt
system. I found that the AMI type valve chest using direct electric
pipe organ magnets is just as effective and much easier to construct,
although these systems take up quite a bit of space.

Recently I was contacted about fixing some Broadmoore PowerRoll units.
I made some estimates and, in the current market with tariffs and
labor costs, it would take nearly $20,000 USD to do a proper job. Most
of the chips are obsolete. Long gone are the days of surplus or any
walk-in electronics store. The computers and operating systems these
worked with require DOS since the simple BASIC programs talked directly
to the hardware.

Julie Porter
Martinez, California
sheepdoll@delectra.com.geentroep [delete ".geentrtoep" to reply]

[ More information and related history at
[ https://www.spencerserolls.com/MidiValve.htm 
[ https://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200212/2002.12.08.05.html 
[ https://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/KWIC/P/powerroll.html 
[ -- Robbie