Rockman X100 Rev. 10 Schematic Release

[cusebassman]

@Cybercow thanks so much, that's really helpful.

I've been working on reversing the x100 myself for some years as a side-project, and I just finished schematic capture of two units. I'm planning to go to PCB creation and build next, using parts I've sourced over the years (including some MN3011's I bought from that same seller you were using).

I just so happened to stumble on this thread yesterday, and it was great timing to check my work against a much larger effort. The LEDs were the last piece of the puzzle, I'm glad to hear you can get the circuit going with a properly spec'd modern LED.

 

[Feral Feline]

Welcome to the PPCB-Forum, @cusebassman.

 

[M600blu]

With the successful completion of the (Rockman) RMS X100 Rehouse Project V1 & V2, Josh Ledford and I are happy to finally release the fully corrected Rockman X100 Rev 10 circuit schematics. Over the course of almost four years, as many as four people have collaborated with analyzing, testing, measuring and drawing out the many details wrapped inside Tom Scholz’s signature sound circuit.

The original schematics found on the US Patent site are by no means complete, accurate or even workable when compared to what we eventually discovered with all of the analysis we’d completed on over 2 dozen Rockman X100 units. The attached schematics are accurate, tested and verified as we’ve produced over 40 of the RMS Rockman X100 builds.

(The blue component IDs are those IDs used on our V1, V2 & V3 PCBs. The IDs in black are those used on the original 1980s X100 rev 10 boards.)
View attachment 57022 View attachment 57023

The first 18 months or so was spent on analysis, schematic corrections & creation, cloning the original PCBs and parts sourcing. The original concept was to simply rehouse an X100 into a pedal with foot switches for faster access to MODE & FX changes. After producing a working set of PCBs, populating and successful testing, the next step was to sort out how change the slider switches to stompswitches. But the stompswitches available are just insufficient to meet the complex switching arrangement Scholz used in his units. That was about where I came on board to help with a working, reliable switching system for these pedals. Old school sequential logic switching proved out to be the easiest approach without having 8 or more stompswitches on a pedal to accommodate all the MODES & FX. So, one stomp to cycle thru all four MODES and and one stompswitch to cycle thru the three FX with an added “Dry” option (no FX). Naturally, a true-bypass 4PDT stompswitch was included to facilitate the mono-in/stereo-out circuit.

Another discovery with X100 prompted us to develop a unity-gain recapture circuit, as the X100 is a below-unity-gain circuit. So with the switching and output levels to manage, we added the ‘sequential logic switching’ and ‘low-level output’ (LLO) circuits.

View attachment 57024 View attachment 57025

There is a lot to be said about the differences between the original Rockman X100 and the updated V3 units we are about to produce. The evolution from the simple “rehousing” idea to the latest RMS Rockman X100 V3 is another long story that will also unwind as time allows.

With the disappearing availability of the MN3011 BBD chips, we will drop the use of the MN30xx BBD chipsets altogether and use the SpinSemi FV-1 DSP chip. This greatly reduces the overall noise, large footprint & parts-count of the PCB. And it allows us to go with a smaller, more readily available 1590D enclosure, using the same sequential logic switching for the MODE options. The FV-1 FX switching will be a standard SP8T rotary switch. About 6 months was spent in learning and developing the FV-1 FX patches to match the original X100 FX sounds. The bonus with the FV-1 is that it allowed us to add 5 more unique FX patches to the Rockman sound. And we already have a working prototype of the FV-1 infused V3.

View attachment 57026 View attachment 57027

For the most part, all is said and done. Except for the completion of the V3 portion of this massive project.

Just bought one of these off EBay for like 400 dollars didn’t even come with the power supply. But I have sufficient resources to make it in my evil laboratory.

 

[M600blu]

With the successful completion of the (Rockman) RMS X100 Rehouse Project V1 & V2, Josh Ledford and I are happy to finally release the fully corrected Rockman X100 Rev 10 circuit schematics. Over the course of almost four years, as many as four people have collaborated with analyzing, testing, measuring and drawing out the many details wrapped inside Tom Scholz’s signature sound circuit.

The original schematics found on the US Patent site are by no means complete, accurate or even workable when compared to what we eventually discovered with all of the analysis we’d completed on over 2 dozen Rockman X100 units. The attached schematics are accurate, tested and verified as we’ve produced over 40 of the RMS Rockman X100 builds.

(The blue component IDs are those IDs used on our V1, V2 & V3 PCBs. The IDs in black are those used on the original 1980s X100 rev 10 boards.)
View attachment 57022 View attachment 57023

The first 18 months or so was spent on analysis, schematic corrections & creation, cloning the original PCBs and parts sourcing. The original concept was to simply rehouse an X100 into a pedal with foot switches for faster access to MODE & FX changes. After producing a working set of PCBs, populating and successful testing, the next step was to sort out how change the slider switches to stompswitches. But the stompswitches available are just insufficient to meet the complex switching arrangement Scholz used in his units. That was about where I came on board to help with a working, reliable switching system for these pedals. Old school sequential logic switching proved out to be the easiest approach without having 8 or more stompswitches on a pedal to accommodate all the MODES & FX. So, one stomp to cycle thru all four MODES and and one stompswitch to cycle thru the three FX with an added “Dry” option (no FX). Naturally, a true-bypass 4PDT stompswitch was included to facilitate the mono-in/stereo-out circuit.

Another discovery with X100 prompted us to develop a unity-gain recapture circuit, as the X100 is a below-unity-gain circuit. So with the switching and output levels to manage, we added the ‘sequential logic switching’ and ‘low-level output’ (LLO) circuits.

View attachment 57024 View attachment 57025

There is a lot to be said about the differences between the original Rockman X100 and the updated V3 units we are about to produce. The evolution from the simple “rehousing” idea to the latest RMS Rockman X100 V3 is another long story that will also unwind as time allows.

With the disappearing availability of the MN3011 BBD chips, we will drop the use of the MN30xx BBD chipsets altogether and use the SpinSemi FV-1 DSP chip. This greatly reduces the overall noise, large footprint & parts-count of the PCB. And it allows us to go with a smaller, more readily available 1590D enclosure, using the same sequential logic switching for the MODE options. The FV-1 FX switching will be a standard SP8T rotary switch. About 6 months was spent in learning and developing the FV-1 FX patches to match the original X100 FX sounds. The bonus with the FV-1 is that it allowed us to add 5 more unique FX patches to the Rockman sound. And we already have a working prototype of the FV-1 infused V3.

View attachment 57026 View attachment 57027

For the most part, all is said and done. Except for the completion of the V3 portion of this massive project.

Has anyone had boards made?

 

[Averagebear6]

Really looking forward to getting your RMS V3. Love the passion and skill you dedicate to this, it means a lot!

 

[Cybercow]

Has anyone had boards made?

Currently, we are only doing priority builds. The boards have not been released to the public. Even with a fully populated board, these things are both complex and expensive to build out.

 

[MarginalPlayer]

My pedal building “rabbit hole” started with seeing someone on Youtube building the “Mockman.” Back when I started my first real job, I had the opportunity to buy a new Rockman X100, but settled on the Hot Watt II, which was lost to the sands of time. Now 20 some pedals later including the Mockman, PedalPCB Rockstar, and Pedal PCB Proposition (twice), I am still trying to chase Tom Scholtz’s magical sound.

Using CyberCow’s corrected schematics and buck power supply along with bits and pieces from freestompboxes.org, I made a poor man’s pedal version of the Rockman X100 distortion/edge/EQ 1. Even this part was not easy to build, and lots of strange behavior during troubleshooting until I worked out some bugs and a cold solder joint. I auditioned several J201’s, but I’m still not sure the sustain is as good as it could be, but definitely there. Side by side with the Proposition, they are similar to my untrained ear, but the X100 sounds slightly brighter. I wasn’t quite sure how to end the partial circuit and add volume control, so I put a tonetweq on the tail end, which provides some minimal EQ adjustment. But the rabbit hole goes deeper, I’m already gathering some more parts to make a second version including the clean channel and both EQ’s. I also have a Caesar Chorus partially soldered up to avoid trying to duplicate the X100's Board 2.

Many thanks to CyberCow and the numerous other people who have spent many hours reverse engineering the X100 and freely sharing information with the community!