HEPAX: the most sought after module, becomes even more weird.

[Diego Diaz]

The above image is NOT a HEPAX.

At least not as the the very few of us that have had the chance of seeing its internals know a HEPAX is.

A few weeks ago Robert Prosperi mailed me regarding a couple of non-working HEPAX that have reached his hands.

Seems that I'm becoming the guy for the severe cases of rare-41-related-damaged-gear. And I'm glad to have helped some users here in getting their "rarities" back to life. :-)

The first one of these HEPAX modules is a Standard HEPAX with original label still intact, which regrettably has its ceramic PCB broken in a corner. That's indeed a bad prognosis, but it may still have a chance (depending on how many tracks have been affected).

Meanwhile I decided to open the second one. First thing I noticed before opening is that its bottom housing, though typical HEPAX case without handle, has no "VM Electronics" logo and no production timestamp; also it has a vintage compression Dymo type "HEPAX" label (which I wrongly thought was a replacement for the lost original).

As soon as I open the case it becomes evident that the Fujitsu chip wasn't standard, as it wasn't the date on it (8736). Several weeks before HEPAX was commercially available.

Yes, it is one (and only?) HEPAX prototype!

Directly from Fujitsu I+D to VM and quite likely the Dymo label was also the one stuck by a Fujitsu engineer to identify the unit.

After visual inspection a few pins have noticeable cold solders/corrosion and the bottom side is thightly glued with an insane amount of silicone. Still have to talk with Robert about the following steps regarding this ultra rare finding.

Hopefully a completelly undisclosed HEPAX ROM have been hidden inside for the last 33 years!

Curious? ;-)

Best wishes from the Canary Islands.

Diego.