d8b Forum

Eric Russ
February 3, 1952 - March 25, 2017

http://www.incareofrelationships.com/th ... o-tribute/

Hello,

As many of you know, Eric Russ passed away in March of 2017. I knew him only through conversations about d8b's/HDR's, but he was always very generous with his time and knowledge regarding these machines. He had a serious passion for them and I think is one of the major reasons there are so many working d8b's and HDR's out there today.

I was contacted by Eric's wife, Terri a short while ago. At some point during his illness, Eric mentioned me as someone who might be able to help catalog and sell his remaining inventory. Probably because I would call him with insane questions while I had my HDR in a million pieces and he would always know exactly what I was doing wrong and help me out. Needless to say, I was very touched and honored by this request. I drove up a couple of weeks ago to his home and started to get an initial inventory, which is quite substantial.

There are several d8b's in various states of repair and a ton of parts. Unfortunately, there is only 1 Apogee Clock Card in his inventory, so building out complete d8b's is probably not on the agenda as those clock cards are more and more rare and pretty expensive. There are literally stacks and stacks of parts pertaining to the d8b. I'll be making another trip up to begin testing it all and seeing what is available. I don't want to sell anything I haven't tested directly. But it will take a little time. There is A LOT of stuff.

His MDR/HDR inventory was much more complete and I will be upgrading them all to be as "up to date" as they possibly can be. All MDR's will have the HDR BIOS, support for large hard drives, USB floppy emulation for installation (NO FLOPPIES!!), Internal SSD's, and hopefully the ability to use USB keyboards. I saw a post that someone got this to work in a d8b but I haven't tried it yet with the HDR. I brought most of the machines back to Atlanta with me and am in the process of building them out.

Please contact me with any questions/requests/suggestions you may have.

Thank you,

Gary Stone

Hi Gary - I was the one who posted the USB Keyboard success. I would be happy to share the photos i posted with you and the process albeit for the d8b. I would think it should be the same for the HDR. I would be interested in purchasing transport buttons, side and front panels if in good condition, any d8b parts.

For the USB Keyboard to work, the only solution was connecting and internal USB 2 port that lugs into the motherboard connector, not a PCI card as it won't work. Let me know if you need more on that and i will send you the procedures.

RJ

And..... Although i never met Eric Russ, i have heard his name mentioned for years. Sad to lose a fellow musician and lover of musical equipment. I will pray for his family and freinds.

Hey,

Yes. Great work figuring that out! And an Apple aluminum keyboard at that. So awesome. I thought I had one of those USB brackets laying around but I haven't found it. I read on your thread that someone confirmed that the same method works for the HDR. It likely means not having to cut a hole in the back of an MDR when upgrading it to an HDR.

There is so much d8b stuff it's crazy. I'm still working out pricing and a parts list for the d8b side of things. The HDR stuff is home with me here in Atlanta, so it will take another trip up there to get my hands on the d8b parts. But I'll be going very soon. I'll let you know. Thanks!!

I never met Eric in person either, but by all accounts he was a heck of a guy.

Thanks for stepping up to the plate and helping keep our vintage gear alive...

Glad to do it.

Hi Gary, do you happen to have a motherboard for my Mackie HDR 24/96 CPU? Unfortunately, my card does not allow you to boot and gives me error, the following: Error 43 Host did not boot.
"I do not know what to do."
I am Italian and I live in Italy, this is translated by google translator. Thank you

It is very likely that the battery on the motherboard is dead. Get an Energizer or Duracell 2032 battery and replace the one on the motherboard. You will need to set your BIOS to the correct settings after you have a new battery installed.

Thanks Gary for your prompt reply. Unfortunately he does not want to leave, that is, he does not start and neither does the monitor turn on.
I'll explain: some time ago I did shorten the cable that goes from the CPU to the mixer, I watched as the technician connected me the wires and I realized that a white wire is not connected ... I think this white thread has its own function, but why is not connected?
Look at the image

I don't think the white wire is the problem
the white wire is like that on my HDR. I could be wrong but I think all HDR the white wire is not connected to anything.

Joe Allen