HX3.5 Main page

HX3 mk5 mainboard

Preface

Features

HX5.5 (HX3 mk5) is the follow-up model of the well-known HX3 mk4 board. While maintaining size and cost, it offers higher performance and more flexibilty by using a larger 6th generation XILINX FPGA (3 times more gates than 3rd Generation FPGA on HX3.4). Connectors are mostly compatible with HX3 mk4, so HX3.5 will be a drop-in replacement for many applications.

As an option (extended licence required), the new HX3 RealOrgan engine is capable of emulating all electromagnetic organs including H100, combo organs, several concert organs of the 70s and 80s like Böhm Orchester and Wersi Helios. This implies up to 15 harmonics, up to 12 drawbars per manual with individual mixtures, including phasing rotor (WersiVoice), mechanical and electronic keying available simultaneously. ADSR envelope available on all drawbars, also H100 percussion and "Harp Sustain". New tone generator switchable from tonewheel to TOS (top octave synthesizer) or single note mode, loadable generator waveforms for "cheesy" combo organs as well as fully fledged concert organs.

In many respects, HX3.5 is compatible with the older HX3.4 board (most peripherals, header pinout, mechanical dimensions). However, there are additional connectors, also the connector lettering has changed. A new Editor application is providing access to the vastly increased HX3.5 parameter count.

HX3.5 components are meant to be installed by a skilled technician. Basic IT knowledge is mandatory since software has to be installed and configurated in some cases.

Technical Data

Size: 200 x 100 mm

Power Supply: 5V/400mA or 9-12V/300mA (without peripherals)

Sound generation: HX3 RealOrgan Sound Engine, hardware emulation (physical modeling) by 6th generation FPGA. 61 keys on upper/lower manual as well as pedal. 15 harmonics per key, Hammond-type percussion on all harmonics. Keying of each harmonic selectable to "mechanical" (Hammond-type key contacts) or electronic gating (LSI/transistor organs). Electronic gating uses separate ADSR circuit for each harmonic and each key (915 ADSR/VCA circuits per manual).

Quad core DSP with 64 MByte sample memory for reverb/efx and 128 GM2 voices, choice of 24 voices available. 81-note polyphony.

Connections: 1/4" jack footswitch, 1/4" jack Swell pedal (Yamaha FC-7 or similar), DIN-5pin MIDI IN, MIDI IN/OUT, DC jack 5V or 9V wallwart power supply min. 500mA, 1/4" jacks for stereo audio output. USB MIDI jack included (must be soldered in place if needed). Connectors for up to 24 drawbars/pots on board (extendable to 64 drawbars/pots), 16 buttons (extendable to 64 buttons), 6-position Vibrato rotary switch, I2C bus system for MenuPanel and Preset board connection (compatible to our Preset12-2 and Preset16 boards).

Documents & Manuals

HX3.5 Backgrounder In-depth information about HX3 RealOrgan Sound Engine
HX3.5 Installation Manual Mainboard hardware installation
HX3.5 Extension Board Installation
Using HX3 with MIDI controllers - HX3 MIDI implementation charts for all MIDI CC sets

HX3.5 Editor User Manual for altering parameters, update transfers and finalizing
HX3.5 SD Card Usage Updating Controller firmware and FPGA sound engine using SD card adaptor
HX3.5 DSP Updates Updating Sound Banks and DSP firmware

HX3.5 Mainboard User Manual, printable PDF file
HX3.5 MIDI Expander User Manual, printable PDF file
HX3.5 Drawbar Expander User Manual, printable PDF file

Important

First lot of HX3.5 boards have been delivered with two obsolete USB data line damping resistors R11 and R17 in place, value 22 Ohms (22R marking, SMT 0805 size). Please replace both with zero Ohm resistors or bridge each with solder blob. R11 and R17 can be found near SAM5504 DSP. Send us your board for a free repair if you don't want to do this for yourself.

With these resistors in place, you may experience USB communication problems (especially when using USB on HX3.5 Extension Board), and probably HX3.5 will not be recognized when using a USB hub. If the latter is the case, your device definitely belongs to this particular lot.