Rhodes Chroma Polaris

--- On Wed, 5/25/11, skyrunr <c1sco@...> wrote:

From: skyrunr <c1sco@...>
Subject: [chromapolaris] my polaris just came out of storage, looking for options
To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 10:20 AM

 

Hello,

I have a Chroma Polaris that I purchased from a musician (My high school band director) in 1988. It worked fine but was getting too heavy for him to transport to his wedding gigs. It stopped turning on about 10 years ago and I was not playing at the time. I ended up purchasing a Alesis QS-7 in 2000.

My mother came across my Polaris in the attic and I thought I'd see if I could get it going again. I took the cover off and everything looks to be in good shape. No blown fuses, batteries didn't explode (THANKFULLY!), etc. I suspect the power supply is bad, I am very good at fixing computers, but this circuitry is beyond my skills. I was hoping to simply swap in a newer style power supply.

I've read through some posts and like others here I don't want to go crazy putting more than $2-300 to get it going. Otherwise the parts seem pretty valuable. I have two EPROM cassettes that may or may not work, a couple trigger pedals, and I may have the manuals somewhere. I recall not having much luck flashing the ROM through a boombox back in the days, it worked 1/10 times. I have midi to serial adapters and had it hooked up to a computer successfully at one point.

My gut says get it to turn on and it will work. ;)

ANY advice or guidance would be appreciated!

Cheers,

Cisco

 

How good are you with a soldering iron and a multimeter? ;)

 

I'd start by replacing the caps on the PS and taking some measurements with the meter. Just do a one for one swap with the equivalent value caps as is being replaced. Hopefully, the powersupply caps just dried out in the attic. No need to swap in anything, just replace the caps!

 

Pay special attention to the membrane panel tails (especially the left side). They are prone to crack and might need an additional (easy) repair to get them working again.

 

Having the Polaris service manual probably 'ain't a bad idea!

 

http://www.rhodeschroma.com/content/polaris/servicemanual.pdf

 

 

James

 

--- On Wed, 5/25/11, skyrunr <c1sco@...> wrote:

From: skyrunr <c1sco@...>
Subject: [chromapolaris] my polaris just came out of storage, looking for options
To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 10:20 AM

 

Hello,

I have a Chroma Polaris that I purchased from a musician (My high school band director) in 1988. It worked fine but was getting too heavy for him to transport to his wedding gigs. It stopped turning on about 10 years ago and I was not playing at the time. I ended up purchasing a Alesis QS-7 in 2000.

My mother came across my Polaris in the attic and I thought I'd see if I could get it going again. I took the cover off and everything looks to be in good shape. No blown fuses, batteries didn't explode (THANKFULLY!), etc. I suspect the power supply is bad, I am very good at fixing computers, but this circuitry is beyond my skills. I was hoping to simply swap in a newer style power supply.

I've read through some posts and like others here I don't want to go crazy putting more than $2-300 to get it going. Otherwise the parts seem pretty valuable. I have two EPROM cassettes that may or may not work, a couple trigger pedals, and I may have the manuals somewhere. I recall not having much luck flashing the ROM through a boombox back in the days, it worked 1/10 times. I have midi to serial adapters and had it hooked up to a computer successfully at one point.

My gut says get it to turn on and it will work. ;)

ANY advice or guidance would be appreciated!

Cheers,

Cisco

On 5/25/11, Chris Ryan <chris@...> wrote:
> It's also available in hypertext, probably easier:
>
> http://www.rhodeschroma.com/?id=polarisservicemanual
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 2011-05-25, at 10:15 AM, James <fl_799@...> wrote:
>
>> How good are you with a soldering iron and a multimeter? ;)
>>
>> I'd start by replacing the caps on the PS and taking some measurements
>> with the meter. Just do a one for one swap with the equivalent value caps
>> as is being replaced. Hopefully, the powersupply caps just dried out in
>> the attic. No need to swap in anything, just replace the caps!
>>
>> Pay special attention to the membrane panel tails (especially the left
>> side). They are prone to crack and might need an additional (easy) repair
>> to get them working again.
>>
>> Having the Polaris service manual probably 'ain't a bad idea!
>>
>> http://www.rhodeschroma.com/content/polaris/servicemanual.pdf
>>
>>
>> James
>>
>> --- On Wed, 5/25/11, skyrunr <c1sco@...> wrote:
>>
>> From: skyrunr <c1sco@...>
>> Subject: [chromapolaris] my polaris just came out of storage, looking for
>> options
>> To: chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com
>> Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 10:20 AM
>>
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I have a Chroma Polaris that I purchased from a musician (My high school
>> band director) in 1988. It worked fine but was getting too heavy for him
>> to transport to his wedding gigs. It stopped turning on about 10 years ago
>> and I was not playing at the time. I ended up purchasing a Alesis QS-7 in
>> 2000.
>>
>> My mother came across my Polaris in the attic and I thought I'd see if I
>> could get it going again. I took the cover off and everything looks to be
>> in good shape. No blown fuses, batteries didn't explode (THANKFULLY!),
>> etc. I suspect the power supply is bad, I am very good at fixing
>> computers, but this circuitry is beyond my skills. I was hoping to simply
>> swap in a newer style power supply.
>>
>> I've read through some posts and like others here I don't want to go crazy
>> putting more than $2-300 to get it going. Otherwise the parts seem pretty
>> valuable. I have two EPROM cassettes that may or may not work, a couple
>> trigger pedals, and I may have the manuals somewhere. I recall not having
>> much luck flashing the ROM through a boombox back in the days, it worked
>> 1/10 times. I have midi to serial adapters and had it hooked up to a
>> computer successfully at one point.
>>
>> My gut says get it to turn on and it will work. ;)
>>
>> ANY advice or guidance would be appreciated!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Cisco
>>
>>
>

> From: skyrunr
>
> Thank you. I've soldered chips into memory boards to upgrade
> RAM, but that was twenty years ago, and it took three
> attempts because I put the iron through the board near the
> end of the batch. I would have to get a better soldering
> iron for sure.
>
> My membranes are in great shape as is the board. I was
> really frustrated with the grounding cords being so short and
> even inadvertently pulled on them a few times. (another WHEW!)
>
> I've been looking but I can't find much info on how and which
> caps to replace. Are they basically all the orange ones
> mentioned in this photo? Is it as simple as heating them up,
> carefully removing them, and replacing them?
>
> http://www.polkadotdictator.net/kss/polaris_4.jpg