Yahoo Groups archive

Vintage Synth Repair

Index last updated: 2026-04-28 23:41 UTC

Message

Re: [vintagesynthrepair] ROLAND G-800

2009-05-20 by Alan Probandt

If I'm not mistaken, most if not all floppy disk drives are identical.  Where they differ is in the interface between the host computer system and the 3.5inch drive itself.  There is a floppy controller chip somewhere between the synth's CPU system and the drive mechanism.  It may be on the Synth circuit board or may be on the drive's circuit board.  
  If it is a lucky day, then it will be possible to use a standard PC 3.5inch drive as a replacement.  With Yamaha synths of the 1990s, only the cable connections were different between a $15 ordinary off-the-shelf 3.5 drive and the custom-special $99 Yamaha drive.  It may be possible that this is true with Roland also.
  Contact Roland and ask if there is a schematic available for synth.  Hopefully in PDF format.  If so and they let you download it, please up load it here.  Maybe someone with PC experience can tell if or how to connect a standard 3.5 drive.
  I know that this reply isn't very helpful, but it's still nice to get any answer to a 'cry into the wilderness'

Attachments

Move to quarantaine

This moves the raw source file on disk only. The archive index is not changed automatically, so you still need to run a manual refresh afterward.