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Vintage Synth Repair

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Re: [vintagesynthrepair] Korg X5 keys not working

2012-05-12 by jammie

optrex stop doing those displays becuase they were not rhos compliant
they have equivelents same spec but use led back lights meaning they are about 7mm thicker some synths its not a problem but others it is
but becuase yours is ccfl the led backlight versions are about the same size
where are you based as optrex factory is in the usa
just do the back light foils on most of those
safeglow in uk £7 for the back light cheap as chips and they work great they come with long wires so it does not mater if the terminal are in a different place and as seeing the glue terminals are done at factor and you are soldering just the wires it does not distroy the backlight with soldering
i have fitted them to my sy99 sy85 kurzweil k2000 kawai k5 and k5000
01w t1 and t3ex korg wavestation ex akai s3200 x6
im in talks with the manufacturer at the moment for getting them to make a vfd exact same size as the 240x64 and pcb fixing holes as its the most used display and they dont do an equivelent yet
i have the schems for the tx16w ill see if i can find them for you and send you a pdf
i would say the invertor is gone an easy fix is by a 5v to ac voltage invertor for back lights use the come in a small black plastic case with wire for efoil and wires to connect to a 5v supply just just fit a molex hard drive fitting and get a floppy drive extender cable
that gives you another floppy drive power conector and a male power
connector for hard drives this is what i used with the fz1 as the invertor on those is dc to dc and they burn out the efoil quicker
becuase its an insulated product you can just leave it inside the case i taped mine to the side of the case
they work well and are made for the newer efoils so they connect straight in
you can fit a 40x2 vfd in s900 /s950/roland d50/d550/jd800
yamaha tx16w
you can fit a 16x2 in emax 1/2 sp12/sp1200
prophet vs
casio cz range
and lots of yam synth especially ones with out efoil circuits as the vfd uses neon lettering and does not require a backlight power conection
;
also they dont require a angle voltage because they are good fromn any angle unlike the lcd modules
you can fit oled displays aswell as these are similar to vfd but they only have a garanteed brightness of 5 years which is less than what an backlight has but they are also good for synths with out back lights
vfd displays are nown to work for many years my esq1 synth 1984 still has its vfd working and when they fail its usually the vfd display cpu controller that goes
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: [vintagesynthrepair] Korg X5 keys not working

OK, with older gear everything is possible :-)

You do good job with our beloved old machines! Right now I'm thinking about changing displays in my Yamaha SY99, DX7, TG77, Korg Wavestation EX, Wavestation AD, PPG Wave 2.2., Akai S3000XL, Casio CZ3000, maybe Kawai K5000W... Or at least backlight foil. And I would be glad to have reserve VFD or other display for my Roland MKS70 and Oberheim Matrix 6r.

Then I have problem with one of my Yamaha TX16W - backlight doesn't work. I did cross checking with the other machine I have, and backlight itself works, so problem must be somewhere in power supply. Unfortunately I haven't Service manual and schematics for this machine so it's difficult to analyze and trace where the problem is. AFAIK there's no inverter, they used some other way... Don't you know by chance what it can be? Or do you have Service manual?

Another problem is with display on one of my Yamaha VL1m - there are some dead lines. I tried to repair by mechanical disassembling the display but it didn't helped. As I did cross checking with the other machine, problem must be in display, not on motherboard or display controller. Yamaha hasn't this part any more for such old machine. It was Optrex CCFL b/w display 240x64 pixels, model DMF50316NF-FW-1 (with chip set T6963C). This is out of production, they have some other models but I'm not sure what will work as substitution. I don't need inverting the display, and also color can be different... Do you have some advice?

Thanks in advance.

Daniel Forro

On May 12, 2012, at 8:44 PM, jammie wrote:



hi daniel i have repaired many yams and korgs and have had to do this on queit a few keybeds
as knowing from experience and seen first hand that it can happen
not saying this is his problem but that it can happen
im a repair tech and repair all makes and models of synths from new to old
was an ensoniq repair tech for 15 years in uk
;
and i do up grades to the older synths and samplers bringing them up to later using tech
i have a massive cleint bass and my biggest jobs are doing vfd replacements for synth with back lights and synths with out back lights but who want a bright display as in most older yam synths and casio
lots of emu synths and the sp12 and 1200 drum machines
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [vintagesynthrepair] Korg X5 keys not working


Again - in the case of metal contacts there's no reason why some keys would be bent and some not. Much probably it's dirty contact under rubber contact stripe, or dust there, or brokem rubber contact (the last case is rare but can happen with old rubber, or extensive key hit).

Daniel Forro


On May 12, 2012, at 5:49 PM, jammie wrote:



its easy to see and you dont have to remove any keys to do it
remove the keybed and turn it upside down you can see all the contact springs just check for dirt and fluff you can clean the contacts with iso alcohol and a contont wool bud
just check every spring contact to make sure none are bent if they are gently bend them back to there correct position
----- Original Message -----
From: jammie
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: [vintagesynthrepair] Korg X5 keys not working


they are yamaha keybeds
theres a metal contact sping that when you press moves down onto a contact
some times they get a little bent and when pressed they dont make contact
theres also a big return spring that returns the key to its upright position
these metal contact strips can also snap off
if this is the case then you have to replace the contact board
this means desoldering an octave of the contact boad unscrewing
and removing then you have to solder in the new contact board
all parts are available from yamaha
as korg will not support you device any longer and dont stock parts for keyboards after 6 years
hopefully its just the bent contact spring which needs adjusting back to it original position
you can see this by looking at the other contact springs
----- Original Message -----
From: paxety
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 1:33 AM
Subject: [vintagesynthrepair] Korg X5 keys not working

I have a Korg X5 bought new in 1995 or 6 - after sitting in a closet for a few years, a few of the keys no longer play. I connected it to a computer, and all of the notes trigger through midi, so the problem is probably in the key contacts.

Does anyone know anything about what kind of contacts are in there? Know who made the keyboards? Are they maybe Fatar units with the common double bubble key contacts, or something else?

I can't seem to find a service manual and the owner's manual is no help.

Thanks,
John









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