Vintage Synth Repair

Greetings,

When I power up my SQ-80, I get a low battery warning.  Before I take 
care of that, I want to save what's in memory to floppy.  Not having any 
manual (the SQ-80 was a gift with no docs), it was still easy to access 
the floppy drive.  But I get an error message no matter what function I 
select:
No disk in drive
press any button to continue
The light on the drive lights up but no whirring sound of a spinning 
disk is heard.

So I went on-line and found user and service manuals.  I learned that 
although the disk is supposed to be DSDD, HD will work, too.  There was 
nothing about how to diagnose the disk drive.  I see nothing regarding 
replacing the battery, either.  If someone can point me to a resource 
that has the info I need, I'd appreciate it.

In terms of playing and programming sounds, the keyboard is working fine.

Cheers,

Bill

> Greetings,
>
> When I power up my SQ-80, I get a low battery warning. Before I take
> care of that, I want to save what's in memory to floppy. Not having any
> manual (the SQ-80 was a gift with no docs), it was still easy to access
> the floppy drive. But I get an error message no matter what function I
> select:
> No disk in drive
> press any button to continue
> The light on the drive lights up but no whirring sound of a spinning
> disk is heard.
>
> So I went on-line and found user and service manuals. I learned that
> although the disk is supposed to be DSDD, HD will work, too. There was
> nothing about how to diagnose the disk drive. I see nothing regarding
> replacing the battery, either. If someone can point me to a resource
> that has the info I need, I'd appreciate it.
>
> In terms of playing and programming sounds, the keyboard is working fine.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bill

You should do a SysEx dump to save the sounds.  Replacing the battery 
should be fairly straightforward.  You can apparently use a normal PC
drive with a bit of modification, assuming the drive controller chip
isn't bad.  Consider whether you really want to be messing with DSDD
floppies in 2010.  It would be convenient if you want to use the 
sequencer (how atavistic!), but otherwise MIDI dumps and maybe an 
E2PROM cartridge should be plenty sufficient.

On 11/8/10 9:02 AM, Scott Nordlund wrote:
> You should do a SysEx dump to save the sounds.
Already done but I'd like a 100% functional SQ-80.  So far, I cannot 
find anything to help me figure out where the failure is located.  I 
don't have the funds to just shotgun parts like a floppy drive only to 
find out that the flaw is elsewhere like the controller chip.
> Replacing the battery should be fairly straightforward.
Yes... *IF* I knew what kind of battery it is.  The user and service 
manuals that I found on-line to not specify the battery part number.  
I'm not one to open a keyboard blindly without a proper service manual 
to give me warnings that only the manufacturer can tell me.  Yes, I know 
about proper grounding technique and how to solder but I'm too queasy to 
pop the hood without the proper manuals in front of me.

Cheers,

Bill

Hi Bill,
Go here for all things SQ-80: http://www.buchty.net/ensoniq/ 
There's even some tips about the floppy drive. www.athana.com still makes new 2dd 3.5" floppies too....
Fran
--- In vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com, Bill Fox <billyfox@...> wrote:

>
> On 11/8/10 9:02 AM, Scott Nordlund wrote:
> > You should do a SysEx dump to save the sounds.
> Already done but I'd like a 100% functional SQ-80.  So far, I cannot 
> find anything to help me figure out where the failure is located.  I 
> don't have the funds to just shotgun parts like a floppy drive only to 
> find out that the flaw is elsewhere like the controller chip.
> > Replacing the battery should be fairly straightforward.
> Yes... *IF* I knew what kind of battery it is.  The user and service 
> manuals that I found on-line to not specify the battery part number.  
> I'm not one to open a keyboard blindly without a proper service manual 
> to give me warnings that only the manufacturer can tell me.  Yes, I know 
> about proper grounding technique and how to solder but I'm too queasy to 
> pop the hood without the proper manuals in front of me.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Bill
>

On 11/8/10 5:40 PM, narfman96 wrote:
> Hi Bill,
> Go here for all things SQ-80: http://www.buchty.net/ensoniq/
> There's even some tips about the floppy drive. www.athana.com still makes new 2dd 3.5" floppies too....
> Fran
Thank you, Fran.  I'll check out those links.

Cheers,

Bill