Roland D-50 D50 keyboard repair forum..

[bkahuna]

That 'rubber contact' can be a real PITA.
The 'carbon dot' is very finicky.
I have seen references to 'do not touch the carbon'.
My digital scope uses such a contact as an on/off switch.
Intermittant as all get out.
I ended up scarfing a 'carbon dot' from one of my son's broken toys & glued it on top of the other one.
It now works perfect.
Not saying this can be applied to the Roland.
Just thought I would throw it in the mix.

There's a guy on the net selling little "carbon dots" to replace defective contacts.
http://www.sounddoctorin.com/
They are adhesive backed and work really well, though are a bit tedious to install. I recently repaired a Polysix this way that I had just cleaned the contacts on a few weeks before. They worked here in the shop but soon stopped after the customer picked it up. Contacts for that unit are no longer available, so it was really the only choice in this instance.

As for relevancy to this thread, I wonder if ALL the contacts are on the verge of failing, and this one input has a slightly lower tolerance in tracking the switch closures. If you're talking 850-950 ohms, that seems like a lot of resistance for these contacts. I just checked some random contacts here and got readings of 50! to 500 ohms.

[bkahuna]

sorry, double post.

[52 Bill]

Caig of DeOxit fame makes a product for repairing carbon contacts called CaiKote 44. I haven't tried it yet, but it could work for this purpose.

[Enzo]

Yes, and there are other brands of rubber contact repair goo, usually sold as TV remote repair kit.

[loachparty]

Success! Enzo was right. In my delirium I must have mis-metered something, did a re-metering today and found it. The solder point opposite one diode wasn't connecting to the trace, even though visually there was nothing out of place. Maybe it was just weak or slightly separated since I did hear the note by connecting the contacts via wire, but anyway: soldered a jumper between that point and another solder point in the same path and now everything's a-ok.

Weird but relieved.

[edtmusic]

Hello to all

I have a strange problem with my D-50. I have replaced the battery, but this time there is no screen messages after switching on. It seems like the keyboard "does not boot". Reinitialization and power on with sound card procedures don't work.
Could anyone help me please ?

[doctor]

Hello to all

I have a strange problem with my D-50. I have replaced the battery, but this time there is no screen messages after switching on. It seems like the keyboard "does not boot". Reinitialization and power on with sound card procedures don't work.
Could anyone help me please ?

The D-50 keeps all sounds in the non-volatile RAM, which is powered by the battery.
For this reason when you replaced the battery (you disconnected the old battery and after that connected the new one), you lost all the information. You need to reinstall all sounds by means of the special memory card (see attached document).

[Jazz P Bass]

For this very reason I always hook up a parallel battery when changing out the onboard battery.

That has served me well.

[DWM_JazzBass]

Good Afternoon -

I have 2 possibly-related questions. First, my D50 is generally out of tune (by about 1.5 steps). It's not controlled by anything or controlling anything. It's just a direct line from the keyboard out to the amp in. I have not done anything to transpose the keys manually.

I was wondering if this is a sign that the internal battery is dying. If so, is it true that removing the old battery and installing a new one will wipe all the current patch information (the board is chock full of custom patches I don't want to lose)?

A zillion years ago I had an app called Sysex.D50 that people were using to back up these boards. Is there a better/different way these days?

Well, I guess that is three questions. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give.

Best!

DWM

[The Dude]

Have you checked the master tune in the main menu to see that it's set correctly? A battery problem wouldn't likely cause this.

[Enzo]

You should start a new thread for your instrument.

What that sounds like to me is the keyboard is not properly connected. A ribbon connector might be off one pin or off one ro. OR two cables might be swapped, that sort of thing.