++Gear Down!++ Repair Thread (Page 3 of 14)

i think the sr88 requires a weird voltage power adapter, like 3.5v or 5.5v or something? i can't remember. i've tried powering it w/ a universal one i have, but it does the same thing. maybe i should just try a regular 9v? i replaced the batteries already of course...i'm not sure how was powering it before it fritzed out...i may have been using a different adapter...

Am fixing up linndrum as there are a few issues, nothing to serious and I did know about them so im enjoying restoring it to 100% glory.

Problem 1: the battery was loose and floating around the compartment. FIXED. Bought a phone battery from cordless phone  and rebuilt circuit track and cabled tied it to board. Works great now I have memory.

Problem 2: Pads double trigger and some don't work all the time- you need to hit them hard like the kick. I pulled off the caps and I can see trigger is a simple metal spring and wire thing. Wire is bent from years of abuse. I straightened wire and resoldered them down. Tried to clean with isolpropal but that didnt work. Tried a small bit of wd40 ( i know) yeh not good idea as it shorted them (i think). Anyway off for some contact cleaner to remove the WD and then hit them with silicon spray. Possible some of the wired are very badly bent and I might replace these are move to a less used switch. Pads are the same as sp1200 emulator etc. Seems winecountry has them but 19$ is no real value, forat has them also. I did look at replacing with modern ones but well its not an easy solution so far to fit the pad on the button, I expected so but still worth a shot. If anyone has info on replacement pads pls let me know. FIXED> I spent many hours removing and resoldering pads. I must say I dont understand how that dumb pads work but it has to be one of the worst designs I have seen of anything. It is a basic wire over a spring, the wire makes contact with another piece of wire on the other side because the cap loosely puts pressure on the spring (not the wire for some dumb reason- it's mad. I have all pads working now except for the one for tape load which i wont use anyway and that would be a simple fix anyway. I used many methods to get pads working and not everyone needed the same fix...crazy and ive taken the machine apart about 20 times. These are methods i used on the inner working of the pads.
1. compressing the spring so the cap touches tighter.
2. Moving the wire on the other side higher.
3. placing the wire inside the spring.
4. scrubbing the contact points clean with a screwdriver.
5. silicon spray in them all.
6. resoldering ( don't think this was an issue at all though).

It could be the springs have increased their size with age I cant really tell the real problem but certainly the design seem kind of random and based on very small tolerances. I have looked around for a low profile momentary switch to replace them all. This is the closest I have found but would involve surgery on the caps to remove the pins: mouser 633-JB15KP. Also these have more pins so not an easy fit.

Problem 3: Incorrect sounds on chips. Ordered eprom programmer and am still waiting for this. EDIT: I have the eprom programmer and it can read my chips perfectly. They cant be programmed yet as i need to UV them. I have purchased a toothbrush sterilizer unit for $8 that should do the trick, seems it emits low UV or UVC which is what I need. Added bonus is my toothbrush will be germ free!
http://www.gwarehouse.com.au/index.php? … ilizer-50. I found some guy mentioned it works for a similar unit here:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10131
Toothbrush cleaner works for clearing eproms. Programming them with my top2007 has so far been unsuccessful. I can sometimes get most of the code on the chip but not all for some reason. Problem is everytime i fail its another24 mins in the toothbrush cleaner. Could be some simple setting or just it doesnt like this chip. AM2732DC.

The non AMD chips can be read with AMD chip setting, i might risk using that setting to try and program those ones also. Someone from vicmod is also giving me a stack or eproms which is cool in exchange for me making a few chips for him.

EDIT: got my clap back and my first chip burnt! this is not for the impatient or fainthearted. 2 days later and 1 eprom result. I will have 2 shortly but it's been a tricky process. Tony email me for details if and when you want to do this. 

Problem 4: the machine makes a rather loud transformer (I guess) humm. Not sure if this is normal. Seems not a problem I guess that is what you get for old machinery.

I'll update this doco for anyone who might find it useful.

EDIT: Holy Cr@! I have got the stock sounds back in and this thing is now kicking it's like the former owner removed the testicles from this machine and I've just reversed the sex change on it.  Sound really kicks now the sounds are so much punchier I don't know what that is but assume its the levels on the stock sounds all recorded at 11 . The old owner had replaced: Snare, Kick, clap, sidestick and congas probably many are linn factory type option but they suck totally, some kind of soft rock kit eww. He couldn't have fucked it up harder if he tried. An epic task as some chips where really hard to burn i had to keep burning about 100 times for 1 chip to get it to stick. My 808 kick experiment well it didn't really sound that good and was strangely pitched down i dont know why i followed wav2dmx functions but who knows, i tried many diff combos even converting to 22k first. Well for the moment im really happy to have all stock sounds and fully working linndrum ( i love it!), i have dug out the MAM ADX1 for analog kit sounds which is actually sweet  combo I think. Linn is inspirational I'm not sure really why sounds quite different at lower level and up loud it really punches, also kind of sits back on a groove quite nicely i guess that is the snare. Yeh syncing it up to a wave sounds in ableton (see linn sync post) and it locks quite nicely probably better then using midi->sync48 as there would be more lag.

I am not sure if its AC or DC and what Amps a power adapter it needs..

Pah both of mine are in bad shape.. Need  to get em working.... I will get my multimeter out and get checking this week.

batteries don't do anything for mine..

Hmnmm...how long did you have it going properly?

I read somewhere just after I bought mine to not bother with an adaptor and just use batteries.

I heard when it starts to sound weird you just change the batteries.

But who knows? I have a ST-305 not an SR-88.

Perhaps running it with a wrong adaptor killed it? Also I'm in North America. I don't know how that whole adaptor thing works over in UK and Europe.

I would start with looking for burnt out diodes, and then check the Caps. I do think the power adapters may fry them.

Could be worth checking your power supply on a volt meter and make sure it is putting out correct voltage. Thats what id do first.

there should be some kind of reset procedure.. have you tried to look for this? in the manual or service manual?

I found the trick for restoring the factory settings in the manual, but unfortunally it didn't work.
Damn! i just thought for a second you found the medicin

i've opened it and looked closely at the cirquitboard. Couldn't find anything suspecius. no loose connections. but thanks for suggestions

christ, that is one shitty tiny fuse. soulds exactly like what you have though.. just bypass it with a wire quickly and see if it starts up.. if you, you found the culprit..

yes it does require soldering.  It's actually a very easy soldering job though.. would recommend doing it yourself if you want to start getting into diy type stuff.   

It is a very small fuse though.