The follow up to Roland’s classic D-50 I had been keen to take a look at exactly what a “Super L.A. Synthesis” Synthesizer can do for some time ….
Symptoms were the classic “No RAM Card” and also loss of internal pre-sets as a result of a dead internal CMOS battery (but little did I know .. read on …)
Having worked on a number of Korg M1 synths with similar issues resulting from a dead CMOS battery I thought I would take a gamble. It came in a rather tatty flight case which would also need some work in the shape of a new handle (I picked up a couple here) but the d-70 was in surprisingly good cosmetic condition as a result of it’s snug home!
I opened up the synth and was confronted immediately by the CMOS battery in the middle of the synth (which happily wasn’t soldered – I am looking at you Mr Korg) and so was a very easy replacement -being a standard CR02)
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I then followed the instructions on http://synthzone.com/ to Reset the synth to factory defaults and the machine sprang in to life:
But ….
That would have been just all too easy and it transpired there were more non-working keys than working ones! And so I took a look on YouTube and found this “tear down” of the D-70. – Now this is a great resource however I can confirm that it isn’t actually necessary to take off any of the circuit boards as the keyboard can be removed with them all still in place:
I then proceeded to clean each key connector using a cotton bud soaked in Isopropyl Alcohol and, with fingers crossed, re-assembled the keyboard housing and put it back in place.
It’s always a great feeling when you switch on after a few hours work and ….
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