Casio CZ/ VZ/ FZ - Pro Series

I forgot to mention external power supplies - that was easy: partly I  
use original ones connected to the step-up transformer, partly I could  
find their 100 Volt versions.

You are right that modern external power supplies accept wide range of  
input voltages... But using them with musical instruments can cause  
problem with hum or so - digital camera, battery charger, lap-top  
computer or similar gear can use more simple adapters with not so good  
filtering...

For making that huge and heavy transformer I have found a small  
private firm in my old country. They did it pretty well, absolutely  
professionally, and for good price. The only problem was to get this  
almost 20 kg huge thing from Europe to Japan. Situation was  
complicated by the fact I travelled to France for three day trip, and  
then continue to Japan- that means checking-in at two airports.  
Somehow I had good luck and could bring two big suitcases without  
paying for overweight. But after checking in at the Nice airport I was  
called by name few minutes before departure and security guys escorted  
me to some room, I had to open the luggage, unpack and explain what it  
should be, why I bring it with me and why it is so big :-) It looks  
like it's not quite common souvenir from Europe trip. Fortunately it  
was not confiscated, I was not arrested and could fly home with it.
I had to find a plastic box for it, make ventilation holes, add some  
switch, fuse and connect cables... It serves me without any problems  
about 10 years now.

The only problem in my studio is I have to be very careful when  
disconnecting some instruments' cables - not to confuse them. Some are  
for 100 Volts, some for 220. Of course there are different plugs, but  
on some instruments I use only plug reduction, so I used tape to fix  
it. Problem can start when cable is disconnected at the side of the  
instrument - as these connectors are the same nowadays and can accept  
cables with both Japanese or European plugs on the other end...
Nothing can happen when I do mistake and connect 220 V instrument to  
100 Volts, but opposite way can be fatal case for the instrument. Of  
course few years ago I did such mistake and my Kawai K5000W refused to  
work after very short electroshock curing. Fortunately it is very well  
made instrument, there's a lot of protection (Zener diodes or so) on  
each board, main transformer survived, so I had just to replace most  
of components in PSU - besides fuses voltage regulators, transistors,  
and when doing it also resistors and capacitors and machine is OK.   
Only FDD died, it is connected directly to PSU. It was quite easy to  
find proper FDD as that one has slightly different pin assignment, but  
after some experimenting I managed to find the right assignment.

Daniel Forro


On Aug 31, 2015, at 11:46 PM, '350ypvs@...'  
350ypvs@... [CZsynth] wrote:

>
>
> Daniel, thank you for the detailed and very useful information. It's  
> interesting in that many modern power supplies in the form of "wall  
> warts" - e.g. my mobile/ cell phone transformer, my digital camera  
> transformer and the power supply for my laptop all work happily on  
> 110v as they do on 240v, yet older electronic devices don't.
>
> I was looking at buying a few of these for when I ship over my  
> "circus" (good description - lol!) next year:
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/271916970396?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
>
> Where did you get your custom made transformers made? My other  
> option would be be to get something similar that could the be  
> connected to a gang socket/ multi socket that I could then use to  
> power all my UK instruments from.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Chas