Rhodes Chroma Polaris

I should have a few spare board connectors for the ribbon cables in my stash if anybody is in need, give me a shout.  Both sizes.....exact replacements for the originals. Always free to fellow Polaris owners.

James

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 15, 2013, at 3:54 PM, "Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@...om.com> wrote:

> > From: minimelisma
> > 
> > Thanks, Paul. I finally found some free time and was able to 
> > resolve the panel issue. I'm happy to report that the problem 
> > was just a remnant of the old tail clogging the connector, as 
> > you said. Didn't need to break out the multimeter for that! I 
> > knew it wasn't your panels, but some stupid mistake on my 
> > part that was to blame.
> 
> In one way I'm glad I was right about there being some junk in the
> connector, but in another way I'm not, because it means I've got to
> explain to future customers that the job of replacing the panels might be
> a little more difficult in some cases. In the spare Polaris that I just
> set up for testing membrane panels, I had one connector that had a
> fragment of the old tail in it that I simply couldn't get out, and I had
> to replace the connector, which is an easy soldering job for me, but not
> for everyone.
> 
> > On the other hand, I'm still having trouble resolving two 
> > other unrelated issues: The mod/pitch levers still aren't 
> > responding and the linear potentiometer Syntaur.com sent me 
> > (the same as pictured on their site) to replace the 
> > "assignable control" slider doesn't seem to match the old 
> > component. It's not as wide, and the pinout doesn't match up. 
> > Strange. The only thing I can think to do is rebuild the old 
> > one using the internals from the new one. I'll let you guys 
> > know if that works out, but I'm still clueless about the 
> > mod/pitch issue. Seems like they should be functioning, as 
> > they even still have their... springiness about them.
> 
> I seem to recall that originally we used some larger sliders, more like
> the Chroma's, which had brass-colored metal casings and shafts. If you
> could measure the spacing of the mounting holes on the PC board, I could
> look through my old junk and see if I have anything that would line up
> with those holes.
> 
> As to the levers not responding, the first thing to do, if you haven't
> already done it, is to do the lever cal, as shown on page 6-2 of the
> service manual. If that doesn't fix it, then measure the voltage on the
> wiper of each pot, and make sure that it is in the neighborhood of 2.5V at
> rest. If everything's at zero volts, then you've got a connector problem
> somewhere. If it's nonzero, but nowhere near 2.5V, then you may have a
> mechanical misadjustment, which you fix by loosening the nut and turning
> the body of the pot until you get around 2.5V in the center position.
> You'll have to pop out the springs to do this.
> 
> > Also, my unit still has what I believe are the original 
> > D-cell batteries? Matsushita brand? Remarkably, they're still 
> > working, and show no signs of corrosion, but I just know that 
> > they should be replaced at this point.
> 
> Might as well put in new ones. The old ones may be approaching the point
> where the RAM might start dropping bits, even if it's not showing any
> corrosion.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
> Paul mailto:pderocco@... 
> 
>