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K1 II keyboard keys

K1 II keyboard keys

2015-05-18 by ohmanletmein@...

Hello,


Recently I pulled out my old trusty kawai keyboard (S/N 267481) out of the storage and started playing it again.
I noticed that some non-adjacent keys have kinda lost sensitivity.
To be more precise, keys 5, 47 and 60 are not sensitive enough really - You need to push them pretty hard to get them to trigger.
Key 47 is in especially bad shape as it wont trigger 80% of the time - it seems to have a real narrow band of velocities where it will work.
What can I do to fix this issue? Can I clean the contacts or solder something?

I noticed that the aftertouch also wildly varies between keys - some keys pick up the whole range quite easily, while some keys can't transmit more than 20% of aftertouch no matter how hard I press.
Is that issue related to the one I stated before?

And I need one more piece of info - my software version is still 1.00, I obtained a v1.3 but I don't know what I will gain with it, nor do I know HOW to update the software.
Help me please.




Marijan.


Re: K1 II keyboard keys

2015-05-20 by ohmanletmein@...

Ok, so I've dissasembled the synth and the key bed, cleaned ALL of the contacts and rubbers with alcohol, and reassembled it.
I tried looking at the aftertouch strip and cleaning it too, but I realised that if I tore it apart, I'd never be able to reassemble it and that it's not worth the hassle.
Anyway, after cleaning and reassembling it all of the keys I had trouble with ar working great!

Now I have an issue with some keys not willing to turn of after triggering them, but this is a far lesser problem.
There may have been some alcohol, and/or water left in the rubber contacts after cleaning them, because I was in a rush and didn't give them time to dry propery. I hope that it will evaporate or something in time.

Here are some pics from the "disembowelment":
- Album on Imgur
- Album on Imgur
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I'm still clueless as to how to get the 1.3 ROM chip and what I would gain from it.
Have there ever been initiatives to create the chips like there have been for K4? I've seen that you can still purchase the updated K4 chips on ebay.




Re: K1 II keyboard keys

2015-05-20 by sghookings@...

Neil Johnson and others may be able to cut you an Eprom at a reasonable price - I still keep meaning to forward details for my K4. NOTE: IIRC 1.4 is the current max for this. And the K4r is different ROM to the K4. Clearly you have a K4 -- the keyboard being the dead giveaway.


On that note, I had problems with my keyboard. I took it apart, cleaned it, works nicely. However, what stops the keys from rattling around laterally? I see you have taken your keyboard apart - do you have any pictures on the mechanism that you can share before you put it back together?


I was expecting some form of Teflon bushes or something - as it stands my keys are more crooked than Cletus Del Roy Spuckler's teeth!!


I quite like how the channel aftertouch responds - but since I trigger most stuff of my GEM s2 it doesn't really bother me about my crazy K4 keybed - but would be nice to fix it


Regards

Steve Hookings


PS the volume control seems to have little or no effect. I read somewhere that a cap may have blown?

Re: [kawaisynths] Re: K1 II keyboard keys

2015-05-20 by Eldred Pickett

Out of curiosity, how long did the take-apart/reassembly take?

Eldred
Show quoted textHide quoted text
On Wed, May 20, 2015 at 3:48 AM, ohmanletmein@... [kawaisynths] <kawaisynths@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


Ok, so I've dissasembled the synth and the key bed, cleaned ALL of the contacts and rubbers with alcohol, and reassembled it.
I tried looking at the aftertouch strip and cleaning it too, but I realised that if I tore it apart, I'd never be able to reassemble it and that it's not worth the hassle.
Anyway, after cleaning and reassembling it all of the keys I had trouble with ar working great!

Now I have an issue with some keys not willing to turn of after triggering them, but this is a far lesser problem.
There may have been some alcohol, and/or water left in the rubber contacts after cleaning them, because I was in a rush and didn't give them time to dry propery. I hope that it will evaporate or something in time.

Here are some pics from the "disembowelment":
- Album on Imgur
- Album on Imgur
0 Points 0 ups 0 downs
Preview by Yahoo


I'm still clueless as to how to get the 1.3 ROM chip and what I would gain from it.
Have there ever been initiatives to create the chips like there have been for K4? I've seen that you can still purchase the updated K4 chips on ebay.









--
"Cool Prius!"
-nobody

Re: K1 II keyboard keys

2015-05-20 by ohmanletmein@...

This is a K1 II, not K4.

As far as I've seen the keys are anchored with a kind of a hook from one side (the one you don't play on), and also with a piece of metal wrapped with teflon that goes into the key near the playing end.
Sorry, I don't have pictures of that.

So if the keyboard is the same, the only way it could rattle would be if someone removed the teflon that was wrapped off of the metal piece that goes into the key.

Re: K1 II keyboard keys

2015-05-20 by ohmanletmein@...

It took me around 4 hours for the dissasembly, removing all keys and rubber contacts, cleaning everything with alcohol and Qtips, and then reassembly.

Re: [kawaisynths] Re: K1 II keyboard keys

2015-05-20 by Neil Johnson

> Neil Johnson and others may be able to cut you an Eprom at a reasonable price - I still keep meaning to forward details for my K4. NOTE: IIRC 1.4 is the current max for this. And the K4r is different ROM to the K4. Clearly you have a K4 -- the keyboard being the dead giveaway.


Yeah, sorry for the tardy response, V.busy at work at the mo and it
being holiday season as well.
Give me a shout in a couple of weeks and I'll dig out my EPROM
programmer and sort out some chips for K4 ROMs.
I'm in the UK so your postage may vary.


Cheers,
Neil

Re: [kawaisynths] Re: K1 II keyboard keys

2015-05-20 by Javier Sanchez

Thank You Neil, if the K4 does not have portsmento, maybe there is a similar function that does the trick


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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At May 20, 2015, 6:11:41 AM, Neil Johnson neil.johnson71@... [kawaisynths]<'kawaisynths@yahoogroups.com'> wrote:

> Neil Johnson and others may be able to cut you an Eprom at a reasonable price - I still keep meaning to forward details for my K4. NOTE: IIRC 1.4 is the current max for this. And the K4r is different ROM to the K4. Clearly you have a K4 -- the keyboard being the dead giveaway.

Yeah, sorry for the tardy response, V.busy at work at the mo and it
being holiday season as well.
Give me a shout in a couple of weeks and I'll dig out my EPROM
programmer and sort out some chips for K4 ROMs.
I'm in the UK so your postage may vary.

Cheers,
Neil

Re: K1 II keyboard keys

2015-05-22 by sghookings@...

I see :-) I made the mistake of thinking it was a K4 because I always associate this site with K4/K4r ... my bad. I also notice on another kawai site someone was asking about keyboards -- when I didn't see my reply I thought "oops, I am having a senior moment" ... phew .. different forum, similar topic.


OK I will look for these Teflon parts -- this must be what I am missing on mine. I can check if some of the more anchored keys have this. Would be great to know if there was a part number/replacement to get it fixed.


Regards

Steve H

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