Discussion about the Korg PolySix synthesizer

had my polysix sitting idle for about 5 years now, had given up on it 
because of the keyboard problems but got it out for my kids to play 
with recently.  then I found out about the battery problem when I  
went looking for instructions on how to use it.

well, the battery is out now, no real damage visible, but a bit of 
green around the leads on the IC.  

Question, if I dont clean it will it continue to corrode and get 
worse?  or is it mostly ok to just leave it now that the battery is 
out.

Got all the keys working perfectly thanks to the keyboard cleaning 
links.  well, all except for 2.   then suddenly one of them just came 
back on its own.  then the other started ( except it only plays when 
the key is on its way back up ! ! )

also, anyone have any suggestions on cheap midi upgrades? 
mosly I want to be able to send and receive keyboard info, not really 
concerned about patch info.

thanks

bill

Well, it serves me right. Only last week, I say it takes about four to
six hours to do a battery cleanup job. Then Scott tells me he has the
board from hell which has taken him 20 hours so far.

So what do I get this week? A board from hell. No, thats not right. I
have two boards from hell. The corrosion moved up the earthing wire and
had attacked the right hand pot board as well. 12 tracks on that boards
were wiped out. The corrosion on the assigner board, although thinly
spread, has affected and wiped out the 74LS08s, the 4011s, the RAM chip,
all the 4042s, the uproc socket and four of the main LFO resistors. This
is the worst I have yet seen. I guess as time goes by they will get
worse and worse.

Sad thing is that this was serviced in 1990 and the battery wasn't
replaced. If they only knew...

Regards,

Tony Allgood                       Penrith, Cumbria, England

Oakley Sound Systems                     www.oakleysound.com
Modular projects            www.oakleysound.com/projects.htm

> So what do I get this week? A board from hell. No, thats not right. I
> have two boards from hell. The corrosion moved up the earthing wire and
> had attacked the right hand pot board as well. 12 tracks on that boards
> were wiped out. The corrosion on the assigner board, although thinly
> spread, has affected and wiped out the 74LS08s, the 4011s, the RAM chip,
> all the 4042s, the uproc socket and four of the main LFO resistors. This
> is the worst I have yet seen. I guess as time goes by they will get
> worse and worse.
> 
> Sad thing is that this was serviced in 1990 and the battery wasn't
> replaced. If they only knew...

I just reflected on an ad for a P6 that had been modified into a mono-synth 
with MIDI. I suspected battery damage, and I was right! A battery leakage 
had killed three of the six filter chips, a large number of tracks, oscillator
chips, envelopes. The guy who owned it was only able to restore ONE voice 
back to normal function. Then he had added a homebrew monophonic MIDI and 
portamento. He was asking around \ufffd180 for the thing. No way! \ufffd50 for the
spare parts maybe. I think we are in the the 11th hour with respect to saving 
the last P6s missing the battery replacement. Let's buy and repair now!

Frank