Calling all troubleshooting WIZARDS !
2016-11-19 by coolscott_7@...
Hi all. I am new to this group. Im working on all kinds of busted synths and samplers. Im still learning, however. Here is a post I just posted on a different forum, maybe some of you WIZARDS can help? Thanks!
Hello all. Its been a while since I posted here, but Im back at it again. Just got laid off from my job, so I have time to work on my growing collection of screwed up synthesizers. Last I posted here, was working on a power supply of a eps classic. The eps was dead when I got it. I finally did get all of the voltages correct, except one
and that one voltage rail controls the actual sound. So it does boot up now, display works, loads discs, everything works, except for the sound. This is where Ieft off working on it a year or two ago. Since then, I have acquired another busted eps classic. This one boots up fine, display works, loads the os and samples. The key calibration fails however, so I push the try again button and eventually it loads. But the keyboard plays notes rapidly on its own, real glitchy like, seems to be stuck at d2 and c# 2. I wonder if the eps classic suffers from the bad board connector under the keys, the one that plagues the vfx? Anyway, Im about to swap the power supply from that one into the other one, and see what happens.....it would be nice to fix them both however, could sell one to further finance my synth addiction.
I also acquired a TS 10, was taken apart, I mean the frame and everything! Went to the hardware store and bought about 100 various screws, took me a couple of hours to figure that puppy out. NOW it looks like an actual synthesizer! So anyway the back story on that one was supposedly a key calibration error. They apparently disassembled the whole damned thing to get to the fricken joint under the keyboard. The joint there has been bridged across using bare copper wires. Fuses 2 and 3 were blown, indicating that they had tried to plug the keyboard ribbon cable in backwards. The stripe on that ribbon cable , when correctly installed , is opposite the stripes on the other 3 or 4 ribbon cables stripes that run paralllel . I found this out by blowing fuse 2 and 3 myself. I then tested the power supply. The transformer checks out good. The psu is split into 2 main sections, with rails for the digital board on one side, and rails for the analog board on the other side. Here is where the problem lies..... maybe some of you more advanced trouble shooters can help me here.
On the digital side of the psu output there are 3 rails. +VD, +5D, and +5M. The correct voltages are : +VD +10.8 to 13.90 , +5D +4.75 to 5.25, and +5M +4.75 to +5.25......The voltages I am reading however, are +VD 0 volt DC, +5D 0 volt Dc, and +5M 10.6 volts DC........
The analog output voltages on the power supply are supposed to read +VA +23.5 to +29.7, and -VA -23.5 to - 29.7........The readings I am getting are +VA - 31.5 volts DC , and -VA +31.5 volts DC......So basically, the numbers are close, but the POLARITY is swapped!
I have had no formal training in electronics, I took it in school, then got sick and missed about a month of class, so any knowledge I do have is by reading books, watching youtube, and trial and error. I sure could use a mentor to set me on the right path as far as understanding better the way these circuits work. It doesnt help that ensoniq schematics are next to impossible to find, either. Thanks in advance to any who can take the timr to set me straight on this stuff. Sincerely. Scott Stevenz , St Paul, MN