I hope this is an appropriate topic for this board. If not, I appreciate any guidance. I'm a newbie!
I bought an XP-50 in 1998 and didn't use it much. About 2 years later it went into storage and I recently pulled it out. I was planning to use it as a controller for my Logic DAW and happily it seemed to be working. Because one key wasn't working, I brought it in to the local authorized Roland repair guy. He replaced the battery (duh) and reloaded the sounds. In the end, the dreaded fish smell arose while he was working on it. That's when we realized the full extent of the problem. Diagnosis is bad capacitors, a known issue, but one that Roland is no longer covering. Harry is a great technician with a lot of experience, but he isn't willing to take it on.
There is a guy in Florida who replaces all the capacitors for about $200-250, but I would have to ship the entire instrument to him. That cost is prohibitive. I asked if he would work on the board alone, but he said that then he'd have no way of checking the work.
Is there anyone in the Northeast (NY metro area, basically) who would take this on for a reasonable fee? If not that, is there anyone who would want a keyboard like this in non-working condition? I cannot bring myself to send it to the landfill. :(
Thanks in advance for any help!
Roland XP-50 needs full capacitor overhaul - help!
-
Maumajamma
- Posts: 9
- Joined: 16:12, 28 July 2021
- Location: Northeast/North of NYC
- Contact:
Re: Roland XP-50 needs full capacitor overhaul - help!
Hi,
replacing the caps really seems to fix a lot of weird issues with the old synths... I fixed a very strange bootup problem where the synth wouldnt boot at all when its "cold"... and even then it would freeze a few times during the first 15 minutes of operation.
replacing all the smd caps on the mainboard fixed that as a side effect.
about the caps.. i was able to get hold of all the different caps used on the mainboard in the same packages... i prefer replacing old caps with low-esr/105°C ones. they're only a few cents each so i just ordered 10-20 of each kind.
for the soldering part i used a standard soldering iron with decently small tip and a small but kinda sturdy tweezer. carefully heat one side of the cap, lift it up carefully a bit (not too much!) repeat on the other side. repeat this 2-3 times until it fully lifts from the board.
add a tiny amount fresh solder paste/tin (use old style tin! modern pb free tin doesn't mix well with old pb-tin !!!). i found it best to just add some flux/solder honey to the pad, add a tiny bit of tin to the solder tip, then carefully swipe over the pad a bit.
the pad is almost perfect when its looking shiny and clean and still is almost flat.
before soldering the new cap in place, just all a small drop of flux/smd solder "honey" (i prefer this nowadays) on both pads, place the cap with the tweezer on it, press it down firmly and just heat the small pads that are visible on the sides for a short moment. that's usually enough.
if you know someone with at least *some* soldering experience this should be doable. he can alaway use any old pcb from a broken device to get some practise first ;)
I could try to compile a small howto/tutorial video on this if wanted...
replacing the caps really seems to fix a lot of weird issues with the old synths... I fixed a very strange bootup problem where the synth wouldnt boot at all when its "cold"... and even then it would freeze a few times during the first 15 minutes of operation.
replacing all the smd caps on the mainboard fixed that as a side effect.
about the caps.. i was able to get hold of all the different caps used on the mainboard in the same packages... i prefer replacing old caps with low-esr/105°C ones. they're only a few cents each so i just ordered 10-20 of each kind.
for the soldering part i used a standard soldering iron with decently small tip and a small but kinda sturdy tweezer. carefully heat one side of the cap, lift it up carefully a bit (not too much!) repeat on the other side. repeat this 2-3 times until it fully lifts from the board.
add a tiny amount fresh solder paste/tin (use old style tin! modern pb free tin doesn't mix well with old pb-tin !!!). i found it best to just add some flux/solder honey to the pad, add a tiny bit of tin to the solder tip, then carefully swipe over the pad a bit.
the pad is almost perfect when its looking shiny and clean and still is almost flat.
before soldering the new cap in place, just all a small drop of flux/smd solder "honey" (i prefer this nowadays) on both pads, place the cap with the tweezer on it, press it down firmly and just heat the small pads that are visible on the sides for a short moment. that's usually enough.
if you know someone with at least *some* soldering experience this should be doable. he can alaway use any old pcb from a broken device to get some practise first ;)
I could try to compile a small howto/tutorial video on this if wanted...