Replacing XP-50 Volume Board

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SevaraB
Posts: 2
Joined: 04:49, 20 January 2016

Replacing XP-50 Volume Board

Post by SevaraB »

Hi all,

A little while ago, I came across an XP-50 in playable condition and have been using it heavily since. Recently, the volume slider became staticky, then unresponsive, and then cut all sound from the headphone jack. Once I opened up the case, I found the volume slider had heavily corroded (seriously, it looks like a battery exploded). One of the nice things about the XP I found is that the sliders are on their own board connected with a ribbon cable, so I didn't hesitate to pick up a replacement from a gutted XP-60, which leads me to my stupid question of the day:

How does the ribbon cable from the side board disconnect from the jack on the motherboard? It's pretty clearly some type of locking JST connector, and I'm trying to unplug it without yanking the whole jack out of the motherboard. Is this possible?
SevaraB
Posts: 2
Joined: 04:49, 20 January 2016

Re: Replacing XP-50 Volume Board

Post by SevaraB »

So I solved it. I'll just drop this here in case anybody else has a similar lapse. It wasn't the easiest to spot, since I've got the lovely red epoxy thing going on (thankfully, it doesn't seem to have done anything more than cosmetic damage at this point) and partially coating the connector, but once I grabbed a lighted magnifier, I realized what I was doing wrong- the "jack" is actually a wire clamp; the whole top part needed to be lifted to remove the leads from the ribbon cable. It was a little tight, since we're talking about a clamp that's held tight for about 20 years, but it did eventually come loose, the replacement dropped right in, and I have sound again. It's slightly weaker on the left channel, but close enough that it's not noticeable unless you're listening for it, so I'll hold off tracing the signal path.
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