Roland Warned About the SR-JV80 Capacitor Issue - Who Cared?

[Monkey Man]

Roland said in a message to all of us that I fear few have heard about:
“Stop using immediately… contact Roland Customer Support Centre.”

I spoke to Roland Head Office in Sydney, and they'd not even heard about it. A week later a guy in tech said he'd put me onto a local guy who should be able to swap the capacitor out for a new one, but then some days later said that the guy refused to modify a Roland part (the card) itself.

That was in January and I haven't heard anything further about this in forums or anywhere, so I'm wondering what percentage of peeps here bothered to do something about it.

Thanks guys.

[bluesplayer]

You could always do your own repair, or get a buddy who KNOWS how to solder, get some 100uf (micro-farads ) of at least 6V operation rating electrolytic caps and do all your SR-JV boards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... n5eU-EWbyE

Personally I think the person doing the solder job in video is not that great (but I'm biased - I've been soldering my entire life and I'm way, WAY past my expiration date - LOL) they look like cold solder joints to me. FWIW: "a bigger blob" does not make "a better job."

BUT I do agree do not try and replace with surface mount caps do it they way he does - only try and do a better solder job

here's a google search for caps to get you started.

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... 0&bih=1276

[Monkey Man]

Thanks BP; I knew about that stuff, have had the video since it was first uploaded and also notes on specifics.

The thing is I don't have the confidence to do it, which is why I rang Roland, as per the company's direction.

The purpose of this thread is to try to determine, if it's at all possible, roughly what proportion of users have replaced their caps. With such a huge number of boards out there I'd have expected to hear a lot about the subject, and based on Roland's warning, a shedload of them should have blown up by now, and yet I hear nothing.

Ultimately, the feedback I'm hoping to get might help many determine whether or not this is just a storm in a teacup and perhaps not worth worrying about "statistically".

[bluesplayer]

Your post was the FIRST I had heard about it! I don't roam any other Roland sites , including Roland itself. Last new Roland piece of kit I bought was the I7 - and there's been no new updates in years, I don't actually expect any either - it has been out too long, and no new AXIAL sounds in as long so no reason to go to Roland site .

I only roam here once in a while since I have a I7, Fantom XR, XV-5080, and an GR-50 (plus SC-8850) all old to very old stuff now. BUT other than sounds in GR-50 all the others are still very usable. Even GR-50 sounds are usable if you want that D-110 flavor,

[Monkey Man]

I can relate, mate.

Rode the whole JV train right through to the 5080 and finally sold it fully-loaded for an INTEGRA-7. Whilst I love the SN Synth sounds on it, the ability to only load 4 boards, the 16-slot limitation and the fact that the XV was way-easier to edit have me wishing I'd kept the XV and run both.

Still got the ol' 990, TD drum brain and A-50 master keyboard from, like, 1989 IIRC.

Similar to you, I've no real reason to come here anymore either, especially as, as you said, OS updates and Axial sounds have dried up. Still, I like to try to help folks in some small way, so I do my best to check in here periodically.

Let's see how many report cap meltdowns on their JV boards...

[Vido]

Hello all,

I have checked my 13 expansion boards. I bought some of them second hand. Twelve of them had the capacitors, from one the capacitor apparently was already removed (and I didn't notice it wasn't there - the board just functioned ok).
I removed, cleaned the board and replaced all capacitors. Some boards had severe damage, from some one of the electrodes came of. Here I made a shortcut. Now all my boards are renovated and function again.
So this problem is solved.
Further I still try to solve the problems with my XP80. (See my other post from early October). Also related to leaking electrolytic caps.

Repairing the expansion boards is not difficult if you can handle a soldering iron to some extent.

Kind regards,
Vido

[Monkey Man]

Well done and thank you for sharing, Vido.

So the only leaking cap you had was in your XP80.

As I said in the OP, I'm trying to establish some sort of "feel" for what percentage of boards has suffered leaking caps. You had 12 with the old caps, none of which had failed, so that's good to hear.

[Synthtron]

Roland said in a message to all of us that I fear few have heard about:
“Stop using immediately… contact Roland Customer Support Centre.”

I spoke to Roland Head Office in Sydney, and they'd not even heard about it. A week later a guy in tech said he'd put me onto a local guy who should be able to swap the capacitor out for a new one, but then some days later said that the guy refused to modify a Roland part (the card) itself.

That was in January and I haven't heard anything further about this in forums or anywhere, so I'm wondering what percentage of peeps here bothered to do something about it.

Thanks guys.

I have not ever heard of this.

[Monkey Man]

It seems most who know about it stumbled upon it in forums. Roland didn't exactly scream it from the rooftops, but instead posted it at Roland.com in Roland Japan Support News.

That was back in January 2017, and even now, more than 2 1/2 years later, everyone I speak to says it's news to him or her.

This lack of knowing about the issue is another reason why I'm attempting to quantify the extent of the problem in the real world using this thread.

[erange]

I’ve got pretty much all the JV cards in a bunch of XV5080’s.
I read the warning, and thought it was BS.
Then I blew my Piano card.

I contacted Roland US as the email stated to do, and it just so happened they were moving, so no response for about 3 months.
When I finally got someone in Roland repair, they knew nothing about it.
I pulled up the email and read it verbatim.
He basically told me it was old product and they wouldn’t fix it.
After walking on needles for 6 months, I broke down and took them to my local tech. I literally got the call yesterday that my 17 cards were ready to the tune of $120.
By the way the tech knew right away about the bad capacitors. He said they were full of fish oil and eventually go bad.
This is one of the few times I’ve been unhappy with Roland service.
I followed the email instructions from Roland Japan, and Roland US wouldn’t honor it.
Makes me think twice on purchasing any new stuff.

[Monkey Man]

That's exactly what happened to me, mate.

I read the email verbatim to Roland Head Office's techs in Sydney and not only had they not heard about it, but they refused to touch any cards.

This is why I started the thread 'cause I had no luck getting anyone to look at my Vintage board and therefore wondered whether or not all the trouble would be worth it.