I'm cleaning my D-50 and need help

Gothboy · Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 6:42 pm Post subject:

roughly it means "Damn the difficulties", see, it worked in this case... Wink

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 8:08 pm Post subject:

Nec Aspera Terrent indeed! Smile

My sig at the moment is an almost perfect translation! Shocked

BTW you did a very neat job on that soldering repair, well done.

Gothboy · Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:03 am Post subject:

Well, great minds think alike. Laughing

I'm very happy with the way it turned out. It was tough though, the space on that board is sooo small.

fischek · Joined: May 07, 2007 Posts: 81 Location: Belgrade

whatever happened to all the photos demonstrating the cleaning process?

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:24 am Post subject:

They got snuffed in the great server crash of August 07! Sad

I'll have a look to see if my ones are still sitting in a backup folder somewhere.

Gothboy · Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:20 pm Post subject:

I reposted mine! Fischek is from the Roland Clan forum, let us welcome him and his D-50 that needs cleaning. Cool

See if you can get those photos back up UK. Smile

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 5:22 am Post subject:

No, sorry, my photos have gone to the great "should have been backed up" folder in the sky. I have a file which covers all the main points of cleaning the keys. And if you'd like me to explain anything about the process, just let me know.
With appropriate tools and a bit of patience, I'm sure you'll be able to sort it out, with the help of Gothboy and myself. I'll post that file here now just in case, and stay in touch.
The D50 is actually a very hardy beast. You'll be fine. Put aside some time, and a well lit space, and we'll guide you through it. (Even if I have to pop the top on mine again and take some more photos!) Cool

vpv1952 · Joined: Oct 11, 2009 Posts: 2 Location: Portugal

Hello Uncle Krunkus, I have an old D50, i acquired in 1987 brand new. It now has two keys almost dead - they do not produce sound when you press them; sound is produced only when you release them. I opened the keyboard to start clean up procedures, but stoped from moving on with the cleaning. The reason: i saw a long transparent plastic strip that olds the keys to their position. My question: do i need to remove this plastic strip? I think I saw in theses forum some reference that it is ok to remove it, and some other reference saying that it is not needed. I was hoping to see some photos but your photos are lost.

I also see that you have a file with some tips. Can you please send it to me? And what about the plastic transparent strip? Is it easy to reinstall it back (with glue?)?

Thank you very much for your help.

Gothboy · Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:07 am Post subject:

vpv,
Like you, I'm back to this same old issue with my D-50 as recently I started playing it(actually playing it's keyboard...I usually control it from my midi controllers) and discovered one of the same keys is again out. I thought I fixed it pretty good...what was it 2 years ago?
It's OK to remove the plastic strip. When I cleaned mine I just pulled it off and stuck it back on again when I was done(without glue). The thing is....why are those keys dead? Is it the rubber contacts?(probably) and no matter how much you clean them the problem will eventually return.

vpv1952 · Joined: Oct 11, 2009 Posts: 2 Location: Portugal

Thank you for your quick reply. Let me just clarify one point you mentioned: no glue. Do you mean that the strip is self glued, or are there any straps or screws that hold the plastic strip in place?

I think that heat inside the keyboard is the reason for the dust that gets absorbed and sticks to the rubber contacts. And the fact that there is no physical isolation of the keyboard itself.

Do you have any cover to protect the D50 while not in use? I don't... would it improve this?

Gothboy · Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:17 am Post subject:

I think it was glued on at the factory 25 years ago....but I was able to just pop it off carefully and then it just sort of stuck back on when I put it back on there.
The most difficult part of the whole procedure was getting the main synth board out and removing the connecting cables.
Any keyboard cover definately makes a difference in keeping dust and spiders out. I have it draped with a cloth but do need a stretchy cover for it like my other synths.

odeon · Joined: Jul 25, 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Sweden

Hello,

I just registered on this forum because I recently bought a used D-50 and found this thread when searching for information on the D-50 and problems with dead keys. Several keys had problems ranging from simply dead to velocity-related issues, and I managed to get them all working. I took the opportunity to clean everything, too. Smile

I wanted to say tanks to everyone who contributed to these instructions.

Cheers.

Gothboy · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 4:38 pm Post subject:

Well good I'm glad it's working and you benefitted from our little everlasting thread here. Maybe it will go on and on through time helping all D50 owners!

I wish the keys on mine were all working. I'm thinking about taking it in to the shop.

odeon · Joined: Jul 25, 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Sweden

The problems are back after cleaning and repairing your D-50?

When looking at and fiddling with the insides of the synth, I couldn't help thinking that for all of their brilliant design, Roland completely forgot to protect the PCB board and contacts below the keys. My synth had been taken apart on several occasions from what I could tell, yet there was so much dust and hair that had gathered since the last time. No wonder this happens.

I'm now trying to restore the original patches but it proves to be harder than I thought. My master synth, a Korg TR61, has talked to my computer through USB and I just discovered that I couldn't get the MIDI ports of my Audigy sound card to work in any of the OSs I can run. The TR's got MIDI connectors which I hooked up to the D-50, hoping for passing SysEx through the TR to the D-50, but apparently the TR's MIDI connectors stop working when the thing talks through USB.

My new solution is an ESI Juli@ card from eBay. Any day now... Smile