Repairing a CR-78

This is a post that's been in my backlog for a while, because I knew it would take some time to write it...

Back in February this year (2013) I got a request from someone if I could repair a CR-78 with severe battery leakage. A repair-shop that was asked about it wouldn't do it because it would take too long and not be worth the time/money.
Well... I'm cheap, but I leave no guarantees that I'll fix it 100% or that I'll do it quickly, but I'll do my best. That was good enough for this guy, so he let me have a go at it.
The actual "practical" symptoms weren't actually that bad though:  Not possible to save rhythms

However, considering the massive leak, it was clear that this machine needed more than just a quick repair.
No way should anybody give up on a such a fine machine unless it's totally hopeless.
Challenge accepted!

A-Ha - I've been losing you (Cover by me)

It's time for another cover!
I really like some of the songs on A-Ha's first albums, and I chose to cover "I've been losing you."

Now, part of the purpose of doing this was of course to make a cover just because I really like the song, but another purpose was also to practice and experiment a bit with singing and mixing.
I'm not quite happy with my vocal performance as I feel it's too tense and shaky, though the original has some of that tension, Morten still manages to keep relaxed and singing in tune while I am struggling with it.
One thing I noticed is that it's really hard to keep an even volume as I tend to sing louder during some parts, in particular when I have to take high notes. I guess this is something experienced singers have learned to compensate for by moving away and towards the microphone. Now however I had to try and compensate in the recording instead, which I'm a bit lazy to go over and to properly everywhere, just in a few bad spots.

Regarding the mixing I did about 5 versions of it. The first one used a lot of stuff on the master bus (Saturation and multi-band compressor) but in the end I thought it sounded better the more I removed. Even if I didn't quite get that full punchy sound with all the mastering stuff added, it still was more pleasant to listen to without it. It really is an art to do proper mixing as well as mastering, and this was an experiment in both.

Here is the final version that I decided to go with:


The gearlist, if anybody is interested:
Roland Juno-60, Roland JX-8P, U-He Diva, U-He Zebra, NI FM-8, NI Pro-53, Yamaha CS-40M, Fabfilter Twin 2, NI Battery 3.

Roland PG-800

I finally bought one!
My JX-8P has found its mate! :)

Sorry about the crappy flash reflection

Roland SH-2000

It's not a Roland SH-1000, but almost ;)
I serviced an SH-1000 for a colleague who also had an SH-2000 that he was willing to sell.
His SH-1000 needed the keyboard contacts cleaned, so I took care of that and got the SH-2000 for a good price as "payment" :)

Roland CR-78 non-rechargeable Lithum battery replacement mod

Replacing NiCad with Li.

So, I was servicing a CR-78 for a friend and the old leaking battery had already been removed when I received the unit. After I was done with replacing all the damaged components I was going to put a non-rechargeable battery in there. It's probably possible to replace the NiCad with a NiMH battery, but they recharge slower than the NiCad (so you need to keep your machine running longer and more often to keep it charged) and I'm not sure exactly how they work when they reach their full charge.
As I'm not an expert in rechargeable batteries, I decided that the safest option was to use a non-rechargeable Lithium battery.

I think I'm in over my head...

So, someone was selling an SH-1000 in pieces for a small amount of money.
He said it was in pieces, some switches were missing, and showed some pictures of it.
I thought "How bad can it be? I'll take it."

Oh shit...

Repairing a Synare Sensor

Picture grabbed from video ;)

I was asked to take a look at this strange thing and see if I could repair it.
Supposedly it made fun noises once upon a time, but not anymore. I had never heard of it before and I couldn't really find any schematics, but I decided to look at it anyway.
(I actually fixed this back in Decemeber 2012, but I've been too lazy to post about it until now ;) )

TC5514APL-3 SRAM tester done

My SRAM tester is finally done!

I've finished a project!
This is an important milestone :)
This is probably of more importance to me than anyone else, but I still thought it might be worth writing about, since I've already posted about building this thing...
Now I can test TC5514APL-3 ICs :)
It should also work for uPD444C, M58981P and HM4334P since they're the same thing, but I don't have any of those.