Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    Should be easy enough to run some basic tests on/near the power supply
    with a DVM. Such catastrophic failures are *usually* pretty easy to 
    find.
    
    Gut reaction tells me the serviceman was, um, confused....
    
    Edd

    >Gut reaction tells me the serviceman was, um, confused....
    
    No, gut reaction says the serviceman is not supposed to repair boards. 
    He probably has a test that determines the failure is on the main board,
    then he swaps it out.  This is increasingly common in electronics these
    days (including DEC electronics, eh?), as the troubleshoot time on a
    board is too expensive, not to mention that the need for highly trained
    repair people.
    
    I went through this with Ensoniq.  They wouldn't even provide schematics
    to users who would prefer to look around the board rather than paying
    hundreds of $$ to swap it out.
    
    Back to our regularly scheduled topic....
    
    
    							Brian

    Board swap? Hey! You be talking to a Field Service engineer, bucko!!!
    
    :^)
    
    Anyhow, if .0 can get me the unit AND accept full responsibility for
    any goof-ups, I'll look at it. So far, I've successfully repaired
    95% of my failures, shipping out only when I knew I was over my
    head.
    
    Edd

    re: -*
    
    Humm, looks like I have better luck here.
    
    >Should be easy enough to run some basic tests on/near the power supply
    >with a DVM. Such catastrophic failures are *usually* pretty easy to 
    >find.
    
    What is a DVM?  Is it something that I should check?
    
    >Gut reaction tells me the serviceman was, um, confused....
    
    He does have an electro-scope but looks like he is not that familiar
    with that particular model.  I paid him 75 dollars already, but the
    organ is still not working.
    
    Any good serviceman that you can recommend?
    
    Thanks.
    
    -Aston
    
    

    DVM:== Digital Voltmeter
    
    Edd

    $75?!?  For nothing?  And, he didn't know what was wrong?  Gee, I would
    have only taken $50 to do that for ya ... ;^)
    
    Steve

    re : .6
    
    Yeh, $75 for nothing.  He supposed to charge $45 per hour but after 3-4
    hours of sweating, puzzling, he gave up :-(
    
    re : -* by EDD
    
    Thanks for your offer.  But my organ is too big to carry to your place.
    Where do you live?  Should I contact you off line?
    
    Anyway, many thanks.
    
    -Aston
    

    I'm in the Worcester, MA area, probably too far to make it reasonable.
    
    Edd

        Hi Edd,
    
        Do you mind if I drive you to my home or even pay you for the fuel,
        parts etc?  I think it should be far better than the $700 that I will
        have to pay for the board.
    
        I'm desperate!
    
        Thanks.
    
        -Aston
    

    Did someone say drink?
    
    8*}
    
    Edd

    
    If the Electone has been broken down for almost a year, it would
    be interesting to recall the occassion on which the device was last
    known to be working, and if anything unusual was noticed on powering
    it off at that time, and whether any symptoms like those described
    were noted before. If the serviceman came to fix it a couple of
    months ago, then there must have been a period of some nine to ten
    months during which the Electone was either in storage or left
    plugged in to its original position but never switched on.
        Since the serviceman who came to fix it had discussions with
    Yamaha and named the board to be replaced as "DM1" (Digital Module 
    number 1?), maybe it can be assumed that he had enough familiarity
    with the MC450 to discuss the fault with Yamaha, but was unable to
    give full details as the repair philosophy for the fault was to
    swap the entire module for what would perhaps appear to the
    customer to be a minor component; this appears to have been
    accompanied by perhaps a strong hint from Yamaha that a service
    engineer other than that employed or associated with them would
    probably identify the component and obtain a spare part locally.
    	Since the panel lights do not come on, and assuming they
    operate on low voltage, and that if the Electone is microprocessor
    controlled, there may be a small "battery-backup" unit somewhere
    on the DM1 module, in which the battery has gone flat due to
    approx. 9 months non-usage, so the Electone can't start up
    its power up sequence.
        As a suggestion, it would be perhaps worthwhile asking a
    friend who is experienced in electronics to see if he can identify
    any component on the board which looks like a battery and 
    establish whether or not it is discharged.
        Hope this is at least a little help,
    Best Regards,                          
    Brian

    
    RE: -*
    
    Edd, how about 2 drinks??  :-)
    
    Thanks very much for all replies to this topic.  Looks like calling 
    the serviceman again to have the DM1 replaced is the only way to fix
    it :-(
    
    -Aston
    

    I thought the unit was fairly portable. If I could get it to my house
    for a week or so I'd be glad to take a look, but otherwise I'm afraid
    I can't help...
    
    (I'll accept the drinks tho!!!) :^)
    
    Edd

    Thanks Edd.  I will let you know later if I need your help.

    Okay,  I'd like to have the last trial here.
    
    Edd, in previous replies, did give it a spin but looks like it is not
    as easy as we first thought.
    
    Does anybody want to try it out?  Or do you know a good serviceman in
    N.H. ?
    
    Anyway, Thanks Edd for your help.
    
    -Aston
    
    May be I have to go for the expensive way :-(