I have a dead "Value Up" button on an otherwise perfect Roland U-20. I was thinking about trying to repair it myself -- but your video has scared me straight! It looks like a jigsaw puzzle I'll never be able to put back together.
That is exactly why I decided to publish this video. Since U-20 is a very old keyboard, you might start repairing it and end up with no result but your wasted time. I personally decided not to continue anymore. There is almost no spare parts for this keyboard anymore and other engineering skils don't help either.
Are you sure about the parts? I live in Canada and Roland has stock parts. The same buttons, key contact points, etc. we’re used on multiple Roland keyboards. I guess it depends on what it broken.
Hey there thanks for filming this video. I had spent a whole night opening my keyboard but I didn't take apart the keys to see if I could clean the contact points without taking it apart. I was able to fix all the keys save 3 just by rubbing off things on the keys on the reverse side on the silver metal bendy parts. Although I still couldn't fix 3 flat notes and my whole set of buttons for selecting other instruments don't work. This inspired me possibly to fully take apart the keys. (after I take a couple days rest hehe) Theres corrosion in mine although my board looks fine so I'm not so sure if I just have to keep scraping it off carefully. Being as the majority of my keys work I still find it useful connecting it to garage band with a midi (mio) and I can still find it very useful and change the instruments in the software. Even though my selection keys seem to not respond. Sometimes you just keep trying and eventually they work. I used a small vacuum as I was hitting the the back of the keys with the back of a plastic paintbrush. Useful
Hi, this was interesting. Apart from the ribbon problem, did cleaning the pads make the keys work again? How many hours would it take just to clean the pads?
I got a Rhodes 660, which is basically a rebranded version of that keyboard. I'm using it as a midi keyboard and the aftertouch sensitivity is pretty weak. Is it possible to increase the sensitivity if I open it up? The menu controls don't affect the midi side of things.
Hi. This is a tough question because increasing the sensitivity of the after touch is 100 percent a matter of hardware design. If you don’t have the schematic of the board, it is very hard, if not impossible to find a way to do that. Whether or not changing hardware for the sake of after touch would affect other parts of the system is also not easy to answer. So if you are an electronics, electrical, or hardware engineer or you know one and you have the schematic of the board, then you might want to check with him. Also you might ask this question in Roland related forums and see how others came up with the ideas to solve this problem. Good luck and happy new year in advance.
Regarding the green flexible PCB with the Roland part number 22925669-00: This part is not available as an original spare part anymore. Roland sold the last ones they had to a Canadian guy many years ago, and also he ran out of stock long time ago. If you own a Roland synthesizer from the early 90s, e.g. a U-20, D-50, or, as in most cases, a JD-800, it could be that you need this spare part, e.g. to fix the "Red Glue" error, which unfortunately almost all devices equipped with an SK7 named keyboard had. In this case, the red synthetic resin used to glue the keyboard weights becomes liquid, drips out of the keys and soils or damages the green, flexible circuit board. Repairing the PCB itself is usually impossible, as the resin forms a very strong bond with the PCB, and most attempts to remove it unfortunately fail. This is how it was for many years. I myself had already started to remedy the situation by making a new PCB, but had discarded my plans in early 2020, as another person, Guy Wilkinson from England was already much more advanced with the same work. He completed his project in 2021, and now offers a set consisting of a completely new redesigned flexible circuit board, and an also redesigned new connection board which also solves some design flaws Roland made back then. The set is currently still being produced in small quantities, and can be ordered directly on his website. Here he also offers very detailed repair instructions for the devices mentioned, as well as many useful tips for other devices. He also offers an installation and repair service which should be arranged upfront. Guy asks that you contact him by email for availability of spare parts. contact@supersynthprojects.com His website: supersynthprojects.com Customers in mainland Europe will certainly find the option of contacting synth-parts.com more convenient. This is a professional synthesizer repair shop, and and well-stocked synthesizer spare parts supplier in Wuppertal, NRW, Germany. I myself own two JD-800s, one of which is completely original, and the other of which has had the above-mentioned circuit board fitted in Wuppertal to restore my beloved instrument to its former life. There is virtually no difference between the two devices after the repair. I am not in any way related to the companies mentioned, and I am not being paid for this contribution. I have logged in here specifically for this comment as I feel the information is valuable and would like to share it. The mention of companies, trademarks and brands is for descriptive purposes only and does not constitute advertising, but serves the sole purpose of imparting knowledge.
I repair a lot of keyboards. The U20 is not a project for beginners. The shitty ribbon cable interface on the keyboard is very fragile. I learned this the hard way when fixing a Roland JD800 which has the same keyboard. The low tech fix is always the best. On my Jd800 I drilled holes in the metal and clamped the seam where the cheap ass ribbon was heat sealed together (using small bolts and using thick rubber between metal strips and the cable.....Go to yahoo groups roland JD800 to see pics. A variation will probably work on the U 20 if you didnt destroy the cable. Also the U 20 keyboard suffers frrom red glue syndrome. I took all the keys off and sealed the weights and red glue in with better glue. I replaced all tac switches under the panel buttons. The construction of the U20 is pretty gnarley, too many ribbon cables and weird angled mounting of the boards. Not the easiest board to fix. Im waiting on a few key bushings in the mail, as 3 got torn off when I removed the keys to glue them.
Hi and many thanks for your comment. Someone sent me the spare part(s) and now the Keyboard is fully up and running. Please watch video 2 and 3 as well. The links are available in the video description.
I’ve done the keyboard contact repair on my Roland U20. I actually had to do it twice on one of my U20’s because the contacts were remanufactured so bad. Edit: I’ve actually had to do this same contact repair on my brothers U20s too. Roland really screwed this design up. I have many Roland keyboards, none of my others have this problem. (OK I forgot about my three Roland XP 80s with bad Epoxy On the keyboard weights. Don’t ever buy a used XP80 that has the orange epoxy Holding in the keyboard weights!!!).
I just picked one up at a yard sale for 15$ I'm only able to reset the patch to the piano sound is that the only on board sound? Mone of my black keys work except for one
Hi, please read the video description of video 3 where I explained a solution for the sound problems: th-cam.com/video/AzUZXSIoHRw/w-d-xo.html for that one not-working key, I assume you have to follow videos 1-3 to get it solved. Good Luck
How did this turn out for you? I changed the internal battery and am currently cleaning the keys of mine(only two worked). It's a pretty nice keyboard, so I hope you can save yours.
Thanks for your message. I could not get it fully repaired and the spare parts are either not existing anymore or are so expensive that it makes no sense to buy. I will probably publish a short video about my last attempts and current status. I took the videos but I had no time to edit and publish it yet because I was busy with my working one. You can see it here: th-cam.com/video/rHOIseCvzok/w-d-xo.html
Well, you could still convert it into a midi powered synth. The old keyboards are a pain to clean every couple years anyway(I like doing it though). If you do decide to do that, I would very much appreciate it if you sold me your rubber button contacts though as I broke some of the push in connectors since the rubber was so old. Thanks.
Hi, i lost the little metal piece that hold the key, i found 5 pieces in Ebay for 5 pounds do you have any link to get them original? Can you indicate any graphite mark that is not spray? Thanks
I've butchered my ribbon cable so much in repair attempts, that it's now unusable, but I've heard that the Roland JD-800 uses the same ribbon cable. Is this true?
Many thanks for your comment and sorry for my late reply. Actually, I am not a Roland expert but during my research, I found the Roland JD-800 uses the same ribbon cable as well. It is just my personal opinion about what I found on the internet. I can't say it for sure.
@ 1:50:00 NEVER EVER UNDO THAT CONNECTOR !!! Disconnect it at the mainboard so that you can altogether remove the keyframe from the main body of the synthesizer, but NEVER disconnect it where it joins to the keyframe. There it is glued together at the factory and you'll never make all the contacts conduct properly again. This is Roland's worst ever keyframe, Complete Disaster Technology ! Also, the switching diodes for each key are 'Glued' into the green Mylar contact strip under the keys and are impossible to replace. So you'd best hope that dead keys are not caused by dead diodes.
I undid my connector and tried cleaning it with alcohol...bad idea it disolved the contacts on the green strip now the keyboard is useless. I was thinking of bypassing the green strip altogether and replace it with wiring, I was just wondering was this keyboard worth the work.
@@GaryLet Thanks Gary L, I've Missed it with another keyboard and I like the sound, but I've got soooo many Roland keyboards and racks (7 total) I'll just sell it to Keyboard Kountry. I paid $30 for it and it had an octive not playing so it was worth a shot but thanks again Gary L.
I envy your clear and clean workbench!
I have a dead "Value Up" button on an otherwise perfect Roland U-20. I was thinking about trying to repair it myself -- but your video has scared me straight! It looks like a jigsaw puzzle I'll never be able to put back together.
That is exactly why I decided to publish this video. Since U-20 is a very old keyboard, you might start repairing it and end up with no result but your wasted time. I personally decided not to continue anymore. There is almost no spare parts for this keyboard anymore and other engineering skils don't help either.
Are you sure about the parts? I live in Canada and Roland has stock parts. The same buttons, key contact points, etc. we’re used on multiple Roland keyboards. I guess it depends on what it broken.
Hey there thanks for filming this video. I had spent a whole night opening my keyboard but I didn't take apart the keys to see if I could clean the contact points without taking it apart. I was able to fix all the keys save 3 just by rubbing off things on the keys on the reverse side on the silver metal bendy parts. Although I still couldn't fix 3 flat notes and my whole set of buttons for selecting other instruments don't work. This inspired me possibly to fully take apart the keys. (after I take a couple days rest hehe) Theres corrosion in mine although my board looks fine so I'm not so sure if I just have to keep scraping it off carefully. Being as the majority of my keys work I still find it useful connecting it to garage band with a midi (mio) and I can still find it very useful and change the instruments in the software. Even though my selection keys seem to not respond. Sometimes you just keep trying and eventually they work. I used a small vacuum as I was hitting the the back of the keys with the back of a plastic paintbrush. Useful
Thank you.
Hi, this was interesting. Apart from the ribbon problem, did cleaning the pads make the keys work again? How many hours would it take just to clean the pads?
I got a Rhodes 660, which is basically a rebranded version of that keyboard. I'm using it as a midi keyboard and the aftertouch sensitivity is pretty weak. Is it possible to increase the sensitivity if I open it up?
The menu controls don't affect the midi side of things.
Hi. This is a tough question because increasing the sensitivity of the after touch is 100 percent a matter of hardware design. If you don’t have the schematic of the board, it is very hard, if not impossible to find a way to do that.
Whether or not changing hardware for the sake of after touch would affect other parts of the system is also not easy to answer.
So if you are an electronics, electrical, or hardware engineer or you know one and you have the schematic of the board, then you might want to check with him.
Also you might ask this question in Roland related forums and see how others came up with the ideas to solve this problem.
Good luck and happy new year in advance.
Regarding the green flexible PCB with the Roland part number 22925669-00:
This part is not available as an original spare part anymore. Roland sold the last ones they had to a Canadian guy many years ago, and also he ran out of stock long time ago.
If you own a Roland synthesizer from the early 90s, e.g. a U-20, D-50, or, as in most cases, a JD-800, it could be that you need this spare part, e.g. to fix the "Red Glue" error, which unfortunately almost all devices equipped with an SK7 named keyboard had.
In this case, the red synthetic resin used to glue the keyboard weights becomes liquid, drips out of the keys and soils or damages the green, flexible circuit board.
Repairing the PCB itself is usually impossible, as the resin forms a very strong bond with the PCB, and most attempts to remove it unfortunately fail.
This is how it was for many years.
I myself had already started to remedy the situation by making a new PCB, but had discarded my plans in early 2020, as another person, Guy Wilkinson from England was already much more advanced with the same work.
He completed his project in 2021, and now offers a set consisting of a completely new redesigned flexible circuit board, and an also redesigned new connection board which also solves some design flaws Roland made back then.
The set is currently still being produced in small quantities, and can be ordered directly on his website. Here he also offers very detailed repair instructions for the devices mentioned, as well as many useful tips for other devices.
He also offers an installation and repair service which should be arranged upfront.
Guy asks that you contact him by email for availability of spare parts.
contact@supersynthprojects.com
His website: supersynthprojects.com
Customers in mainland Europe will certainly find the option of contacting synth-parts.com more convenient. This is a professional synthesizer repair shop, and and well-stocked synthesizer spare parts supplier in Wuppertal, NRW, Germany.
I myself own two JD-800s, one of which is completely original, and the other of which has had the above-mentioned circuit board fitted in Wuppertal to restore my beloved instrument to its former life.
There is virtually no difference between the two devices after the repair.
I am not in any way related to the companies mentioned, and I am not being paid for this contribution.
I have logged in here specifically for this comment as I feel the information is valuable and would like to share it.
The mention of companies, trademarks and brands is for descriptive purposes only and does not constitute advertising, but serves the sole purpose of imparting knowledge.
I want replace with new 61 keys pad cable n ribbon cable for my roland u20. Where I can get it..? Thanks....
I repair a lot of keyboards. The U20 is not a project for beginners. The shitty ribbon cable interface on the keyboard is very fragile. I learned this the hard way when fixing a Roland JD800 which has the same keyboard. The low tech fix is always the best. On my Jd800 I drilled holes in the metal and clamped the seam where the cheap ass ribbon was heat sealed together (using small bolts and using thick rubber between metal strips and the cable.....Go to yahoo groups roland JD800 to see pics. A variation will probably work on the U 20 if you didnt destroy the cable.
Also the U 20 keyboard suffers frrom red glue syndrome. I took all the keys off and sealed the weights and red glue in with better glue. I replaced all tac switches under the panel buttons. The construction of the U20 is pretty gnarley, too many ribbon cables and weird angled mounting of the boards. Not the easiest board to fix. Im waiting on a few key bushings in the mail, as 3 got torn off when I removed the keys to glue them.
Hi and many thanks for your comment. Someone sent me the spare part(s) and now the Keyboard is fully up and running. Please watch video 2 and 3 as well. The links are available in the video description.
I’ve done the keyboard contact repair on my Roland U20. I actually had to do it twice on one of my U20’s because the contacts were remanufactured so bad.
Edit: I’ve actually had to do this same contact repair on my brothers U20s too. Roland really screwed this design up. I have many Roland keyboards, none of my others have this problem.
(OK I forgot about my three Roland XP 80s with bad Epoxy On the keyboard weights. Don’t ever buy a used XP80 that has the orange epoxy Holding in the keyboard weights!!!).
My Roland U-20 rs-pcm cant open. What do you think is problem ??
👍
I just picked one up at a yard sale for 15$ I'm only able to reset the patch to the piano sound is that the only on board sound? Mone of my black keys work except for one
Hi, please read the video description of video 3 where I explained a solution for the sound problems:
th-cam.com/video/AzUZXSIoHRw/w-d-xo.html
for that one not-working key, I assume you have to follow videos 1-3 to get it solved.
Good Luck
How did this turn out for you? I changed the internal battery and am currently cleaning the keys of mine(only two worked). It's a pretty nice keyboard, so I hope you can save yours.
Thanks for your message. I could not get it fully repaired and the spare parts are either not existing anymore or are so expensive that it makes no sense to buy. I will probably publish a short video about my last attempts and current status. I took the videos but I had no time to edit and publish it yet because I was busy with my working one. You can see it here:
th-cam.com/video/rHOIseCvzok/w-d-xo.html
Well, you could still convert it into a midi powered synth. The old keyboards are a pain to clean every couple years anyway(I like doing it though). If you do decide to do that, I would very much appreciate it if you sold me your rubber button contacts though as I broke some of the push in connectors since the rubber was so old. Thanks.
could you please send me a PM to "fg.ece.ut@gmail.com"? Thnaks.
here video 2 finally :) th-cam.com/video/w41iGkzGjhg/w-d-xo.html
Hi, i lost the little metal piece that hold the key, i found 5 pieces in Ebay for 5 pounds do you have any link to get them original? Can you indicate any graphite mark that is not spray? Thanks
Hi, Please send me a pm to "fg.ece.ut@gmail.com" so that I send you the contact information of a person who might have those parts. BR.
I want Roland bk3 keyboard volume is spoilt. Can you help me get one?
Hello sir my keyboard Roland E 16 have voice cutting problem after some tym when i start it plz tell me its solution
I've butchered my ribbon cable so much in repair attempts, that it's now unusable, but I've heard that the Roland JD-800 uses the same ribbon cable. Is this true?
Many thanks for your comment and sorry for my late reply. Actually, I am not a Roland expert but during my research, I found the Roland JD-800 uses the same ribbon cable as well. It is just my personal opinion about what I found on the internet. I can't say it for sure.
I hope you're not planning to butcher a JD-800 to save one of these?
Hi guys,
here is Part 2: th-cam.com/video/w41iGkzGjhg/w-d-xo.html
and here Part 3: th-cam.com/video/AzUZXSIoHRw/w-d-xo.html
@ 1:50:00 NEVER EVER UNDO THAT CONNECTOR !!! Disconnect it at the mainboard so that you can altogether remove the keyframe from the main body of the synthesizer, but NEVER disconnect it where it joins to the keyframe. There it is glued together at the factory and you'll never make all the contacts conduct properly again. This is Roland's worst ever keyframe, Complete Disaster Technology ! Also, the switching diodes for each key are 'Glued' into the green Mylar contact strip under the keys and are impossible to replace. So you'd best hope that dead keys are not caused by dead diodes.
I undid my connector and tried cleaning it with alcohol...bad idea it disolved the contacts on the green strip now the keyboard is useless. I was thinking of bypassing the green strip altogether and replace it with wiring, I was just wondering was this keyboard worth the work.
@@fredtillman3050 midi another keyboard to the U2o and you can see if you like it or not.
@@GaryLet Thanks Gary L, I've Missed it with another keyboard and I like the sound, but I've got soooo many Roland keyboards and racks (7 total) I'll just sell it to Keyboard Kountry. I paid $30 for it and it had an octive not playing so it was worth a shot but thanks again Gary L.
Hallo Manouchehr,
Wie kann ich dich kontaktieren? (Email zb).
Gruß & Khoda hafez,
H. Nuri
Hello Mr.Nuri. Here is my E-Mail: fg.ece.ut@gmail.com
Indonesia
Its voice breaks after some time