SOUND ON SOUND

[BJG145]

I just picked up a tatty Yamaha KX5 keytar (well, it's a phase everyone has to go through sometime) and while browsing spares, I came across this printable 3D model of the battery cover.



https://www.shapeways.com/product/YXJ2Y ... arketplace

I was surprised and encouraged that someone had taken the time to model the thing. I wonder if companies will ever start making these available in their support downloads or if it'll remain the preserve of hackers and hobbyists.

I haven't actually lost the battery cover yet (heck, I haven't even received the KX5 yet), but I also found another reason to look again at the current state of 3D printing. Because as well as a keytar, everyone at some point needs a MIDI hurdy-gurdy.



https://midigurdy.com/

This lovely machine created by Marcus Weseloh can be yours for only £2K, but there's currently a two year waiting list. However, Hackaday's XenonJohn has promised to put up the 3D print files for his open source DigiGurdy very soon, so that's pretty exciting.



(He was quite chuffed to get a mention in Prog magazine this month.)



Anyone got a 3D printer yet and done anything musical with it...?

[BJG145]

KX5 turned up today. As it turns out, it didn't have the battery cover after all. Unfortunately that was the least of its problems.



This was the result of pulling it apart and reassembling it without the broken keys. Well, it was cheap. :tongue:

* * * * *

The Internet is an amazing thing...found an article here by a guy with exactly the same problem, KX5 turned up with the plastic hinge broken off six keys and didn't fancy getting ripped off by someone in Chile selling them for £15 a shot on eBay (the only game in town). So he fashioned a replacement bit out of 6060 Aluminium.

I became briefly distracted researching the different grades of Aluminium - more than you can shake a metal rod at. Then thought about the guy in Chile again. I'm a bit rubbish at sheds and tools and things. Maybe I'll drop him a note after all.

I bet Howard Jones never had this trouble.

[ManFromGlass]

I have an aged Roland AX-1 in that look-at-me red. Some of the keys stopped working 2 years ago. Somehow Roland was able to fix it. It’s still my main writing keyboard at my studio although I have it on a bench rather than wearing it.
I always liked the short keyboard because you couldn’t just bang out full dense chords, it forced me to think about high, middle and low end parts as I wrote.

Maybe a searching of the internet for people with 3-d printers who could do better than the Chile guy? Or is there a local uni with students looking for 3D projects? A 3D printer shop that might make them for you?

[BJG145]

I have an aged Roland AX-1 in that look-at-me red.

Great...! Yes, keytars are always eye-catching. They're rarely sighted here in Norwich anyways.

Maybe a searching of the internet for people with 3-d printers who could do better than the Chile guy? Or is there a local uni with students looking for 3D projects?

...yeah...I actually work at the local uni. I guess I should get out of the office once in a while...

[Dynahoe Dave]

I run and maintain a couple of 3D printers for work. I am in the process of getting one set up for my own use. I might be able to do things like this in a few weeks.

[BJG145]

...gee, I'm really regretting this KX5.

In the end I turned to the Chilean who had the last five black keys in the world, and threw in an extra white. Still cost me more than the keyboard, but, hey. It would be worth it...

They turned up today and I spent the last hour fitting them...takes the dexterity and patience of a watchmaker, neither of which qualities I have in abundance, but got there in the end. I found I was still a G down at the end of the operation...either it was already broken and I didn't notice, or it broke while I was sorting out the others. *sigh*.

Never mind. I thought I'd check on progress and plugged it into my JV30. It gave a solitary pitchbending piano twang...and the lights went out. Can't even power the b*****d up now. :cry:

[ManFromGlass]

Did a bit of colourful language follow? I feel your pain.

[BJG145]

Thanks for the empathy MFG. It might not be too bad...I dismantled it a bit further than I had previously and found some very dodgy wiring for the power. It came back to life again when I cut most of it out and held the input against the battery terminals.

This thing only runs from batteries, no PSU input, but I've ordered what I hope will be a compatible replacement battery holder to hold half a dozen AAs in the narrow channel. (In fact, I ordered five of them, because that was the minimum quantity available for the only one I could track down in the UK which looked compatible. But still, only a couple of quid each.)

The saga is extremely like the KX5 key repair blog I mentioned before...KX5 turns up with six keys broken in one characteristic way:





...and in the course of fixing them, a seventh breaks in a different characteristic way.



I did procure an aluminium rod for the first type of repair, looked at it for a while, then remembered I don't have any tools or DIY skills and pushed the button on the Chile dealer. I'll probably go through a similar process again for the newly broken key, though I might have a quick go because I think that pointy bit might be just a guide for seating the key, rather than the hooky bit which is more tough and structural.

Anyway, I can see I'm losing you here, so I'll get back to it...will wake y'all up with that Howard Jones solo when I finally get this thing working.

******************

Apropos of (almost) nothing, a friend got me into a gig by Montreal prog/rock band Mystery he was promoting yesterday, and the lead singer was prancing round with his keytar as though it was Excalibur. It looked like a wedgey modern thing, an Alesis Vortex probably. My scruffy KX5 is gonna be waay more cool. :geek:

[Folderol]

Oh come on now... You really should bite the bullet and get your hands dirty. Fashioning those bits should just be a bit of fun.

[BJG145]

Do you know what I remember about metalwork classes Folderol?

Detention.

:-|

[ManFromGlass]

Aaah so. A fellow sh1t disturber! :mrgreen:

[BJG145]

...in the end I put the final KX5 key back together with a generous helping of superglue. It feels a bit squidgy compared to the others, even now it's dry, but, it's OK.

But there were other issues requiring delicate circuit-board handling and a pointy soldering iron, so I've dropped it in at the local electronics repair place - Webster's Technical Services. Sometimes they accept the busted music tech gadgets I bring in, sometimes they don't. But when they do, they always do a fine job, so I'm hoping they'll get this thing gig-ready for me. (I did point out that Howard Jones had one, in case they needed convincing. They mainly fix TVs.)

There's also an update on the other theme of this thread - the digi-gurdy. I got in touch with the inventor and it turns out that it's all now available for DIY construction, and that he's also going to make and sell a handful himself. I immediately got on the list for number 6 - hopefully to be completed within a couple of months. This baby is Boutique with a capital B. :D

(Nigel Eaton is a fan, so that tells you all you need to know, if you're in the know. I've gone for the deluxe version with a crank handle; I think it's made out of fishing rod parts or something.)



https://hackaday.io/project/165251-the-digi-gurdy

[ConcertinaChap]

Nigel Eaton is a fan, so that tells you all you need to know, if you're in the know.

Think Blowzabella for those who aren't. Yes, that tempts me ...

CC

[BJG145]

I got a call from Webster's to say that the KX5 was ready for collection...

...now, like I say, these are general electronics repair types, A/V mainly. I wouldn't expect them to hook the thing up to MidiOX and check the output - I just asked them to get it to power up reliably. Which they did.

Unfortunately though, although the thing now turned on and could vaguely trigger notes, it produced all kinds of MIDI garbage when you flexed it even slightly, or tried to use aftertouch. And that's hopeless. Because I don't want to cradle it like a Fabergé egg, I want to jump around and swing it like Korg lady.

I nearly gave up at this point, but after another coffee I sighed heavily and dismantled it for the umpteenth time. And I found that it had been reassembled in such a way that a couple of circuit boards which should sit in a groove, weren't; they were sitting beside the groove. So I sorted that out...





...and, amazingly, that made the rogue data go away.

(I don't blame them for this faux pas. To be honest I wouldn't say that Yamaha left no stone unturned in the pursuit of engineering excellence when they designed this thing. It's a bit gimcrack frankly.)

There were still some stubborn keys that were triggering wrongly, or not at all, but another hour or so fettling the contacts eventually settled them down.



(Great word, "fettling". I picked it up from the Northumbrian smallpipes community; they're always fettling things.)

And...yay! It finally works like a charm. Happy days. :D

[Folderol]

Well done!
And extra props for perseverance (and fettling of course) :)

[Martin Walker]

Aye, it pays to get into a groove, doesn't it BJG145? :beamup:


Martin

[BJG145]

...what is da-dum, da-da-da-ah-ah-ah, anyway...

...sorry, what was that?

Just distracted listening to my Howard Jones cassettes...

[Sam Spoons]

(Great word, "fettling". I picked it up from the Northumbrian smallpipes community; they're always fettling things.)

:D Yup, fettling :- making something work properly (and possibly as well as it is possible to work). We yotters do it a lot, the next step up is 'bimbling', which is, basically, fettling with added shiny new bits. :D

[blinddrew]

Well fettled! :thumbup:

[Wonks]

I've always understood 'bimbling' to mean a sort of ambling along with no particular objective in mind.