Dismantling and cleaning a Fatar Studiologic SL990 Pro
Hi everyone,
Dismantling and cleaning a Fatar Studiologic SL990 Pro
Firstly I'd like to say a big thanks to Toddskins for starting this thread. It has been invaluable to me regarding my SL990. So cheers to him.
Secondly I thought I'd share with everyone my experience of opening, dismantling and cleaning my Fatar Studiologic keyboard if only just to encourage people and letting you know that it's not such a daunting task as perhaps this thread makes it seem. The following process took me a little over an hour whilst watching Bad Santa the other day.
So....
The Problems...
After having bought my keyboard off eBay there were a couple of existing issues....
Firstly, 2 of the keys were broken which although didn't render them unplayable, meant that they no longer 'hooked' underneath the keybed and so bounced up higher than usual after being played.
Secondly, a short while after purchasing the keyboard I noticed that the 2nd F below middle C was not responding correctly. It would play when given a good old bang, but light playing resulted in no sound being produced.
The Solution...
#1 - Prepare
The very first thing I recommend anyone attempting this to do is to read through this entire thread a few times. Also, make sure you register with HomeRecording.com so that you are able to see the photos that people have uploaded. Some parts of the thread won't make sense until you have taken various bits of your keyboard apart and can see exactly how the Fatar keybed fits together - but get yourself familiar with what steps you will need to go through.
#2 - Opening the SL990 Pro
This is VERY easy to do. DO NOT jump stright in and turn the keyboard over and start unscrewing everything - you're just making it harder on yourself. Place the keyboard normal side up on an X-Stand and raise it high enough so you can work underneath it. You'll see quite a few screws that are available to undo. IGNORE THEM ALL.
There are 3 different functions for the screws on the outside of an SL990. The ones at the far 2 ends secure the end pieces on. DO NOT UNDO THEM - just ignore them. They are simply holding your case together and I'm guessing you want to keep the case in one piece. The next set to ignore for now are the ones which are underneath the keybed. These are holding the keybed to the metal frame and you need to open the frame before you undo those.
The screws you need to undo are the ones you cannot see right now. On the two ends you should see 6 holes (3 each end) going into the case. At the end of each of these holes is a phillips head screw, so get your phillips head screwdriver out, stick it into each of these holes, find the cross and undo them all. If you can't see these holes then they may have stickers over them or something.
Once they are undone the case will now open up on a hinge which is at the back. You will probably need to lift both ends at the same time, but it should just open up like a door. If it doesn't then don't force it. Check that all the screws are out and that nothing is catching anywhere.
So now you should be looking at the insides of your keyboard. Not much going on in there is there? As you can no doubt see, the SL990 pro is pretty much just a Fatar keybed with a few electronicy type stuff attached. (I'm a web designer - what do I know about circuit boards???)
#3 - Key Replacement
Ok - so it looks like it's going to be pretty easy to swap out those keys.... NOT SO FAST. Each key on the SL990 is kind of like a hook which clips onto the back of the bed and then also hooks underneath a guardrail at the front. Even though you can unclip it at the back easily enough, you'll need to move the keybed back about an inch in order to allow the front of each key to unhook from this rail.
Read through this thread to find the link to the YouTube video of the guy who unclips a single key from the back allowing it to move forward. This will show you how to get off a key. As stated also in this thread, to get at the black keys you need to first remove the surrounding white keys.
Also you're going to need some replacement keys. At the time of writing the only ones I have been able to source are on eBay.co.uk - just type in "Fatar Sapre Keys" and it should come up. They are currently £7.20 each and are specific to keyboards which are spung from below rather than at the back.
In this thread Toddskins explains about the keys which are sprung at the back, my SL990 is not like this. It is sprung from below. Basically the spring on my Fatar pushes the key back upwards rather than pulling it back. It doesn't really make a difference but be aware that if you remove a key then the spring will just be sitting there and if you then turn the bed over without first refitting the key then you'll be hunting around on the floor for that spring for a while.
So... to replace a key you need to move the keybed, which means getting underneath the case again. You're now going to unscrew the main screws directly below the keybed. You may also have to unscrew the 2 rubber feet at the front. Once these are all undone then the keybed should be moveable. If you're just replacing keys then you only have to nudge the whole mechanism backwards a few inches, unclip the required key and replace it and then rebuild in reverse order.
#4 - Cleaning those contacts
If like me you are experiencing some problems regarding velocity sensing then you'll probably want to clean the contacts.
However, in order to gain access to the contacts you're going to need to do a little more dismantling. Firstly I would recommend that you unclip the suspect key and have a look at the top of the rubber contact. I had small bits of junk rattling around on the insides of my keyboard and it only takes a little to get inside the workings of a key to start buggering things up. So clear things up at the top of the keyboard first.
Next I would work out whereabouts on your keyboard the suspect key actually is. In order to get at the contacts you're going to need to turn your keyboard over and at that point everything starts looking a bit samey. So in my case I was looking at the second F up from the bottom. There are 15 notes in a full octave and the keyboard starts on bottom A, so working that through I needed to be looking at contact 21 (where bottom A is 1 and so on)
You've already unfastened the keybed from the frame so you are nearly in a position to flip the bed over, but first you have a couple of ribbon cables attaching the keybed to the electronicy things mounted at the back of the keyboard. These should just be straightforward clips which you can ease apart, but be careful here or you'll be having to order something from the internet which you really could have avoided.
Before you unclip make sure you note which way around these ribbon cables reattach or you may do something horrid once power is switched on.
So now you can pick up the entire keybed and flip it over. I would recommend doing this onto a padded surface, I dumped mine onto the sofa.
The SL990 now is pretty much exacly as Toddskins explains it earlier in this thread. The only major difference is that on the SL990 there are a number of bracket things which further attach the keyboard circuit boards to the keybed frame. These need to come off. Also - BE VERY CAREFUL to notice that the two circuit boards are connected by a small ribbon cable. Don't miss that.
The actual cleaning process is exactly the same as already described. Use Isopropyl to do the cleaning. If you are in the UK then this is pretty easy to buy. First try your local pharmacist - both of mine had or could get it at around £5.50 for 500ml (and I live in a small village in Lancs). You can also get it from Amazon and eBay. I would recommend buying a bottle rather than a vaporiser.
Remember that you noted the number of the key which was suspect? Well this info should come in handy now if you want to specifcally inspect a single contact. Just count that number in. If you've simply flipped your keyboard then you'll be counting from the same side, if you've flipped and turned then you'll need to count from the other end. I just flipped over so my dodgy F was contact point number 21 from the left.
Once you've had a good old clean, and / or entirely replaced your contact strip (see the Midi Store on eBay), then you just need to rebuild in reverse order, plug it all back in and see what happens.
In my case everything was restored to normal.
Conclusion
As stated at the start of this reply, this entire process took me just over an hour and it really wasn't very difficult at all. I have no idea when it comes to electronics, but these Fatar keybeds are designed like Lego. I was thinking that I'd open up the keyboard, rummage around and 2 hours later be surrounded by cables and screws and in the end a broken keyboard, but really it wasn't like that at all. It was more like fixing a washer. A bit of a pain, but simple enough.
I hope some of this helps. This is really just for SL990 users, and perhaps SL880s too - but feel free to ask about anything if I've made a glaring error. Once again, a big thanks to Toddskins who's probably saved a lot of us quite a few quid by just spending a while to show us how to do it.
Cheers.
