Need electronics help - 2 questions

[Toddskins]

'Would much appreciate some expertise on the following couple of issues regarding my Novation Supernova II keyboard.

1) Two of the LED's inside two of the buttons on my keyboard have never lit up, since the day I took delivery on the keyboard. Service from Novation was nonexistant (that's another story).

So, from these pics you can see that the buttons come off the switches easily enough and, contrary to what a Novation techie told me, the LED is NOT built inside and as part of the button, but rather the LED sits inside the switch. The button sits on top of the LED. The Light Emitting Diode looks like a tiny light bulb, but I had difficulty using the Macro feature on my digital camera to get in close.

These pics show the 2 buttons removed and the switches exposed.

Question 1 - Can the LED inside the switch be replaced easily enough, and if so, how do you do it? Please give details, thanks.


Oh, one other important fact, maybe - the buttons function just fine. It's just the LED's that do not light up inside the buttons.



See my next post for the 2nd question.

 

[Toddskins]

2nd question - Where is the battery?

I've had my Novation Supernova II for 5 years, and know that the battery for saving my programs must be needing to be replaced, although I've had no issues thus far.

While taking apart my keyboard to clean dust and dirt out of its contacts, I thought I might see a battery in it and replace it. I found no battery.


How does the Novation save programs when the power cord is not plugged in?


Look at these pics, and tell me whatever you can. I did not see a battery on the "motherboards", nor in the power unit, but maybe it does not look like anything I'm familiar with, i.e. a coin, or a hearing aid battery.


Help please.

 

[Waffleness]

How does the Novation save programs when the power cord is not plugged in?

Its witchcraft I tells ya!

Flash memory? You don't necessarily need a battery store data on a chip. It could be a non-volatile storage medium.

 

[Waffleness]

Question 1 - Can the LED inside the switch be replaced easily enough, and if so, how do you do it? Please give details, thanks.

To replace and LED, just solder another one into the place the old one was.

Although - I am not convinced its an LED problem. Can you get a multimeter onto the contacts to check if you have a signal driving the LED's? If there is no power to them, then the problem may be further up the line, and replacing the LED's won't do anything

Is it really worth it? Its only 2 LEDs.

 

[Toddskins]

Flash memory

Its witchcraft I tells ya!

Flash memory? You don't necessarily need a battery store data on a chip. It could be a non-volatile storage medium.

That makes sense.

My Kurzweil has what is called P-Ram in it (Program Ram), which requires 3 AA batteries to retain the memory in it.

It did not dawn on me that the technology of something like my USB memory stick, could actually be used in synthesizers. Flash memory is still not something I can get my head around, even though I was just reading about it on Wikipedia. I guess it's something list a super-sophisticated floppy disk, right? lol



And no, I do not have a multi-meter, nor would I know how to use one.

 

[Waffleness]

And no, I do not have a multi-meter, nor would I know how to use one.

Please do not take this the wrong way - but if you don't own a multimeter and don't know how to use one, you shouldn't be trying to fix the electronics in your keyboard!

If you are interested in learning about electronics and music tech, maybe buy a book or 2, and play with some simple circuits. Diving straight into a consumer synth and trying to understand how it works is tough if you haven't had any previous experience!