broken 500

I'm really not sure how to tell if a board is fried other than it just doesn't work anymore.
When I was at computer school back in 2000, we had to assemble quick dos computers from spare parts in class. And every time mine didn't work my teacher would give me this look and tell me that I fried it.
But he was a funny bird so I dont think its as easy as he made it out to be since I've opened up plenty of computers since then and they haven't fried as soon as I touched them (although since then I do obsessively make sure to ground myself first after getting blamed so many times).
I wouldn't worry about that yet, lets just try to get it to do something when it arrives.

can you post a pic from the service manual of what it looks like??

thanx for ur help man,,and yeah,ive even shocked myself on a board without frying it,so im hoping the same thing!!

hey thanx a ton man i really appreciate it!!

I was looking for something in my MPC500 manual last night and noticed Akai's warning about the contrast screw. Basically they say don't turn with it too far, or try to force it, or even look at it or it can break, requiring repair at their service center. If you can't fix it, you might consider talking to them about a repair. Even a couple hundred bucks and you're still looking at quite a deal.

MeSoHordey wrote:I was looking for something in my MPC500 manual last night and noticed Akai's warning about the contrast screw. Basically they say don't turn with it too far, or try to force it, or even look at it or it can break, requiring repair at their service center. If you can't fix it, you might consider talking to them about a repair. Even a couple hundred bucks and you're still looking at quite a deal.

i hear ya there,but you know how it goes,,they'll tell you if it comes unplugged send it to us and we'll fix it!!but yeah i seen they said that also lol

ok just got it and tore it down to pieces literaly because you have to take the whole thing apart just to get to the contrast pot..well im off to radiohack to grab some contrast..hopefully,,i'll post back after i get something goin!!

Good luck man!

Can't wait to hear if you scored yourself a $75 MPC500 or not.

And keep us updated

hahaha, thats funny, off to radio shack to grab sum contrast

Good luck, keep us posted.

this is nowhere near a tutorial,,i didnt want to take pics because i was kind of in a hurry..

ok well after waiting in anticipation hopeing it was going to just need a factory reset,i reset it to get what you see below..


so after that didnt work,,i ran to the radioshack to grab a 10k poteiometer,,and because they didnt have one anywhere near the same size i bought the smallest one they had(still 10k) but much larger than original..you can see how its different than most in the pic below..



and because of it being much bigger i had to shave one side of the battery holder off like so::


but after 75 bucks on ebay and 1.63 at radioshack and about 4 and a half hours in my living room(you literaly have to take the whole mpc apart).. i have me this

so welcome me to your crowd..ive probably already completed a task more than most

by the way i used a horizontal potieometer so i can still adjust my contrast and i think its probably more sturdy than the original because a tiny screwdriver wont even turn it,muahahaha!!!

plus big thanx to robothom,inflict,and phono,,,you guys really helped me out thanx a lot!!!!

no problem man.. so, did you end up having to solder it in?? looks like you lucked out huh??

always nice with a happy ending, on a side note, this is what i built this week



more info here

http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2009/02 ... r-606.html

inflict,yeah i had to solder it in,but the hardest part was de-soldering because the solder doesnt go all the way through the board,its just on top,,the potentiometer has three little legs like a tack,so i just put solder on the 3 little legs and held it close with some needle nose pliers and touched the legs with the iron,baddabing,new mpc with hella discount..


and phono,i kinda understand how you got your name,,that looks like a hella DIY project,,i really dig ur cleanliness!!!

*edit* is that an effects box??