Forum for all other samplers & synths such as Maschine, MVs, Akai S & Z series, Roland, Korg, OP-1, analog synths etc.
By aug_chord Wed May 08, 2019 6:31 pm
Hi, new member here.

So, I'm trying to figure out to install a new backlight for my S900 (which I've never actually used before). The old Telesis instructions are unclear, but I've included a pic here to help ask my question.

I know that I have to solder 1) (the inverter power leads) to 2) the copper contacts on the new backlight . But I am also supposed to have these also soldered to 3) the display card? My display card does have old solder on this display card, but when I removed everything,there was nothing actually soldered to it (of course, it's possible the solder could have come undone).

I did solder 1) and 2) together, which did get the backlight going. However, there was text, and I don't know if that an issue with the unit itself or if all three things have to be soldered together.

Image
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By mr_debauch Thu May 09, 2019 2:09 am
that should have slipped behind the glass of the screen.. I think you just need to connect the wire to the pins on the backlight. I did mine a long time ago so I can't 100% remember.
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By richie Thu May 09, 2019 7:47 am
All you had to do was remove the old backlight which easily slips out, desolder the wires connected to the dead backlight and re-solder those wires to the new backlight.
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By peterpiper Thu May 09, 2019 1:48 pm
richie wrote:All you had to do was remove the old backlight which easily slips out, desolder the wires connected to the dead backlight and re-solder those wires to the new backlight.


Not on my s950. The backlight foil was glued to the PCB so I had to take it apart just like the OP did. Had some issues with some of the letters caused by not not exactly positioned rubbercontactthings (whatever they are called) but after a cup of tea and carefully redo disassamble and put together it worked.

to the OP:
I made a PDF with pictures back then. It might help although its written in german.
It seem your backlight foil have different contacts. Do they reach the solder on the PCB? If not solder the cable directly to the contacts on the foil but since the contacts then are very close to the metalframe I would cover them with tape.
Also be careful when reassembling the metalframe that holds the display. The display-contacts (rubber things) need to have contact but also don't want to be squeezed too much.

http://samplerhelp.epizy.com/S950%20Displayfolie.pdf

peace
By aug_chord Thu May 09, 2019 7:43 pm
Thanks for the feedback.

The Telesis instructions did mention to slide the (old) backlight out, but it wouldn't slide out, so I was forced to take the glass/metal/PCB display enclosure apart. I found that the old backlight was rubber-cemented to the PCB, so I had to peel the backlight off. Soldering the inverter wires to the backlight contacts is a bit tricky, but it's doable. The presence of the PCB's soldered contacts is what's really confusing, though. The new backlight will illuminate when soldered to the inverter cable, but is it that text won't register unless the backlight contacts (soldered onto the inverter cable) also makes contact with the PCB contacts?

Peterpiper: I tried to accessing your page, but it won't load. The PCB's contacts are supposed to touch the backlight's contacts when everything is put back together? And the rubber contacts you're referring to are the long rubber inside part of the glass enclosure? These rubber contacts are supposed to make contact with the edges of the backlight when the backlight is reinserted, and to tape the backlight in such a way that its foil contacts (newly soldered onto the inverter cable) make contact with the PCB contacts?

Unfortunately, it seems Telesis the company doesn't exist anymore to get definitive guidance on installing their backlights.
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By richie Thu May 09, 2019 8:29 pm
That is super strange. All the S900 and S950 units I've repaired, I've never had the back light EL strip glued in and doesn't make much sense to me why it would be. I have always performed the upgrade as I mentioned above so I cannot really account for what you are experiencing unfortunately.

The sad part about this is, by you removing the actual LCD - You ended up breaking your screen. The pads on that are naturally required to touch the contacts on the screen to send the necessary data to it.

Your choice now? Since you can solder you should go on eBay and find yourself a 40x2 LCD. Pick whatever color you want, they range from $10-20 dollars and will never require the backlight to be repaired again.
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By peterpiper Thu May 09, 2019 9:15 pm
richie wrote:
The sad part about this is, by you removing the actual LCD - You ended up breaking your screen. The pads on that are naturally required to touch the contacts on the screen to send the necessary data to it.


Image

its not THAT bad. A bit of frickling but hey I managed to get it work again so others will manage it too.

richie wrote:Your choice now? Since you can solder you should go on eBay and find yourself a 40x2 LCD. Pick whatever color you want, they range from $10-20 dollars and will never require the backlight to be repaired again.


ok NOW we're talking. Thats an argument for sure :) If I would have issues with the display again, yes I would buy one of those.

peace


@ aug_chord: have you try to rightclick the link and save as.. ? For me the link work.
By aug_chord Thu May 09, 2019 11:35 pm
richie wrote:That is super strange. All the S900 and S950 units I've repaired, I've never had the back light EL strip glued in and doesn't make much sense to me why it would be. I have always performed the upgrade as I mentioned above so I cannot really account for what you are experiencing unfortunately.

The sad part about this is, by you removing the actual LCD - You ended up breaking your screen. The pads on that are naturally required to touch the contacts on the screen to send the necessary data to it.

Your choice now? Since you can solder you should go on eBay and find yourself a 40x2 LCD. Pick whatever color you want, they range from $10-20 dollars and will never require the backlight to be repaired again.


I found a listing on ebay for $29. I'll try one last crack with what I have before I go that route. Question: the glass LED has some rainbow colors on one side end -- which end is situated near the ribbon pins (i.e., closer to the power button)? I'll resolder the backlight to the inverter cable, reassamble the display as well I can, and hope for the best.
By aug_chord Wed Jun 19, 2019 3:31 am
UPDATE:

Ok, so I finally purchased and installed a new LED. I decided to to go for a brand new LED screen rather than used -- about $50 new from ebay seller glitchscience. The new LED works fine, and I'm finally able to try this sampler out using some of the sample sound floppy disks the previous owner supplied. (though I haven't tried recording anything, yet). Even better, I've discovered that the previous owner had upgraded the original DD floppy disk drive to an HD floppy drive.

Recently, I obtained another vintage bit of MIDI technology (because this is all new to me) -- a Roland MIDI micro-composer. I haven't tried it out, yet, and it looks kind of intimidating. Can this S900 work with the micro-composer, and, if so, what kind of fun can I have with the two of them working together?
By aug_chord Sun Jun 30, 2019 2:10 pm
Can anyone post a quick-and-easy guide to saving sampled sounds to within a user-made program and then onto disk so that the sounds are accessible via the user-made program? The manual (and the youtube clips from the old VHS tutorial) don't explain this very well, if at all. They go through step-by-step detail on how to edit samples, but not on how to actually create and save a usable program.

So, the program diskettes I have from the previous owner will load the created program, and then when I want to play the sampled sounds, there is a menu which displays the edited samples, which are numbered 01, 02, 03, etc., accessible by cursor/enter.

I want to create my own program disks. I've recorded and named two quick sounds, and saved them onto disk as samples, thinking that the samples will automatically appear numbered along with their titles as part of a program menu for my own disk. However, when I load the disk program -- for the moment, I've just kept the program name as default "TONE PRGM" -- and then try to play the sounds off the disk, there is only TONE PRGM on the screen, but no menu of samples. I can access the samples via EDIT SAMPLE, but that's about it. Apparently, the samples must first be wrapped within a user-made program to be accessible through a program menu, but that's the crucial step I'm trying to figure out.
By aug_chord Sun Jun 30, 2019 9:44 pm
Ok, answering my own question. It looks like the trick to creating a disk with multiple programs and a menu is to first transfer a single program from disk onto unit memory, then transfer that transferred program (now in unit memory) to a second disk (target disk), then to delete unit memory, then to transfer a second program from disk to unit memory, which will then get transferred to the target disk, etc. Hopefully, that will create a target disk that contains multiple programs with an accessible menu. Unless, there's some easier way.