Protip: when a seller says that something contains a new battery, check the battery anyway. That's two things saved tonight.

So here's the total: I removed the battery on an SC55, SC88Pro, MU90, and JV1010. All were leaking to varying degrees. I still have to open up the JV1080, but I'm sure that'll be leaking too. Should have probably taken the battery out when I opened it up last time, but it didn't look too bad when I glanced at it, but all of these the leaking was hard to see from the top. It was all over the bottom of the battery.

Luckily, every single one of these batteries was in a plastic holder, which I think is the main thing that really saved me, especially in the case of the MU90 which had the worst leaking of all. That one was flat out disgusting.

Wow, I think Ive seen maybe one or two leaky 2032 cells in my life, AFAICR.

I have seen non expired alkaline AA batteries suddenly reach the threshold of suddenly triggering a low battery indicator AND being found to be leaking the next day (admittedly, they might have started leaking before the low battery indicator lit up). These were cheapish ones (local pharmacy branded).

These are the only ones I have ever seen that were bad. I opened up the Jv -1080, and that battery was fine. The jv-1080 battery had lithium written on it, I thought these were all lithium, but I’ve heard there are also non-lithium coin cell batteries too? That’s the only thing I can think.

It’s really strange anyway that all 4 of these were bad given that I’ve also never encountered a bad one before. Guess it just goes to show you should always check!

My MU50 finally started to complain about low battery. When I got it 5 years ago it still got decent voltage. So around 25+ years and no leakage - not bad at all. Can't see manufacturer behind spotwelded contact but "Made in Japan" is clearly visible.

Does anyone know if it is possible to desolder the internal (three pinned) battery of a PMA-5 and just leave it at that, if intended use is just as a MIDI module? Or does a battery or connection need to be present on the board?

These coin cells won't last forever, if it even still has a charge. So there is little harm in being proactive and giving it a try.

Yes, wanted to remove it proactively, but was wondering if I should try to source a replacement cell because 'something' needs to be there for continuity, or if I could just as well leave it off.

Take a picture of what it looks like. You can always solder on a replacement. Just be sure to mark with lead is the positive end.

sndwv wrote on 2024-01-20, 12:07:

Does anyone know if it is possible to desolder the internal (three pinned) battery of a PMA-5 and just leave it at that, if intended use is just as a MIDI module? Or does a battery or connection need to be present on the board?

I've actually replaced the battery in the PMA-5 with a low profile battery holder a few years back for a buddy of mine. But I believe it will still likely work fine as a module only without it. Most of these devices only use the battery to store configuration settings that aren't default and parameter settings on those modules that allow it. I guess also for sequencer modules, the battery is needed for Date/Time when saving compositions but they would likely work without them either way. Just have to deal with the annoying message.

Hello, my SC-155 is giving me sound breaks both in mic and line out. I already changed all capacitors and battery.
Any ideas what this could be? seems like broken solder jointts because if a move it, it changes the behaviour. But i cant seem to find any.

If you already replaced the capacitors, you may add well try reflowing the connectors. I found cracks in the solder connections for the output jacks on several of my synthesizers when I last inspected them for refurbishment.

It's possible that there are cracks but they aren't visible to the naked eye in your case.

Roland SC-55 Refurbishment

Well, just done it but was no good... it's with same issue.
Any more ideas of what should i seek?

Get a cheap audio connector, cut off one end, solder a wire to the connecting solder connection, and clip a multimeter in continuity mode to either end. Then jiggle the connector to see if the tone gets interrupted.

This is the least invasive way to determine if there is a break in continuity, either at the joint or the connector. There may be a defect inside the connector itself. This will allow you to verify that without replacing it entirely, if a suitable replacement even exists.

Update, i got the clear sound yesterday and it was very nice, but today i can get midi sounds from supported games, but they sound all crazy, they come and go, levels are increasing and decreasing in the lcd.
I replace all switches also when i replace the capacitors, all of this is very weird to me and im out of ideas.

I wonder if this is related. Try a hard reset on your device and see if it works properly then.

The Roland Sound Canvas SC-55mkII may be out of tune when powered on without a battery

This is how it sounds in games, also in midi samples.
Normal passthrough sound from soundcard is ok. So, i guess is not a power problem?

Did you try to reset the device from the front panel?

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-02-05, 17:41:

Did you try to reset the device from the front panel?

Yes, reset all, reset to gs, reset to mt-32,,,
Is something missing? What is the combo Keys?
Br

I believe the procedure is power the unit on while holding the instrument left and right buttons. This will provide a menu to reset "all". It sounds like you already tried this?

You also mentioned that you replaced all of the capacitors? Did it sound like this before you refurbished the unit? It's possible that you installed one or not capacitors in backwards.