voodoo5_6k wrote:

blackmasked wrote:

What's your experience with power supplies for Roland SC and Yamaha MU modules? Have you experienced any failures? I recently purchased a genuine Yamaha PA-130 PSU for my MU80 as I no longer trust the 20 year old PSU that came with it, but it's a bit of a struggle to find a decent replacement PSU for a SC-55. Looks like Roland has not released a newer version of ACB-240 and I don't really trust all these third party compatible PSUs available on ebay.

Oh yes, they did release a replacement unit.

The Roland PSB-230 (or PSB-1U if bundled with a Roland device) can replace, among others, any Roland ACB or ACI PSU (the PSUs bundled with e.g. MT-32, CM-32L, SC-55 and many, many other devices). I use these for all my Roland devices (UM-550, CM-32L, SC-55) for several years now. Shouldn't be too hard to find one, it is a current product.

And if you want noise-free sound output, getting an original Roland-branded power supply apparently is the better choice, as cheap no-name Chinese units are known to cause interference issues on synths...

I hope I'll get a Roland SC-55 and/or an MT-32 one day... and the first thing I'll do will certainly be to check the battery, after seeing this thread 😀

Elia1995 wrote:

I hope I'll get a Roland SC-55 and/or an MT-32 one day... and the first thing I'll do will certainly be to check the battery, after seeing this thread 😀

The MT-32 doesn't use a battery unless it's the 2nd version (headphone jack), or not at all, I believe. The SC-55 and higher use them to keep the soundbank data (if my memory serves me right).

Just opened my SC-55mkII (bought 7 years ago for $140) and battery was in perfect shape. I removed it anyway.

PS. holy crap Tyrian sounds amazing on an SC-55. Run the setup.exe to access the Jukebox.

What is that battery for anyway? I think SC-55 and MT-32 use electrical plugs, but not owning either YET, I can't really point my fingers at that, as they could also use batteries, as much as I know...

To keep user settings, just like the CMOS battery in a PC.

No mt-32 revisions use batteries or store settings after power-off , there are mods to add a battery though in order to keep settings and that's the reason SC-55 does have a battery: to keep settings/setup according to the artist's setup/wishes. Unless there is a very specific setup issue a common user like a gamer can remove the battery all together and the unit will startup with the default settings every time, something that is actually desirable for gaming reasons.

Well, as expected the SC-88Pro also had a battery. I needed to remove the screws holding the main, upper board before I could access the battery to remove it.

I should add that the battery was showing very early signs of corrosion. No issue now, but as always, it is better to take the precaution.

Just had another SB-55 with severe damage due to leaking caps on the interface board. This makes a rate of 100% so far (two checked, two damaged). In both cases, traces were completely gone. Fortunately, it's easy to fix. But still, check your SB-55 if you got one!

you should, i once opened one
and one side of the battery was completely white
removing the battery it was a dust kind of particle, all white. but it did not ruin the pcb.

I know this thread is about the SC-55, but this is about another SC so I guess it fits here. How exactly are you supposed to take the battery out of an SC-88 Pro? I feel like I'm gonna snap the plastic off the battery holder every time I pull on the battery and try to pry it out upwards. If I can't get it out then it's not the biggest deal; I couldn't find any signs of corrosion on it (the top, battery holder, and area around the holder were completely clean, and nothing came off the bottom of the battery when I pressed it with a pair of tweezers), but I'd like to replace it just to be safe if I can.

SpeedySPCFan wrote:

I know this thread is about the SC-55, but this is about another SC so I guess it fits here. How exactly are you supposed to take the battery out of an SC-88 Pro? I feel like I'm gonna snap the plastic off the battery holder every time I pull on the battery and try to pry it out upwards. If I can't get it out then it's not the biggest deal; I couldn't find any signs of corrosion on it (the top, battery holder, and area around the holder were completely clean, and nothing came off the bottom of the battery when I pressed it with a pair of tweezers), but I'd like to replace it just to be safe if I can.

I used two thin blades: one to pry up the front, and the other to push from behind. Be gentle and it will be fine.

I didn't do exactly that but I got it to work, thanks! I propped the battery up with my finger, and then wiggled it back-side to back-side with a super tiny screw driver. Eventually it slid right out, and I was able to replace it with a new battery. The old one was just barely starting to leak, so I'm glad I did that. Ironically though the new battery I put in (which is an Energizer I've had laying around for years) has LESS battery than the old one so I'll have to get a replacement for that tomorrow. It's not all bad though, because I needed to record some footage of me replacing the battery for a review 😀

If this was already mentioned I apologize, but do these SC modules use a rechargeable type coin cell battery in them? I have an MT-200 and the battery is a tabbed soldered in type. Was thinking about yanking it out of there and putting a holder in place and a fresh battery, but if they are rechargeable then I would need to make sure I got a rechargeable cell.

Also, there is a date and time clock on the MT-200 that you can see via the "hidden" diag menu. But doesn't appear there is a way to set that as the alpha knob and buttons do nothing on that particular section?

Nothing in the hidden menu is mentioned in either of the two standard MT-200 manuals and I've not seen an actual service manual for one (Which, would probably answer all of my questions.).

The SC modules use the regular lithium batteries (non-rechargeable).

I opened up mine today and the battery had definitely been leaking. Luckily none of it made it to the board, but it was not a pretty sight anyway. I just removed it.

Removed the battery from my SC-88 Pro yesterday. It had signs of leakage, too. No damage, however, as the leakage only sticked on the coin cell itself. The SC-88 Pro works fine without the battery, just as the SC-55, but you lose some features like MIDI IN B or second audio out, which are both off by default and won't stay on with the battery removed.

The battery was primarily used for musicians, right? Without the battery, that should be OK for PCs (games), if my memory serves me right.

Well, for games it makes no difference. But the unit will not store any settings you make.

bjwil1991 wrote:

The battery was primarily used for musicians, right? Without the battery, that should be OK for PCs (games), if my memory serves me right.

I had my SC-88 Pro without a battery for a few days since I didn't have any replacements on hand. As a musician, it's really nice to have it in since it saves things like the MIDI OUT/MIDI THRU toggle, instrument patches, etc. But for games it saves absolutely nothing of importance and you can keep it removed.