First post, by leonk
With over 1100 positive feedback on eBay (been there for >17 years .. all personal purchases) today I've got the shock of my life. I purchased a Roland SC-55. Paid the king's ransom for eBay's global priority shipping (what a con!). But at least I think I did well. Item was described as "gently used" and "in very good condition".
Well.. it was FAAAR from that! Some of the buttons didn't work (like power button) so I decided to open it up and investigate. I got the shock of my life!
- lots of rust spots all over the metal frame
- the entire unit had dozens and dozens of DEAD cockroaches!!
Luckily my side hobby is restoring retro consoles for many people around the world, so I proceeded to restore this poor SC-55.
- I stripped the unit
- I removed all dead bodies
- I washed down the chassis and removed all the surface rust (using sand paper)
- I cleaned the PCB with 99% alcohol
- I removed the BIOS from the socket, and removed the dead roaches from under there!
- I took apart the entire front panel (3 pieces) and cleaned all of that up
- I discovered that all the SPST 6x6x5mm push buttons had rust to some degree. 4 of them no longer registered when pushed (including the power button)
- I used my desolder station / soldering station to remove the dead buttons and moved less used buttons to the more used positions
- put it all together and turned it on
Power button works, demo works, unit cycles the 2 songs just fine. Poor SC-55. Now time to order a bunch of replacement switches from DIGIKEY.
3 hours of my life I ain't getting back! ARGGG!!