Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Faulty key on new RD-800

Ya that completely sounds like one or more Ribbon cables are not seated properly....Hopefully your tech makes it right as rain ASAP, so you can get to playing that beast of piano awesomeness!

Jay

Cheers Jay.

Just got off the phone to both Roland and the tech. He has a similar suspicion. Looks like I'm racing home in my lunch break again to bring it in again. I guess I'm lucky I don't have to send it a hundred km's to Sydney each time...

Would it void the warranty to crack that baby open and just re-seat the ribbon cable? Re-seating a ribbon cable isn't exactly rocket science.

I'm not prepared to go there, petes - Sure it's an inconvenience having to bring it in again but I don't wanna risk voiding my warranty. Plus, I'm not entirely convinced the problem is as simple as that. Hopefully I'm wrong...

The saga continues...

The problem is not related to poorly seated ribbons, I'm told. Tech identified what he thinks is a faulty board, which is now on order, to be delivered from Japan in two weeks. Keyboard is now pretty-much unusable in its current state.

On the bright side, the crippled keyboard is now safely tucked into it's brand new, shiny custom-made seven-hundred-dollar flight case, sitting in the shop, waiting for a part that will (presumably) bring it back to life...

It's a very nice flight case...

When I cracked out RD700NX open there didn't appear to be any telltales. I tend to open anything that seems to need it, most often electrical issues are mechanical in nature.

Very weird. So sorry to hear it. Have to ask if the board exhibited these symptoms before the attempted repair of the faulty key? Sometimes not grounding oneself before touching the internals can cause issues too.

How much is Roland Australia aware of? Our factory service centres tend to check this stuff pretty carefully before releasing a repair.

Sorry there's such a nightmare going on.

Jay

No, the problem wasn't evident before the initial repair. You might be onto something with the grounding thing. The other theory was a cold-solder joint or something cracking when reaching in to unplug a wiring loom.

Thanks for your concern and interest Jay, but it really is a first world problem so I'm gonna make sure I keep it in perspective

Your MP5 is having quite a swan song.

In all seriousness though, I'm sure the problem will be fixed shortly, and you'll be able to enjoy gigging with that lovely new RD-800.

Cheers,
James
x

Ha! It sure is! I have a new appreciation for its worth, that's for sure!

Roland rep just called me back. They've organised an express delivery from Japan (next few days) and will replace all boards in the RD to eliminate the possibility of mis-diagnosis and further delay.

That's what i would expect. We care. We really do. And we try hard.

Jay

Wow - that's great service from Roland! Such things should be an important part when choosing an instrument.

Looks like you got great service from Roland. Question, has any one had issues with their Service or communicating with Roland. Have the same key issue with another company, now they don't even respond to e-mails. If Roland service is that good, looking to sell my Great Piano, would keep it even though I have had 3 keys fixed, and another one is going bad, but lousy service, not from the dealer, but from the US distributor.

I don't have any experience of any other DP manufacturer, but I certainly can't fault Roland's service.

I had a 'problem' with my V-Piano four years ago (entirely of my own making, when I botched up several attempts to install the free update). Once I contacted Roland, they arranged collection of my V from my home at a time that suited me, and returned it to me within a week, all at no cost to myself.

All I needed to do was to pack it carefully back into its box prior to collection.

Just got word that parts arrived today (including a whole new key contact strip to replace the one "scratched" by the debris on the original faulty key) and it's all back together and working as it should.

I'll report back once I've put it through its paces but I have to say that the response from Roland has been exceptional.

So I had a play last night and it all seemed to work as it should.

However, it did display one bit of odd behaviour. When scrolling through the presets, I had selected the ”European pf” tone and pressed the enter key. This caused the keyboard to switch to a tonewheel organ patch and the edit screen brought up the drawbars etc. It did this a few times, then when I switched to a different patch, then back to that patch, the behaviour was normal. I was not able to reproduce the glitch.

I guess it may be a firmware bug but will let Roland and the tech know just in case things deteriorate.

How can I put this diplomatically...?

This keyboard is f@#ked.

Finally had my first rehearsal with it last night.

Apart from my struggles to dial in a workable piano tone (clearly this thing doesn't like mono) all the issues detailed earlier in this thread came back after about an hour of playing, starting with the switching-to-tonewheel organ thing described in my last post.

Within minutes of that, things deteriorated badly and it's doing the layering thing again and I can't access any menus. Now the exit button brings up a live-set swap option and most buttons take me straight to that blessed Tonewheel organ live set patch.

Plus a whole heap of other weirdness.

The whole thing seems to start once I attempt to access various parameters such as effects to try and shape a sound.

I just want to get my money back and forget this ever happened.

But then I'll be stuck with a $700 flight case.

My confidence in the rd-800 is shattered.

I'm not even convinced that if I get a fully working replacement after all this drama that I'll be able to get a piano sound I like.

The fact that the Rhodes patches seem to work well is small consolation.

By the end of next week it will be five gigs running that I've owned this heavy, awkward slab and not been able to use it.

Sorry for venting...

The button problems started after the unit was opened for fixing the key problem, right?
It is clearly the problems were introduced by the service person.
I think at least you should ask for a new unit.

The good news is that Roland has agreed to ship a new unit to me and take the old one back, which is the ideal solution as they will hopefully be able to analyse what the heck is going on and resolve the issue for future customers.