Hi there. I ordered an ESQ-1 battery from here and just took a few hours to swap the battery. I turned the synth back on afterwards and I’m still getting the low battery message. I factory reset it, same thing.
I made sure to put the battery in the correct orientation. Does anyone know why this may be happening?
I’m assuming that you checked the new battery with a voltmeter to make sure it was at full potential? Sometimes batteries that hang around for years lose charge…
Sorry, got busy with work. I hadn’t checked before since I wrongly assumed it would work. I will check now
Okay now I’m really confused. The battery is measuring above 3.3 Volts DC
Do you have everything put back together? If the keybed is left disconnected for example the Low Battery warning may still not go away.
I know this is old, but I kept the synth on for months to keep the patch memory. The synth worked fine during that time. I decided to open it up and add more solder per someone’s suggestion. Now the synth constantly says low battery. I don’t know if the battery was shipped to me originally with low voltage but it looks like I’m going to have to try again with a new battery.
If the btter is still good then It could be a bad solder joint or a broken trace
There are other problems that can cause the low battery message. Check out page 9 of the service manual, it has some info about tracing down the problem. If the battery measured around 3 V then the battery is good and your synth may have a problem elsewhere.
Then has happened to me as well since this summer. I replaced the battery on an ESQ-1 I had just bought and now I occaisionally get the low battery warning. Not every time I power up though. Thoughts anyone? I guess I should open it up and check the battery voltage and look at the service manual p. 9 as suggested?
I’ve had a number of these come through my shop in the last couple of years… the information on this forum is all still very much valid, but my findings on these units is that a recap is typically necessary to get these back on line when all else fails, and all other issues have been addressed, ie, eproms, reset…
but one thing that seems to be also consistent, is that CMOS CHIP: CD4051 is a very likely candidate for boards that have deeper issues.
This is a tough repair for a novice, as these boards are very delicate. Their traces often the problem as well, but having worked on a few of them now, that particular CMOS has been the bane of my existence on other keyboards as well!
The removal of it and replacing is always sketchy little thing. The success of this is greatly reliant on having the proper tools to remove this chip and replace it effectively… ie, a good solder pump, so you don’t stress the fine traces, and a good technique, so you don’t overheat the board!
One thing I have found is that these boards simply can’t handle a lot of troubleshooting, removal, heating, or removal and replacement of components… that shotgunning components at the board level on a board like this is it’s effective death sentence.
When I get these, now, I go through all the basics of what we have here and try not to remove the board more than once or twice, because these boards are flimsy and the traces fracture just from regular use.
Basically, if the problem becomes obviously board related, it’s a recap job, eprom replace… cmos replace… and reset. Any further seems to be counterproductive, and the board becomes more and more unstable and eventually won’t even boot.