I recently purchased a used Roland RD-800. Upon delivery, I ran the keyboard through some cursory operations and was happy with the sound and operation. After a few hours experimenting with settings, I found several of the buttons did not work correctly. I contacted the seller and because I wanted to keep the keyboard rather then pay for the return, I negotiated with the seller to refund several hundred dollars which was acceptable to all. I am a computer and electronics repairman and I began the quest to determine what was wrong and what was needed to fix the unit.
I discovered that there were two cracked circuit boards with visibly damage to their circuits. I was able to repair the damaged traces on the boards and got the buttons functioning.
I also contacted Roland and after some back and forth, I was able to get them to give me a service manual which I used to track down one of the circuit cracks. The manual gave me the ability to get into the internal diagnostics. Holding down the lower and and menu button and then pushing the power button put me into the diagnostics mode. One of the options tested the “devices” of the keyboard. As it tested each device, it would indicate with an OK the operation of that device. The very last device was the Keyboard CPU which had an NG (no good) after it. After the repairs I made, I hadn’t tested to see if It was playing sound and the fact the the keyboard CPU was indicating NG led me to try and play something which obviously did not produce a sound.
If i put the keyboard in DEMO mode the RD-800 plays all of the available demos. So at this point I am trying to determine where the Keyboard CPU is located? Does anyone know if it is part of the main board or the middle circuit biard under the keyboard? If I disconnect the cable running from the keyboard to the main board, there are no other indications other than the Keyboard CPU NG. My suspecion is the board below the keyboard abd not the main.
I have been trying to find parts online and found a distributor named Syntaur ( https://syntaur.com/keyboard.php?keyboard=Roland_RD-800 ) that does have a few parts but the keyboard part is “out of stock”. I also contacted Roland through their Backstage support ( https://www.roland.com/backstage/support#product_support ) site. They were willing to let me buy from them but they do not have that part in stock. I will be ordering the main board which they do have.
So, I’m hoping somone in this forum might know where th Keyboard CPU is actually located. I’ve asked that question of Roland but have not received an answer yet. If there are some other places that I might try and get some used parts at. If tried Ebay and googling variations to get some other answers but I can’t seem to locate any.
If anyone here might have one of those used parts, please let me know.
Any help would be appreciated.