I’ve got a Roland RS-09 that I imported from Japan years ago. I’m looking to sell the unit, but a lot of folks seem to walk away as soon as I tell them the unit operates on 100V AC. I’ve always used a step-up (100-120V) but I’m not including that since I’ve got other gear I need it for.
So, in order to sell the unit I have been considering replacing the the RS-09’s transformer. I looked at the transformer that is in it, and it’s the 022H021J version, no multi-tap.
A 022H021C version (100-117V) seems very hard to find (Syntaur doesn’t even have em listed).
Just checking to see if anyone has experience and/or recommendations for an after market (or perhaps a trans. from another Roland synth) that might work?
What about using a switching powersupply as replacement for the transformer and the two rectifiers?
This way the RS-09 will work from ~90V up to ~240V.
In my experience on Japanese electronics, the 100v is usually just there as a moniker for Japanese sales use. I have never had a problem plugging these things into US 110-120V mains. All of the voltage regulators that are upstream from the transformer will function exactly the same way they do with the marginally lower voltage they may be receiving when connected to a 100V mains.
From the technical point of view I would not disagree (I run my japanese 100V RS-09 with a 230->115V step down converter too), but the problem for @Jay_Tech is, not the technical feasability, but that his buyers don’t have this technical insight.
The idea of the switching psu is a great idea, I never thought of that!
Good to also know that it seems that the RS-09 should also run alright when feeding it 115V (I measured 118V out of my outlets). I probably still won’t recommend this to whoever buys my RS-09, just as I don’t want them to come back and say “my unit broke and you said it was fine etc. etc.”
Thanks again though! (BTW - Love your website fanwander )
I don’t remember the voltage level, but I had several M-Audio Ozone midi controllers that also had transport with an audio interface. I remember that their wall-wart transformers were all A/C. I wouild think you could just put a 10k resister a diode with a capacitor on each leg of the circuit to lower the voltage without any trouble. But Amazon has a new one from power bright that might be smarter and safer! $14.25 lots of options under 20 bucks
