Battery change on TI Keyboard
 

Hi folks,

Looks like my internal battery is dying, so I'd like to try changing it myself. Has anyone opened up their TI Keyboard model and remember which screws on the bottom hold the key-bed in the casing? Jorg indicated that you take the keys out, to gain access, not remove the bottom casing.

Will probably do it this weekend and make a video, in case it helps anyone else in future.

EG

There're a couple of Youtube videos that kind of show how to open it up, but none of them actually show you live. Having a video that shows the intricacies of how to take the unit apart would be very useful.

Did you end up making the video?

Haven't done it yet, but better do it soon! It's pretty much a lucky draw, each day, to see which RAM patched are still there... :)

EG

Yes, make a backup copy of your sounds as soon as possible.

Just had to replace the battery in my Indigo a couple of days ago. Thought it was motherboard trouble at first as all the patch names had suddenly been re-assigned random letters/signs, and the sounds themselves had become distorted - like they still bore partial resemblance to the previous actual sounds, but half of the parameters had been changed randomly.



Some sounded pretty cool, actually, while others sounded like something Satan would come up with, hardcore ear-ripping, headphone-shredding madness. However, the next time I switched the Virus back on all the sounds had gone and it kept showing "Initialize Global Memory" followed by "Load Bank A with Factory-Sounds?".



Thankfully I'd made a backup of my patches last month and was able to successfully use SoundDiver to transfer all my patches back to the Indigo over MIDI, and play them (while power remained on), so I knew it wasn't a DSP issue. But after the patches were erased every time after turning the Virus off and back on again, asking for a factory patch reset each time, I knew it most likely had to be the battery.

If your TI is like my Indigo, the battery is a standard 3Volt CR2032 lithium flat disc-shaped battery, same as used in calculators or similar devices. They're readily available in supermarkets and cheap to get.

Given it was my Indigo, the disassembly will be different to a TI keyboard (I assume you refer to the 61-note TI, rather than the Polar). I pretty used the similar disassembly method as I've outlined before in my [Virus surgery: Re-Potting 101] thread, but this time only had to expose the motherboard.



^ CR2032 as circled.

Thankfully the battery is not soldered in situ like other manufacturers do (Korg et al), you can just slip it out and slip a new one in. Make a backup of your sounds before you do this!



Installed the new battery two days ago now and the Indigo and all the patches work again like a charm.

Thanks, Timo, your pics are a great help! I'll take a few along the way, to highlight any differences with the larger model.

EG

Just a heads up, Synthfiend opened up his TI Polar recently showing the CR2032: http://infekted.org/virus/showthread.php?t=34150

I shouldn't imagine the 61-note TI is that dissimilar to the Polar, in which case the CR2032 should still be easily accessible.

Ok, I've just completed my battery swap and put it all back together. Took some photos along the way, so I'll upload them and describe the tricky bits.

Major findings:

My internal PSU has previously been replaced with a wall-wart and joined to the original power cable with cheap snap connectors. I think I'll re-do it sometime, with a socket on the rear casing, so it's pluggable. I did try to remove all the PSU housing, to save weight, but simply didn't have a spanner small enough to remove the nuts. :)

I doubt that the battery was my only problem, as the synth "bricked" on first boot, as it occasionally had before. (Display says Welcome and the three LFO lights at the top left are all flashing.) It started up properly on second boot. Let's see how thing go, after I reload all my patches and get to work again!

Cheers,

EG