Roland MC-505 groovebox repair, 2 new Pots and LCD display repair using a Steam Iron. patreon page / markusfuller all music used within this video came from this Roland MC-505
Just did my ironing for the day ,on the MC-505 ribbon that is ! Pixels have now increased from 15% to 90% .Thank you so much Marcus .Kind regards.Reg Plasma.
Mate you are a bloody genius our 505 screen has been unreadable for years rendering it useless. We were in the studio, searched on RU-vid, found your video watched it with interest. As soon as it finished we said in unison let's try the screen fix. 5 attempts of ironing the screen cable gingerly and each time getting a bit of the display back. We then tried your trick of pressing the cable to pinpoint the last couple of lines. We gave it one more iron and it was like new. We, Ionosphere, are extremely grateful to get our beloved 505 back. Great work, we wish we found your video sooner you bloody genius.
Hello Brett, Im pleased you got it running again. I love my 505. however even though it all worked at the end of the video I have noticed a few weeks ago that a couple of lines have come back so it may now be a full time fix and possible need doing again sometime in the future. anyway glad you bought it back to life. Best wishes from Markus
@@markusfuller Same here, it went back to lines again. I lived in China and Roland wanted a small fortune and a lifetime to replace it so one of the freeware editors was the way forward. Strangely I was using it while dj'ing for kick drums because people would often stop dancing completely during the 'breaks'.
Using your tips from several previous videos I have managed to bring about 6 or 7 old machines or items back to life. Thank you! Always look forward to these.
Hi I bought my MC 505 12 months ago (used of course), I’ve just got round to sorting out the display using your ‘steam iron technique’. Thanks for posting your knowledge. The display on mine is now perfect.
Hi, I wanted to let you know how much I'm enjoying your videos. I've recently started learning how to use a soldering iron to try and fix old gear that I buy cheap on auctions. Your videos are extremely helpful. Also you explain things so they're easy to understand and I appreciate that. Thanks for taking the time to make them!
This helped me a lot! I had the same display issue with my Roland JX-305 Groovesynth, which I believe shares the same display with the MC-505. The ironing did the trick. I did have to press the iron relatively firmly for a longer time for all the pixels to display. Thank you for the post!
You beauty! Thank you very much, this is brilliant. Picked up one of these for cheap and the screen was almost completely gone. Taking it apart was pretty tricky but managed to get the screen back to to full functionality. Now just need to get some new buttons and a potentiometer
YAY! I used to own the MC-303. Had loads of fun with it. I later borrowed a 505 from a friend but never ended up getting one myself. Thanks for this vid Markus!
+markusfuller How did you find the 505 and what did you have to pay for it? I just re-watched this video with my girlfriend. We both love your channel Markus. Btw, the ending is brilliant! =D
Hi Jakob, it was a car boot find £15 uk. I also picked up the philips phillicorda from the same seller but it is real bad condition and still drying out from last week.
I have had my 505 since its release and they where £949 so a brilliant bargain. Great vid too, Im going to sort my lcd screen using this method @@markusfuller
Had a JX-305 since 2013. The display was fine, so only the flash rom got resoldered. Now the Display has the problem with missing columns. Time to replace it with that blue display with nice backlighting I have lying around since 2014. Hopefully it still works. Bought it new in 2014.
Great video Markus :) I've had my MC-505 since the late 90's and it still is going strong. Glad you opened it up - now I know what it looks like inside :)
Awesome, Marcus! This totally worked! Had my MC-505 since about 2000, and the display barely worked at all. I set the iron to "Wool" (same setting as Synthetic), and moved the tip slowly back & forth on the ribbon. I think that's the trick, go slow & apply pressure. Repeat as necessary. Display looks amazing! Liked & subscribed! Thanks for the Huge save, mate!
Very nice job, Markus. I once destroyed a zebra cable by applying too much heat. I wanted to bang my head on the wall. The trick with the steam iron is invaluable - thanks a lot!
Dear Markus, your tip was brilliant! With this trick I was able to change the display of my old 505 from "unreadable" to "quite ok, enough to work with it again". She has returned from retirement thanks to you! Although I virtually never comment... You more than deserve subscription, like, comment and everything else. Good job, keep it up and many, many thanks! Cheers... Matze
The paintbrush soap cleaning method is probably the best one i've tried on electronics it doesn't damage the paint or plastics and you can really get into hard to reach places, awesome job markus
awesome video Markus, love the sped up section with the banging techno! and the ending, haha. i always enjoy your videos, amazing, inspiring repairs, please keep it up. you also got me to sign up with Patreon for the first time.
This was my first gear i ever bought for over 20 years :D In that time i paid around 2600 DM i think. Nice to see this machine is still alive. 22 Years after this i bought again Rolands newest Groovebox the TR-8S ^^
I learn a lot of procedural methodology from you, that is, how you approach taking units apart and that you give each item a "spring clean". Plus naturally some electronics knowledge.
Well done. I got the JX-305 which is basically that groove box with a keyboard on it. It has the same problem with the display but is still readable. Vertical lines are missing depening on from where the wind is blowing, and maybe planetary alignments ;)
Dude I was digging the music that started playing when you started cleaning the metalwork with the paintbrush. The effects in this video were pretty great.
Best MC-505 youtube repair video. With respect to the POTS, I'd start with some Contact Cleaner first...usually does the trick. I also dump a bottle of windex into a container for cleaning the plastic components, let soak for 10 minutes and rinse with water. On one unit there were cigarette butt burn on a black key. I used thick black epoxy and an exacto blade to smooth out the burn hole. It's amazing what substances can be found in these units...next time I'll wear latex gloves.
I had that same problem with the display. Did the steam iron trick and it was fine but within a week it was unreadable. Had to replace it in the end. Nice to see guts of an mc 505 :-)
Hello Markus! Enjoyed your video. Reminds me of my electronic bench tech days. I own a MC-505 and have the same problem with the LCD. I bought one on e-bay, received it. It doesn't exactly fit the mounting tabs. I may try this trick on the old one. Thank you much for posting this. I wish I had seen this before buying the new one. Cheers! New sub.
One thing with replacing pots is not only do you need to know the resistance but also if it's a linear scaled pot for a slider that's used for direct digital control of a parameter or a tapered pot for audio signals. Slider pots for digital control will be linear so they can evenly increment up the scale such as 0 to 255. Whereas a pot used to attenuate a real audio signal needs to be tapered which means for example that every mm of travel the resistance per mm along the carbon track under the slider handle will increase by a logarithmic amount since our hearing responds logarithmically to loudness.
Great video, as always! You are an amazing source of info. I always wanted one of those, but I don't have the space for all the things I'd hold onto if I allowed it :)
interesting background music during the cleaning sequence :) Reminds me of industrial meets 80 synth pop with some early electronica thrown in. I liked it I think :) That video of the iron was an angle I don't think we have seen in these videos before. I swear this sounds better than my MC-808. Makes no sense though, heh
Thanks for the great video. You might consider to use a brace for the sides of the machine when you flip it, because the way you are handling it the pots on the front are going to need replacement. Pop the pots off and use the case with a small towel or a shim to support the weight without motion.
Great tutorial. I would like to have close to my town one crazy sientist as you to clean and polish my MC505. It is still a great machine. I will start looking for one as you. Thanks and cheers
Sounds a bunch better than the MC-303 that I had, back in the day. Very nice repair work indeed and am surprised that the outputs weren't scratchy. Goooood find !
All of us of a certain vintage likely do... many an over praising drunken comment of mine can be found on House/DnB/Trance Old Skool on RU-vid (did I just admit that ?).
I was a bit confused for a while about your comment but now I realised you meant the watch i was wearing :-) I just randomly pick a watch for the day and wear it as theres must be 30 in my workroom alone though most of those are the old LED watches. Thank You
u r a brave pocket,i had to make an unfourtunate modification to my jdxi's cutoff potenceomiters,though cruzin tunes,so u replaced it unofficaly with a 10k slider and positioned it along side the mod wheel under the tap latch,not a bad move
Hi Terence, I was playing with a JDXI only yesterday. wow they are really quite good and have some amazing sounds. so you placed a new slider on yours ?. sounds a good idea.
Excellent. you may have to do it again in a few years time as these connectors seem to lose their connectivity over time and may need redoing every few years.
Hey nice one my friend.. there is also a way to clean the yellowish white buttons.. ive seen it done to restore old computer parts.i guess its the same plastic.
I enjoyed your vid, now if you could tear down a Roland MC 808 and repair those nasty nasty motorfader units i could not be happier!! thanks for your vids, i love them.
In my current setup I use a Roland MC 505 and a Korg Es-1 for my music but a couple of months ago I was given another 505 from a mate who said it was faulty (couple of the keypads don't work unless pressed with force and the usual screen issue plus all the pots were wobbly as hell) he said I might as well use it as a donor machine just in case anything with mine goes wrong. After watching your video you inspired me to open it up and have a noodle around to see if I could find out what the problems were. Stripped it down, put all buttons and knobs in soapy water and cleaned up the chassis. Wobbly pots I sort of crimped with a pair of long nose pliers and it sorted them all. Ironed the screen back to life and figured out why two pads don't work. The little rubber switches are split so don't make contact properly, what are the rubber switches called and can I replace them at all? Great channel by the way, right up my street Cheers.
hi ya mark,great vids,always worth a watch even if i dont own said gear,anyway any handy hints on the 4ever lose pots on these Roland as ive seen hose pipes[sliced into washers] being used,any advice gratefully accepted as got 303 and 505,thanks
Wicked Markus. With this, mind me saying "household" method I was able to repair the donkey display on my Alesis QS7. Even if I have a spare LCD now it's far more fun to actually go through the entire machine to remove somewhat 10-15 years old musical dust'n'dirt, as I was at it :) Thanks for another great repair video. Best luck in the future.
Here in Germany it doesn't matter whether or not you got a TV. You have to pay licence fee anyway every month. Our television stations have made already, that everyone must pay. Without exception.
In that application those pots are probably only connected to channels of an A/D converter with the micro controller actually setting all the levels, so it only make sense for them be linear.
