Date: Wed, 25 Mar 98 18:57:06 MET From: sneppe/TR606 To: analogue@hyperreal.org Subject: vx600 display woes are finally over ! hey, the akai vx600 owner among you people probably know it kind of suffers from a problem with its display (it becomes too dimly lit after a while). here's a mail i got from someone describing how to make your own display on/off switch... just thought it should go into the archives that's all.. From: Jsdejong@sda.nl (Jasper de Jong) Date: 24 Mar 98 16:12:02 -0100 Subject: display switch The VX600 display has a known problem: due to constant lighting and just common wear and tear the readability deteriorates over the years. I've been told that the lighting is mainly responsible. I contacted the Akai distributor in Holland (thanks Alex!) and he provided the answer. The good thing is that if you've done the operation to your beloved machine and you'll switch off the lighting, the enoying beep that comes out of the display disappears as well!!!! Note that I'm not an experienced electronics-man; I just solder my own cables and stuff like that. Probably anyone can do it. Now this is how you do it: * Open the VX-600: remove the screws underneath the sides of the machine (4 in total) and lift off the top panel; it stays open by itself, very nice. * Locate the spool that has to be interrupted by the switch: it's on the main bottom pcb in the right top corner, close to the connector for the backlight (the wires with the plastic coating). It's coloured green and it's called 'L2', it looks like a resistor, just a bit bigger. Use the scheme if you can't find it; maybe I'll put up some pictures. ---- I've tried to break the connection on some other points: - the jumper located nearby -> the display started to show strange things, but the sound still worked. Use this if you want to check if you really know your VX with your eyes closed...:) - the wires connecting the display lighting with the PCB. Works OK, but the beep I talked about earlier gets louder and higher. Very annoying and I think not so good for the power supply as well! ---- * Now cut the left connection of the spool right in the middle, so it's easy to solder the wires on them, bend the two connections apart a little. * Solder two wires on the cutting points very gently, don't heat them too much. * Drill a hole in the little metal plate labeled 'INTERFACE', it's not used anyway...:) * Make a little switch in it and solder the wires to the switch. * Close the panel, rescrew the screws and you're DONE. * Don't panic if you don't hear the display-beep anymore, your VX will be silent from now on. Just switch on the light (and the beep) if you need it... Thanks to Alex Buurman at Fodor Rotterdam again. Disclaimer (you've got to add disclaimers these days....:) ): I can not be held responsible for any damage to your machine. Jasper de Jong -- Filip Sneppe sneppe@message.fucam.ac.be http://www.fucam.ac.be/~sneppe "Pedo mellon a minno" "Speak, friend, and enter" "Say: 'friend', and enter" __ J.R.R.Tolkien