Jump to content

Juno 106 chip revival


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 132
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

 

I'd bet this is a heat issue. 99% of electronics fialures are.

 

There have been plenty of glue/adhesive and encapsulant problems that have led to failure of electronic circuitry. One possibility is that the material can change in nature over time (heat sometimes being the causative factor), becoming hygroscopic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Curious - what are the symptoms of a faulty chip?

 

 

It seems to vary. In my case across 3 chips I've seen:

 

- Voice goes entirely dead;

- Static / crackling with changes in volume;

- Drifting / wavering resonance;

 

There's probably other symptoms as well. The problem chip contains the VCF and the VCA, so just about any way you can imagine those signals paths as failing is what you'll hear.

 

Additionally, I had not one but 2 of the DCO chips fail, as well. In my case, the sub osc on both cut out completely.

 

 

If I can get the resin off of this chip and if it appears to fix it, then I'm planning to yank ALL of the chips (the 5 other VCF/VCA and all 3 oscillators) and treat them similarly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Beyond this, I've got 3 other things I could take of, I'm open to suggestions:

 

- The foam "modesty" cover around the portamento toggle disintegrated. I'm thinking of cutting out a new one from black felt.

- The sliders need cleaning. I'm gonna just blast the crap out of them with WD-40.

- The blue buttons have faded to a kind of grayish-green... I don't think there's anything I can do about that, but it bugs me that they don't match the blue paint anymore. I have a donor I can experiment with, I'm thinking maybe a light hit with some sandpaper, or maybe some kind of light rubbing with solvent might be a way to "exfoliate" them... thoughts?

 

 

 

(I'm kidding about the WD-40. What's the general concensus on an appropriate cleaner for sliders?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

It seems to vary. In my case across 3 chips I've seen:


- Voice goes entirely dead;

- Static / crackling with changes in volume;

- Drifting / wavering resonance;

Voices sticking "on" or a ghost voice lingering when the VCA is supposed to be completely cut off are common symptoms of a dying chip as well. "Drifting/wavering resonance" would technically be "drifting/wavering cutoff", but it's most apparent when resonance is in self oscillation.

 

EP, I think there's some kind of slider cleaner/lubricant you can use, I'm not sure what it's called. As for the faded buttons, maybe you could just paint them blue? ;)

 

P.S. A spritz of contact cleaner sprayed into the membrane switches should help your buttons to work better too.

 

P.P.S. On one 106 I restored, the felt around the sliders/switches was disintegrating. I simply removed it and left it off. The 106 looks fine without it. For the portamento switch you could use a piece of felt or even a piece of black paper.

 

P.P.P.S. Someone had to post a ham sammich on a day I didn't have time for lunch... :facepalm:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
I'd put the 250$ for a set of clones and make a reliable 106 I can use for decades more (hopefully)
;)

Think about it - I can play mine live without being worried about faulty ICs
:thu:

Until the DCO chips start to die, and AFAIK no one is cloning those yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I'd bet this is a heat issue. 99% of electronics fialures are.

 

 

I still find it hard to believe. Take an LM13700 for example. 1.3mA per channel, max of 36V rails. Say 6 OTAs (4 for filter, 1 for resonance, 1 for VCA).

 

P = chan * V * I

P = 6 * 36 * 1.3m

P = 0.2808 W

 

A quarter watt max, and I don't think the Juno uses +/- 18V rails nor do I think they use the max supply current. So maybe 100mW.

 

I suppose over 27 years it could be...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The resin has lifted. There are three SMD chips mounted to a printed circuit on a ceramic substrate with a few printed resistors and a couple of tiny SMD caps.

 

There's still a few pieces of resin stuck between IC pins, so I'm letting it soak until tomorrow to make it easier to pick out the rest of it.

 

Wheee!

 

Who wants to know what the chip designations are? ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Not much update this morning, kinda rushed for time. There's lots of little bits of resin to pick out, it's a bit like cleaning teeth. I've got a large needle I used to get some of the bits out between IC legs, will probably take me a good 20 minutes to dig it all out.

 

The back of the ceramic still has a large section of resin on it, but there's no traces on the back side so I'm less concerned about removing it.

 

2x BA662F

1x IR3109N

4x itty-bitty caps

a handful of printed resistors

 

I need to look at the sparse drawing of the module in the service manual and see if if a more detailed schematic would be worth drawing up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Alrighty, some pics and commentary!

 

Here's the main board, nothing really exciting to note here, this isn't the first

time I've had it out. Remove 6 screws, yank about 5 cables and voila!

 

revival-1.jpg

 

 

Here is the problem module removed. At the time it was removed, it was

exhibiting static and crackling with random changes in voice volume. (This is

voice channel 1.) Some sharp-eye'd folks might ask, "what's with the

aluminum standoffs and screws?" When I have the board flipped over for

soldering, I don't to be putting any pressure to the other modules, which are

the tallest things on the board. These standoffs are just temporary work

feet.

 

revival-2.jpg

 

 

 

Behold our Instruments of Judgement: a glass container and some acetone.

Diet Pepsi is optional.

 

revival-3.jpg

 

 

 

Into the pits of solvent hell, foul module!

 

revival-4.jpg

 

 

I let it soak for a day, scraped off softened edges to let solvent get

underneath, and then soaked again. 3 days total, and then it started to lift

off on its own:

 

revival-7.jpg

 

 

 

Behold!

 

revival-6.jpg

 

 

 

Here it is before I gave it a detailed going-over. Notice how the component

side resin came off as almost a complete sheet; that made life easier. The

back side, though, was being more stubborn.

 

revival-5.jpg

 

 

 

And now the shot you've all been waiting for, at high res. Notice the cool

multilayer circuit printing on the ceramic. I see a bottom trace layer, an

insulating layer, another trace layer, some printed resistors (the variously

sized dark gray rectangles) and the solder mask. Pretty neat stuff. There's

some little black "blobs" here and there, mainly near the resistors; I don't

know what they are, and they haven't softened like the resin. I'm leaving

them there.

 

revival-8.jpg

 

 

 

On the back side, the resin is still be stubborn. There's no circuitry on the

back, so I'll just leave that resin be.

 

revival-9.jpg

 

 

 

Here's the module reinstalled and ready to go back into the Juno. Sorry,

Mister Blurry Cam stole the camera from me and took this, not my fault:

 

revival-10.jpg

 

 

 

 

Results:

 

On power up, no magic smoke appeared. I count that as a Big Plus! For

extra bonus points, though, the voice worked again! No crackling, no

popping, no weirdness of any kind! YAY!! I let it run for 20 minutes to get

good and warm and it was solid the whole time.

 

However, by then voice 4 had had enough and gave up entirely. So, once I

get some more solder wick (I'm out), I'll yank that module and give it the

same treatment!

 

Questions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Do you have a LCR?


I'd be curious if there is a capacitance on the epoxy.


Your almost there, change out those Green Films and the electrolytic and you almost have a new synth.

 

I don't have a conventional LCR tester, but there's a cap test function on my DVM, that might show something interesting. Could check for abnormal conductivity too, didn't think to try. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...