Help me bring my crappy keyboard back to life!
July 22, 2011 7:07 AM Subscribe
I'm trying to resurrect an old Casio CPS-85 88 key keyboard. When it was given to me, the power jack was cracked, so I desoldered it and soldered on a new one. No luck; I can't get power (even with a different power supply). So I'm stuck running off of a lot of D batteries. As using D cells is both wasteful and expensive.is there any way for me to rig an external power supply to the battery terminals in a safe manner?
Best answer: 8 batteries? In series? 12 volts. Is the power supply you have 12 volts? Then it shouldn't be a problem. Use the new jack (or the old one you took out), look for +/- signs on the jack or the circuit board to figure out the +/- terminals, solder a couple short pieces of wire to the jack and then use a paperclip to hold them on the proper battery terminals (test before soldering to the terminals themselves (or tack them on to the circuit board). Should work just fine, you probably have a broken trace or bad joint somewhere along the jack circuit.
posted by zengargoyle at 8:46 AM on July 22, 2011
posted by zengargoyle at 8:46 AM on July 22, 2011
A replacement is available at Amazon. You could probably also get one at Radio Shak or use one of those iGo devices with the proper tip.
posted by carmicha at 9:20 AM on July 22, 2011
posted by carmicha at 9:20 AM on July 22, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks! Yeah, there's a small crack in the board near the power jack (discovered after the solder job failed). Once I found that, I didn't think it was worth the effort to repair. I'm going to test it tonight with a spare power supply. And if it works, I'll likely drop a new jack in for convenience.
anaelith - I had considered rechargeables, but a) D cells plus the charger are expensive and b) it's kind of a PITA to lift the heavy keyboard to replace batteries often (plus, I'll have to move the books that will surely be stacked on it :)
carmicha: Thanks, but the problem is with the jack and not the power supply.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 10:45 AM on July 22, 2011
anaelith - I had considered rechargeables, but a) D cells plus the charger are expensive and b) it's kind of a PITA to lift the heavy keyboard to replace batteries often (plus, I'll have to move the books that will surely be stacked on it :)
carmicha: Thanks, but the problem is with the jack and not the power supply.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 10:45 AM on July 22, 2011
All Casio keyboards have reverse polarity (positive shield) is your adapter wired backwards?
posted by fake at 6:26 PM on July 22, 2011
posted by fake at 6:26 PM on July 22, 2011
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Depending on the room available and orientation, you could probably mount a power jack inside the battery compartment lid, and feed that directly to the battery terminals.
posted by amoeba syndrome at 7:40 AM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]