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Roland FR3s speaker issue

kimric

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I have a Roland FR3s in my shop and the onboard speakers stopped working. I went through the manual and can't find anything about turning the speakers on or off other than plugging in something like a headphone jack. Trying to figure out if someone pushed the wrong series of buttons and somehow turned them off. The FR3X does have a speaker on/off function.
 
Hello,
A possibility would be that the Midi In/Out setting is changed to "Midi In" (see page 48 of the english User Manual).
in this case, you would not be able to play a note from the FR3s keyboard, and would get a "---" display ....
 
g'morning K

(assuming of course the output still works through an external amp)

the dummy plug into the headphone jack is a hack
that was commonly used to mute the internal speakers,
yes, and it works because of the complex wiring scheme of
the 3 output jacks on the bottom of the grille..

in other words the output signal is routed around according to
the positions of internal switches built into the jacks

occasionally, when a plug is pulled back out an internal
switch" may not make good contact as the steel flexible arm
springs back into resting position.. whether due to fatigue
of the springiness, or contact point oxidation, the normal
signal flow for the internal speakers is THROUGH the headphone
jack wiring/switch

occasionally, firmly and repeatedly plugging into
the headphone jack "cleans" the contact point up
and it will again make good contact at rest

the wiring also relies on switches in the left/right
jacks as well, it routes stereo or monio, so it is also
possible a weak contact point in either of those
can also be the problem, so work them a bit too
flipping the grill open can give access to the jacks
to follow the wiring and "jump" the switch or
replace it if necessary

i have never seen or even heard of an FR3 amp section failing
so i cannot offer anything about testing further

ciao
 
Last edited:
g'morning K

(assuming of course the output still works through an external amp)

the dummy plug into the headphone jack is a hack
that was commonly used to mute the internal speakers,
yes, and it works because of the complex wiring scheme of
the 3 output jacks on the bottom of the grille..

in other words the output signal is routed around according to
the positions of internal switches built into the jacks

occasionally, when a plug is pulled back out an internal
switch" may not make good contact as the steel flexible arm
springs back into resting position.. whether due to fatigue
of the springiness, or contact point oxidation, the normal
signal flow for the internal speakers is THROUGH the headphone
jack wiring/switch

occasionally, firmly and repeatedly plugging into
the headphone jack "cleans" the contact point up
and it will again make good contact at rest

the wiring also relies on switches in the left/right
jacks as well, it routes stereo or monio, so it is also
possible a weak contact point in either of those
can also be the problem, so work them a bit too
flipping the grill open can give access to the jacks
to follow the wiring and "jump" the switch or
replace it if necessary

i have never seen or even heard of an FR3 amp section failing
so i cannot offer anything about testing further

ciao
I was thinking along the line of a jack causing the issue, since it works with an amp plugged in. I was not sure if it switched off the speakers mechanically or electronically. It makes sense if the switch was mechanical that there would not be a menu option to turn them off. Thanks.
 
So it turned out that there were a couple of cracks in the solder around some of the pins for the jacks, and also most of the solder points for the support mount soldered to the board. Resoldered the pins and everything works as it should now.
 
yep, glad you got it fixed

for newbies, this is a good example of how, even if you are
not an electronics tech, to sometimes get your device fixed,
and that is to first look closely for a physical clue. Sometimes
irregularities in a solder joint like tiny rocklike corrosion,
an odd color like the blue-green of turquoise but a dull sheen
fracturing of the solder no shine no smoothness

also look at the circuit board itself.. stress can cause a crack
or a hidden crack in a trace on the board that only is visible
when flexed or seen when shining a light at angles

sometimes re-heating the joints can fix the solder, sometimes
you need to wick some of the old solder away and replace it with
fresh solder (this is because there is flux inside the new solder
which helps attach the solder to the copper/metal of a leg
or trace) Board and trace cracks you first clean the copper surface
of the trace and lay a solid piece of small copper wire across it
and solder that on (like a little bridge) as well as strengthening the
underlying board with something physical

if you need to replace a soldered in part, use a wick to pull all the
old solder off the legs and make certain you have a replacement
jack with the same exact internal switching setup.. these things
have many variations and you can look up their individual part
schematic based on part number

be aware of neighboring discreet components, and be careful
of overheating something nearby
 
for newbies, this is a good example of how, even if you are
not an electronics tech, to sometimes get your device fixed,
and that is to first look closely for a physical clue.

This is true. When the 'magic smoke' escaped from my synth my partner was able to find the fault by visual inspection. It's a poor photo but you can still see the scorch mark. A friend skilled in the ways of electronics used a microscope to show us the the copper layer had burned away from the baseboard - presumably from the main supply shorting.

jv05 - 1.jpeg
 
Fortunately I have a stupid amount of soldering practice since I worked at everyplace from appliance repair shops to Seagate in the 80-90's. I'm pretty good with analog electronics but digital is more like software programming and I never got into that.
What threw me on this Roland was I thought it was a program issue not a hardware issue.
When I worker for a sound and lighting company we would have problems with the crt monitors since they mounted the transformers on the boards with the other electronics, and the constant handling and bouncing around in trucks would cause the transformer to crack the board. I spent many hrs bridging broken solder traces to fix them.
 
yep, glad you got it fixed

for newbies, this is a good example of how, even if you are
not an electronics tech, to sometimes get your device fixed,
and that is to first look closely for a physical clue. Sometimes
irregularities in a solder joint like tiny rocklike corrosion,
an odd color like the blue-green of turquoise but a dull sheen
fracturing of the solder no shine no smoothness

also look at the circuit board itself.. stress can cause a crack
or a hidden crack in a trace on the board that only is visible
when flexed or seen when shining a light at angles

sometimes re-heating the joints can fix the solder, sometimes
you need to wick some of the old solder away and replace it with
fresh solder (this is because there is flux inside the new solder
which helps attach the solder to the copper/metal of a leg
or trace) Board and trace cracks you first clean the copper surface
of the trace and lay a solid piece of small copper wire across it
and solder that on (like a little bridge) as well as strengthening the
underlying board with something physical

if you need to replace a soldered in part, use a wick to pull all the
old solder off the legs and make certain you have a replacement
jack with the same exact internal switching setup.. these things
have many variations and you can look up their individual part
schematic based on part number

be aware of neighboring discreet components, and be careful
of overheating something nearby
Just a little bit to add to a very detailed description: if you’re planning to a lot of electronic soldering, particularly with integrated circuits, a modern desoldering gun is well worth the expenditure.
 
Fortunately I have a stupid amount of soldering practice since I worked at everyplace from appliance repair shops to Seagate in the 80-90's. I'm pretty good with analog electronics but digital is more like software programming and I never got into that.
What threw me on this Roland was I thought it was a program issue not a hardware issue.
When I worker for a sound and lighting company we would have problems with the crt monitors since they mounted the transformers on the boards with the other electronics, and the constant handling and bouncing around in trucks would cause the transformer to crack the board. I spent many hrs bridging broken solder traces to fix them.
How many software engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

None; that’s a hardware issue.
 
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