ROLAND JUNO 106 VOICE CHIP ADVISE

[robert106]

Hello, I am new here and I would really appreciate some advise.

I bought a Juno 106 a couple of months back and after about 1 week of playing there was a lot of crackling and hanging notes, so I bought a full set of clone chips from Analogue Renaissance in Belgium.
I then came across another Juno 106 which has hardly been used and is in mint condition, it’s been kept in a flight case for most of it’s life and still has the original battery. This one was fine until after a few weeks it started to crackle very slightly when playing, it seems to crackle on every 6th note, but this doesn’t happen all the time.

What I want to know is,
How long does it take for the voice chips to die after the crackling starts, because if it’s a long time I would rather keep the mint one original for now and put the new clone chips on my older one.

Or do I just put the clone chips on the mint one and at least I know the chips have been changed and are going to last a long time.

Also, if I were to put the clone chips onto the older Juno, in time when the voice chips eventually go on the mint one, could I swap circuit boards? What would this involve.

I would appreciate any opinions or advise you may have.

Thanks.

[rhino]

You might want to read and research this:

Re: JUNO 106 Crackle Problem & Repair Tech wanted
by JGWORLD » Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:33 pm

I was going to post this last month but got busy with work
Big Update - October 2009
I ended up doing the repair myself. The first chip i removed had a few pins break off while de-soldering. I replaced the pins using a very small piece of copper wire and soldered it to the remaining piece of the pin and this worked fine (all the while I had my doubts). I soaked soaked the chip in acetone using the following method:



Video was pretty good.

I only had to soak the chip for 16 - 24 hours to get all the resin off then I carefully scraped the rest of the resin off with an exact-o knife and a tooth brush. After removing as much resin as possible I re-soldered the chip back on. Fired up the juno in test mode only to discover that the adjacent voice chip was also crackling. The crackling was so loud it had been covering up the crackle of this chip. Soooo. I removed this next chip (no broken pins this time. Soaked it, removed resin, replaced it. Fired up the juno in test mode and________________ no more crackling!!!!!!!!! However I found that 2 other voices were hanging on a note slightly but it hasn't gotten bad enough yet for me to remove them. I probably will eventually.

Here's what I learned: de-soldering a chip with basic soldering tools is challenging, a good solder sucker is absolutely essential. Research, research research. All the advice on this thread was helpful but I also researched using 2 important youtube videos:


These videos convinced me I should attempt the repair myself. I practiced on a old PCI card before attempting to remove something on the juno. I found this very helpful.

Ultimately I decided to attempt it myself because new chips are expensive! I did this by myself for next to nothing, cost of acetone and a nice solder sucker.


This was the most challenging repair I have ever completed (it wasn't that bad after all). The second chip was 10 times easier after having done one chip. I am interested in seeing how long the chips will last. Thanks to everyone who gave advice here and elsewhere.JGWORLD
Newbie


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Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:11 pm

[adie]

From my personal experience - keep it "as is" as long as you can. I've just broken nice working TR-707 after removing circuit boards from the case... Damn it.

[space6oy]

belongs in help.

[robert106]

Adie, Thanks for your advise.

[psyfi]

I've recently used the Acetone treatment on two of my Juno's chips. I found socking for far longer then the video discribed made of better results. leave it for around 4 days so you don't have to prise the shell off at all.
Both chips are working well with no signs of crackle or any other trouble. what with having twice as many chips as normal to worry about this is a real money saver. I've found the clones don't sound right when playing along side originals. a machine with just clones in would be fine I guess.

[cornutt]

In my experience it usually takes a couple of months after a chip starts popping before it becomes intolerable. Frequent playing actually seems to make it last a bit longer. When it eventually does go, try the acetone treatment -- you've got nothing to lose at that point.

[tweakeasy]

Acetone method is SO easy and totally worth it. I just finished reinstalling my second recovered chip after no soldering or electronics experience. Desoldering takes patience, found the sucker easier to use than desoldering braid though It'd be ridiculously fast if you have a desoldering station... I'm def getting one for when I have to do the remaining four chips (which is inevitable). First bonus: I learnt some basic electronics that now has me interested in building little synths and pedals. Second bonus: saved a big fat handful of Euro that I'd rather spend on another synth...

I second the notion of leaving the chip to soak for up to four days - gives the conformal coating a chance to come of in sheets rather than having to pick and scrape at it in little chunks stuck between the teeth of the circuitry.

[Mattb106]

I know this is an old thread. I found it while dealing with a few problems myself while repairing my 106 voice chips.
I removed all of the pins from one of my voice chips in order to solder new ones. While handling the chips after soldering was complete, they broke off. Now I can't get solder to flow into the pads of the chip now. Has anyone had that problem before?