Triton Pro X 88 Keys: Worth Repairing?

[dexman]

New kid of the block.

A long time ago, I purchased, and donated a Triton Pro X to my church for use as needed. The unit was used weekly for worship services, and was stored in an SKB travel case.

At some point, things changed and the Triton was stored away in a closet.

A few years later, I pulled it out to use it again. When I plugged it into the power socket and turned it on, nothing happened. The display and various LEDs didn't turn on.

Back into the case and back into the closet it went where it has sat for years...until today.

I dug it out again and plugged it in to see what happens. I saw a very quick flickering of the display, then nothing. The LEDs never lit.

My question is, is it worth spending the money to try to get it repaired, or would it be a better use of my money to scrap it and purchase the soon to be released Nautilus AT.

[voip]

There's always the option of paying a keyboard tech to have a look and assess what might need doing to get the Triton going again.

The storage conditions are likely to affect what the tech's findings would be. Churches, unless they are in regular (daily) use, aren't generally the best places to store electronic equipment. Temperature and humidity tend to fluctuate quite a bit. Even though ithe Triton has been stored within a case, there is a chance of mould-like growths on the circuit boards, spiders, and dust mites, and then there's electrolytic capacitor deterioration to consider. Our local church organ has a small electrical tubular heater fitted internally to reduce the relative humidity inside the cabinet. The heater power is around 15 to 20 Watts and it operates 24/7.

One trick, used for old valve amplifiers, radios, and TVs, but also applicable to equipment with transistors and integrated circuits, is to power the equipment using a variac transformer, turning the device on, and slowly raising the supply voltage to the device. Slowly, in this case, means setting the device's input voltage to something like 20%, leaving it like that for 10 or more minutes to an hour, then 40%, and so on until the full mains votage is being delivered. This gives at least some of the electrolytic capacitors a chance to reform internally.

This article might be worth a read, especially the section entitled "Powering up" on the last page:

http://www.vk5pas.com/uploads/1/3/9/8/1 ... t_2005.pdf

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[dexman]

Thank you for replying to my question Voip.

You touched on one of my concerns with the capacitor. Given that the keyboard has been powered down for an extended period of time, my hunch is that capacitors (at least within the power board) have dried out and are not functioning properly.

The church doesn't have central air conditioning. Even if it did, it wouldn't be programmed to run 24x7, so heat & humidity factor in during the summer.

Another consideration I have is the condition of the solenoid buttons. On my home stereo gear, the solenoid buttons on my CD player, stereo tuner and pre-amplifier now require multiple presses (sometimes hard) before they respond.

My hunch, given the age of the unit, the final result will be that the keyboard gets taken to the town's recycling drop-off center for disposal.

I've signed up for notification when the Nautilus AT becomes available at a Pro Audio chain in the area. There are two possibly three people in the church who could put it to good use.

We were quite happy with the Triton. Based on what I've seen & ready about the Nautilus, it will be a very welcomed addition to our church services & possibly even more.

[dexman]

Last Sunday, I showed the Triton to one of the high school students who is very much involved with the music programs at his school.

Once the school is back in session, he will mention the unit to the school to see if it would like to accept it as a donation. The school would then investigate repairing it. If it can be repaired, the school would add it to their inventory.

In the meantime, I would purchase the new Nautilus AT for the church.

[dexman]

Follow-up to my topic:

The Triton Pro X has been donated to the local High School. I haven't heard from the teacher as to the disposition of the unit. My intention is to send him an email to see how things are going.

In the meantime, an 88 key Nautilus AT was purchased and has been officially donated to the church. Once fully acclimated to this "beast" it will make its debut during a Sunday morning worship service and then train others on how to program it for their own use.