[A6] keyboard problems

[Chris Pickett]

Anthony Jimenez wrote:

>>Chris Pickett <chris.pickett at mail.mcgill.ca> wrote:
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>>Anyway, I'm a lot happier now ... there's still the keyboard vibration
>>issue to work out ... as I said, I screwed down the voice board and it
>>helped, but each key still vibrates when I release it, and if I release
>>two chords at the same time, you can really hear the whole machine
>>vibrate ... does this happen for you guys?  Or is it totally quiet when
>>you release keys quickly?  I suppose I could try and get a thicker felt
>>strip to replace the one that runs along the top of the keys ...
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>I don't get any strange vibrations from my A6 to tell you the truth.  It's
>definitely weird that your KB came in with 2 screws! 
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-- not the keyboard, the *voice* board ... you know, like the most 
important part of the whole damn machine! =)

> Hopefully the person
>you bought it from knows nothing about this, and the problem can be sourced
>to the manufacturing process (although that's even a worse thought for me).
>If you are still having issues with what appear to be loose components in
>the keyboard, there is a possibility that there might be even more screws or
>connections loosened on the other boards.
>
No, I checked everywhere I could, except I didn't undo the three panel 
boards because I didn't think there'd be much to check above them.

>The only thing that I seem to have wrong with my A6 at the moment is a
>little squeak on my C2 key and the up button next to the screen needs a
>solid push to work.  These things Always happen when weather starts getting
>humid and hot, so it's nothing to strange.  The squeak is very slight, but
>I've been thinking of checking out the keyboard assembly to lubricate it or
>make it less noisy.  Has anybody done this?
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It is very humid and hot here, maybe my problems will go away when it 
isn't.  I took out my keyboard, and behind each key is a spring ... 
that's what's squeaking.  I sprayed a little bit of WD-40 in each spring 
and it seemed to help, especially if any keys had a metal kind of 
twanging to them ... but my lower octave of keys is still kind of 
squeaky.  Maybe some grease or oil on the springs would help more than 
WD-40.  I found the keys a lot easier to clean once the keyboard was 
taken out too.  Be carefully undoing the aftertouch and key connectors, 
and remember their orientations!  In particular, the keyboard wires, 
which are grey, need to go in a very specific place, on top of each 
other ... if you look up at the panel board, there's a little cutout in 
the metal to make room for them (you'll see once you open it).  It's not 
difficult, just watch out.

Someone who services keyboards professionally like Tom M. would probably 
have the best advice on what to do.

The knobs on my unit were kind of dirty (they are 3 years old), so I 
took them all off and gave them a bath in the sink with warm-hot soapy 
water.  Some water gets inside the knob, you have to tap it out before 
putting it back on the front panel.  Don't worry about remembering which 
knobs go where -- first, it's easy, and second, Alesis has a shot of the 
front panel on their website.

Cheers,
Chris