Maplin 5600s vintage analog synth repair PART ONE MF#45

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Maplin 5600s vintage analog synth repair PART ONE MF#45

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markusfuller

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 78

@flickpad Жыл бұрын

I was a keen electronics hobbyist as a schoolboy in the late 70's and early 80's. I was a regular customer of Maplin at their, then only, shop in Westcliff on Sea. I remember going to a hobbyists exhibition where Maplin had a huge stand and where these synths were being demonstrated by a little-known band called Ultravox.

@markusfuller Жыл бұрын

I am of similar age. its a pity Maplins has disappeared. Tandy was also a great shop for components and kits.

@josecoronel4960 7 жыл бұрын

What a challenging project, Markus! I follow your explanations with great interest. Despite my limited English, your British pronunciation is a free language class !!!

@billeaves9222 8 жыл бұрын

Hi, I just came across this today. I will download the videos as I am thinking of resurecting my old Maplin 5600S which had been stored in a garage for years. Later some pet rats escaped and I eventually found them inside the 5600 so the inside is to say the least a wee bit of a mess. I did once build a real monster version of the 5600 with 2 keyboards, and more oscillators, filters etc. I sort of pre-empted MIDI by having the keyboard unit seperate from the sound procucing unit. It was too cumbersome so I reverted back to the original format later - except using the larger keyboard - no room for the joystick which I built into a box that I could clip onto the main beast. Thye computer - on my panel - it is marked Sequencer was an 8 bit paralell port the same as used in the printers of the day. There was also a Maplin sequencer which never really worked properly. I had better luck with a home made Powertran Cortex computer using its parallel port. I did I designed a (very rudimentary) MIDI interface for it in the late 80s and even still have the parts but never built it. I have been told that a unit someone else built did work though :o) I'll grab your repair videos to watch, only having a 512 kbps connection watching KZfaq videos live is far too problematic so I'll download them overnight.

@laythabdulwahab9498 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you marcus for you excellnt presntation .And you remined when i bought all this excellent instruments parts from maplin at 1980 in glasgow when i was stadying post graduate study in glsgow university and broght them with me to my country iraq and assembeld them as a kit on high degree of profficinal buildig level and worked perfectly.and i still have it .it is wide world of sounds.i added a frequency counter for it and made simple modification to get quarter a tone which is suitable fo eastren music and i goning make the connection to computer throught parallel port .if you need any help please not hasitat . I spend 3 months to assimble it.

@PhrygianPhrog 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting! Maybe you could upload a video of it, I'm sure people would like to hear it, especially the 1/4 tone tuning!

@dmthandmade5674 4 жыл бұрын

I found an incredible blog of a fella who just this year finished up making a completely DIY recreation of this Maplin synth.

@mCKENIC 9 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing Markus - what a beautiful synth! Here is hoping you can return her to her former glory!

@alphabeets 9 жыл бұрын

Marcus, thanks for taking the time to post these superb videos. I have enjoyed all of them.

@peteroberts7637 9 жыл бұрын

Hi this takes me back a bit, Maplin did an organ kit in the 80is i nearly bought one but went for a Wersi Orion Kit instead still got it today and its working. Love all your videos dont stop, looking forward to part 2

@honeybadger2732 6 жыл бұрын

Wow - I lusted after these in the Maplin catalogue many many years ago, but too expensive - ended up selling my Hornby 00 guage railway layout to my maths teacher, to buy a transcendent 2000 kit. After months of soldering and frustration, on the day of completion, I accidentally touched the +12v rail to the 240 ac rail. *BANG*. My mum dropped the dinner on the floor. I had to replace the electrolytic s and the IC's but I did eventually get it working ! :)

@richardballinger517 7 жыл бұрын

I've got one of these, bought the kit from Maplin mail order back in 83 (if I remember right) after 3 years of paper rounds and weekend work in a bakery costing me £620 at the time. Didn't know anything about electronics then but always wanted too but after looking at some schematics had this stupid idea that it was beyond me. A local music shop was going to build mine for £100 over two weeks, didn't see it for 6 months or more, ended up with my mum involving a solicitor to get it back not working. Sat in the cupboard for years until with a little help from an old boss who gave me loads of old electronics mags (even had my scope in them) I taught myself with a £40 6MHz single trace scope (which I still have), a reduced from £30 to £20 Tandy auto ranging multimeter (very low ranges but had it for years) and a book called Success in Electronics, first of many. I've since done work in X-Ray measurement, stuff for the MOD, SAS and test kit for aviation. Unfortunately my poor old Maplin Synth is still waiting for me to find the time to set it up, I did rewire it and check the boards were complete which some weren't back several years ago but wish I could find the time to finish it off. Planed to make it listen to midi as it has that computer input, remember it was one of its bragging points having a digital keyboard. Another thing I've wanted to do is get rid of those keyboard switches and replace them with something better.Thanks Mark for the great videos.

@markusfuller 7 жыл бұрын

Hi Richard, that was an interesting read, I too have my ols radio-shack multimeter from my childhood days and would never part with it though i have not used it for years. even my solder sucker is over 30 years old and still has the same original tip on it. I hope you get your maplin synth completed, I guess you could use a simple arduino now to turn midi into keyboard digital control signal for the 2600. good luck i hope to see a video of it soon :-)

@richardballinger517 7 жыл бұрын

Re my 5600 saga, I had an old amp that needed fixing and I got put in contact with a chap not far from where I live. We got chatting and got onto the subject of my Maplin synth to which he replied "I was going to build that". Turns out he refused to do it for the shop until they paid him the money owed for amp repairs so they got a young lad to do it hence it took so long. One thing I will say about the young lad, his soldering was very good. Small world.

@braaimanook 4 жыл бұрын

I used to work for Maplin way back when, and built their demonstration model 5600S which was on display in their Westcliff store. On one occasion I took it and it's little brother to an exhibition in France. It was an adaptation of the ETi 4600 from Australia. They were both impossible to keep in tune, although the 5600S did benefit from a digital keyboard controller, (designed by my boss). The oscillator tuning presets were 20% carbon so accuracy was +- 20%. They also designed the VC Phase module and redesigned the power supply to remove the uA723 voltage regulator which was giving problems. At that time there was no digital output socket. One problem was that with all modules plugged it was hit and miss whether the thing would power up as the sudden rush of current made the regulator act as though there was a short, and would then close down. The keyboard switches were made of gold wire that had to be bent and adjusted on the pcb, practical but horrid. Another problem of sorts was hum which could be reduced but I found never completely eliminated. The wiring was a nightmare and virtually impossible to make it look tidy, I remember being asked to stick bits of paper to the cables as a way of marking them, but used my own money to buy proper cable markers. The one I built for myself was modified into 2 separate cabinets with a multiplug connecting the two. To improve the tuning I replaced the grotty little presets with 20 turn TV tuner ceramic presets on self designed boards, fitted as per the original ones. I also used low capacity cable throughout which reduced hum down to 60db, low but still audible on headphones. I would think anyone attempting to repair today would have their work cut out as I don't think some of the components are available any more. Anyway it was a great project at the time and created an interest in synthesizers which has lasted over 50 years has deepend with the current splurge of modular synthesis modules.

@KozmykJ 5 жыл бұрын

I was going to have a go at one of ETI synth projects. Couldn't afford it . Then I was going to have a try of the Transendent 2000. Didn't do that either. Bought a Korg MS20 eventually . And a CX5-M Happily , more recently I found a plugin version of the Transcendent 2000. Even today it's a powerful little beast. I really wouild have loved it if I'd built one back then for sure.

@billeaves9222 8 жыл бұрын

BTW. It is possible to make a patchboard by soldering gold wire to veroboard - two pieces back to back. The size was not quite the same and I had to forgo a row and a column, but it worked until I could afford the proper one. I was s student at the time and built a bit each month, it was finally completed after I had graduated and got a job - a the proper patchboard.

@Pan6888 4 жыл бұрын

A nightmare to repair but certainly worths it Markus !

@cpcnw 5 жыл бұрын

Practical Wireless an Electronics Today International featured ads for these kits. I dreamt of owning one when I was in my mid teens. When you compare costs to a free soft synth they where at the time the pleasure of the better of techies.

@Bishka100 7 жыл бұрын

I remember Maplins selling this synth and its smaller brother, I always wanted one but could never afford it.

@annother3350 5 жыл бұрын

It's vast!

@zimwasi 9 жыл бұрын

These posts are fantastic. I have an ETI 4600 here that which was a basket case which I've managed to get all the oscillators and the mixers running and the glide which is groovy as well as the Fairlight keyboard controller. They are definatly a beast. Unfortunately mine has a bunch of home made Veroboard replacements some of the modules which is causing some head scratching. :)

@markusfuller 9 жыл бұрын

+zimwasi This synth caused me many headaches also. It was worth the effort though and I think I learned a few things along the way.

@cogsinister100 9 жыл бұрын

What a beast, fancy constructing that yourself !

@markusfuller 9 жыл бұрын

Neil Robinson I think I would have preferred making it myself. the deeper i get into this thing the more problems I'm finding.

@deejaydubla 9 жыл бұрын

I look forward to part two.

@mootbooxle 9 жыл бұрын

What an amazing machine!! Really cool design. Can't wait to see what you do with it!

@tubical71 9 жыл бұрын

As you just mentioned this "...pulled off on purpose..." @ 03:29...i saw similar things on gear that i bought. it´s a shame that some contemporaries need to do things like that.... Some time ago i won an auction for a vintage rack mount reverb unit, and as i got the unit, it was out of function at all, but on the pics in that auction it was fully working. After i opened and taken out the main PCB there was an open and partial cut out(!) trace on it, component side and only to be seen when the PCB was taken out. Furthermore there had been fresh sharp scratches crossing that trace. Hää?!? WTF! It was ovbious to me that someone had done this right before the unit was shipped. After i repaired that trace, i had a close inspection to the whole unit, i found a upside-down or better to say all-way-wrong inserted SIL ribbon connector. After put that in the right way the unit works just fine!! :) Since then i *always* go for a close inspection before powering up! Due to some mad-minded persons..... As if these first snipped and then stripped (!WTF!) power cables, wouldn´t be enought someone lifted that IC side out of its socket.... Seems to me that someone tried fo fix that synth prior to your work, but without any clue on how to do it right, and with no luck at all, just pulled out a chip and left it on its own.... Looking forward to see a part two and an again fully working synth at the end ! :) :) Many thanx for sharing this one Markus!

@bobfuller 9 жыл бұрын

Very nice video Mark. This is definitely going to be your biggest challenge, yet. They are a beast to work on but it will be worth the effort in the end. As you've found out, one of the biggest challenges is the size of the thing. They take up a lot of bench space and are heavy to move. But boy, they are fun to mess around with and generate some unique sounds. Looking forward to the remaining 100 vides in this series. LOL😜

@markusfuller 9 жыл бұрын

Bob Fuller Hi Bob, the deeper I get into this beast the further away the chances of repairing it seem to be. but I will try my best.

@RaveTracks 9 жыл бұрын

Excellent video Markus. Bring on part 2! :)

@deantiquisetnovis 3 жыл бұрын

When I was a teenager I always wanted a Maplin, but built a Formant Modular instead

@macronencer 4 жыл бұрын

This was an unrealised dream of mine when I was 15 (1980)! Tell you what, I've no real engineering skills, but if anyone were to release one of these as a virtual instrument, I'd buy it IMMEDIATELY :)

@harrylime6477 Жыл бұрын

thanks again for your wonderful videos!

@markusfuller Жыл бұрын

Thankyou Harry

@ThomasGrillo 9 жыл бұрын

Very cool vid. Glad to see you're getting in there, and finding the faults in fairly short order. At the end of the vid, there was a board you showed which had two large blue capacitors on it. Those look a lot like the ones in an Etherwave Standard theremin. :)

@andrewramsey6730 6 жыл бұрын

What a frellin beast!

@organfairy 9 жыл бұрын

I have seen an add for a computer kit in a magazine from 1979. I can't remember the brand. But it was programmed in hex and the keyboard was a 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0-A-B-C-D-E-F-ENTER calculator style thing. The computer socket could also be for an external sequencer or just anything that could be programmed. I have an organ where the preset section is called "Voice Setting Computer".

@markusfuller 9 жыл бұрын

I believe I too have seen that programmer in the old magazine. I think this synth used a binary input as the keyboard also sent binary.

@chap666ish 6 жыл бұрын

You might be thinking of the "Science of Cambridge Mk 14". Cost £50. Hex keypad, LED display, 512 bytes of RAM, National Semi-Conductor SC/MP processor. It's what Clive Sinclair was selling before the ZX80 came out.

@organfairy 6 жыл бұрын

It looks like the one.

@paulhoward4161 9 жыл бұрын

That was a torturous ending!

@markusfuller 9 жыл бұрын

Paul Howard Sorry Paul. this thing is taking so long to repair that i thought it best to upload a section at a time as i go along rather than wait for weeks until its fixed (or not)

@edfone 9 жыл бұрын

I got almost no clue what you're talking about but this is facsinating

@matszh 6 жыл бұрын

One of my favourite channels! Ever thought of building your own synthesizer?

@fmoll8748 6 жыл бұрын

great idea using the thermographic camera :)

@bartconinckx 6 жыл бұрын

this is straight up electronics-sherlock-holmes-ing

@kilesengati 8 жыл бұрын

The "Computer" port is propably a serial port. It could have been a propertary standard for controlling the synth's parameters or at least sequencing it with a software. It's the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s so a computer port on such a device is absolutely reasonable. Quite capable computers like the Apple II already hit the market and also took their respective place in music studios. It shouldn't be impossible to convert it to a modern serial port like USB if it wasn't already done sometime.

@markusfuller 8 жыл бұрын

+kilésengati I found out the port was just for switching the same signal as the keyboard input in a sort of binary signal to activate the key on key off and which key, I guess I could have made up a serial port to do that but I had already done enough work just getting it to make sound.

@shortstoriesful 2 жыл бұрын

Hello the tab on the TIP31 isn't the emitter its the collector...

@moricomartini1717 Жыл бұрын

Great man...

@marcuspatzer2392 9 жыл бұрын

Hello and Kind Rgds from Germany. Very nice Videos. Marcus...

@naoyukisasanami 6 жыл бұрын

Infrared camera makes sense, My friend's polymoog caught fire lol

@DerVampyrEngel 7 жыл бұрын

Didn't there used to be a Maplin Guitar Synthesiser at one time? and I wonder if you could upgrade it to a MIDI USB i(In and Out and possibly Thru) ports to control it using todays gear

@QCNTEAMUK 8 жыл бұрын

wow. would love to sample some sounds markus. please can i come round lol

@markusfuller 8 жыл бұрын

+Mekar MC Hi Mekar. sorry but a friend begged me to sell this to him so its now gone but it did have some real good sounds in it and a heck of a lot of bad sounds also.

@QCNTEAMUK 8 жыл бұрын

haha i bet i bet. your videos are brilliant thou mate. keep up the good work. if you would like to hear some production and help me , give us a shout!

@wackenthaljef 9 жыл бұрын

Thats very interesting Markus!!! Thank you for da vid!!! (frm France)

@markusfuller 9 жыл бұрын

jeff wackenthal Thank You Jeff :-)

@maplegreen6900 9 жыл бұрын

thank you man you are great !!

@reps 9 жыл бұрын

Finally a new fuller :)

@nigelalexander9743 6 жыл бұрын

Hi Marcus, I have the same synth but been in storage for many years. Any idea of the current market value?

@rot_studios 8 жыл бұрын

Looking inside this was so sexy, love it! Please tell me you are going to do more vintage stuff like this!

@daveogarf 6 жыл бұрын

Hmmm... late seventies/early eighties. About the only computer interface would've been an RS 232 port. Or as The Tired Horizon suggests below, it could've been for a step sequencer or arpeggiator. Sorry I'm not more help - just guessing.

@stonail665 9 жыл бұрын

Thanks .

@luketurnbull5198 8 жыл бұрын

The inside of the that looks like the local telephone exchange at the end of my road....

@markusfuller 8 жыл бұрын

+Luke Turnbull Yes I agree, I instantly thought "I will never repair this thing" when I first opened it up.

@ytrewq6789 8 жыл бұрын

+markusfuller I thought powering the unit on with components out of place could have a high potential of either causing, or causing further damage?. Out of curiosity?, "Why did you power on the unit knowing that chip still needed to be reseated, with a high possibility that other components will likely be out of place as well?"..... t

@markusfuller 8 жыл бұрын

each board had its own power connection plug and it was already disconnected.there were several parts of the synth that was not powered up.

@ytrewq6789 8 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Explains everything..... Have a wonderful day and look forward to your next video. I have learned soo much from your videos, thank you so much for taking the time to make them and CHEERS!!! from Canada! :-).........

@markusfuller 8 жыл бұрын

Thank You And Hi to all in Canada from UK