Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

[robbak]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

I'll first have to repair my own, so I'm confident I'm doing things right. If it works out, I may be able to provide you with a set.

[aotearoa]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

Gday Robbak,

just wondering if you had a set of ROMS that you would be willing to sell to me here in NZ please?

cheers

[dkneyle]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

G'Day mate,

The piano was sold to one of the members of the Synth Club as he wanted it for its MIDI output. I told the Club we had a solution to fix it. I'll relay a message that you have the ROM chips available if he's interested in getting it going as a proper piano again.

I'm very pleased toi know that you will be getting yours going using the research and work we did to get to the bottom of the issue and then recovering the code through the efforts of many different people around the world.

I run The Repair Cafe here in Bega NSW. I was contacted about whether I could perhaps help get a Technics electric piano going again. It sounds like a very similar issue with failed ROM. It has a self test function, and that seems to point in that direction. I feel like "here we go again!"

[robbak]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

I believe the Synth group I donated my piano still have it. I must say, given the success I see here, and given I kicked this all off, I'm a bit interested to know if I could get the old piano fully operational again.
To that end, would any one out there who has the capability, be prepared to sell me the three programmed FLASH ROMS?
(Covid19 might currently be causing problems with international post, but I'm finding I am getting mail through from overseas, even if it is a little delayed.)
Thanks, David

My CLP-550 just fell to this, so I have 10 chips and a programmer heading my way - so if you still need them in a month or so, I can program you a set and send them.

And I am in Australia - North Queensland - so shipping is reasonably local.

[stj]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

you can get a pack of 27c040's from ebay/ali-express,
and a €40 programmer that's really good.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33018288982.html

or the one with a better socket - if your going to use it a large amount.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32992209964.html

[dkneyle]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

I believe the Synth group I donated my piano still have it. I must say, given the success I see here, and given I kicked this all off, I'm a bit interested to know if I could get the old piano fully operational again.
To that end, would any one out there who has the capability, be prepared to sell me the three programmed FLASH ROMS?
(Covid19 might currently be causing problems with international post, but I'm finding I am getting mail through from overseas, even if it is a little delayed.)
Thanks, David

[dkneyle]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

Excellent suggestion, however I attempted, but no option is made available to me to edit thoes old posts. Only this post here was I able to edit. I know what I'll do - I'll create a new thread that simply says to look here at post #114 for the ROM codes. Anyone doing a Google search should stumble upon that and be able to find there way to the correct ROM codes.

By the way, I still think it is very bad form of Yamaha not to release their code into the public domain. It is ancient history code and of no use other than we hobbyists trying to get their piano going again. The cost the ask for three new programmed ROM chips is astronomical and makes any repair uneconomical.

Well, to use the Australian venacular, "stuff them"; we cracked it ourselves and it is now in the public domain, and Yamaha's poor treatment of their customers will make people consider if they want to buy their gear in the future or not.

[ds2010]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

Hey dkneyle,

Can I ask you for a favor? Since we don't have pinned headers in the threads on this forum, maybe it would be a good idea if you could edit your very first post in this thread and add a little summary there, stating that (and how) the issue has been resolved and also give the link to the final "tested working" collection of ROM images in my post #114 on page 6 (rar attachment).
For a newcomer (I remember myself when I just came here) it is a bit brain-twisting to find their way amongst the multiple posts containing the various (including bad and irrelevant) uploaded ROM images.
Pointing the reader to the right destination would be a huge help for them, I reckon. Reading through the thread is a bonus

Obviously, it's up to you as this is your topic - but please consider.
This thread is a unique solution provider for corrupted CLP550 WAV ROMs issue - one and only in the world, afaik. Let's keep it tidy.

[dkneyle]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

Had a look at your image, and no, not my old piano. I'm pretty sure my old piano still resides in Bega where I donated it to an analog synth group.

I was just having a quick review of this forum and how far everyone had got in resurrecting the ROM code and getting their pianos going again. From the seed I planted we got to this point. Congrats to all who participated in the project.

[gunsu69]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

I'm glad to know this thread I kicked off is helping people get their old Yamaha pianos back into service. I personally have moved on, having donated the piano to a group of synth enthusiasts who are able to use the MIDI output to drive their experiments. But very pleased to know it appears the code is finally being recovered for those three ROM chips.

DKNEYLE I'm wondering if I have your CLP550!

Howdy all. I've 'inherited' a free CLP550 which seems to have the same issue described. Crazy sounds but amp and MIDI working fine. While handy with a soldering iron, am going to pass the task of programming the 27c040's to a mate with an EPROM programmer. I'll use the BIN files posted lower down and report back.

Now RE the comment above about maybe having DKNEYLEs CLP550, I live in Sydney and inherited this from a fellow who said he got it for free from someone else. I opened it up and can see someone has already put in IC sockets and started "fiddling" with the ROMs.

So how would we know if this is yours? Here's a pic of the ROMs (attached), mid one has been changed. Recognise it?


Anyway, plan is to resurrect it for my 3 year old pink., May give it a hot pink spray job. Will report back

[Retro-Hipster]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

Wow, this has been a fascinating Read guys. I know very little about ROM dumps and such. Really though, this is Badcaps at it's finest. What a great collaborative effort on everyone's part. ^.^

[ds2010]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

Interesting that I have yet to hear about something like this with PC BIOS ROMs.

Two main factors contribute to why the story is different for PC BIOS:

1) PC BIOS ROMs are 27C256 (32KBytes x 8) , whereas the Clavinova GEW ROMs are 27C040 (512KBytes x 8), meaning their dye cell density is somewhat 16 times higher! Those C040 were clearly pushing the technology at that time (late 80s), so you can indeed expect much lower reliability and retention time from them.

2) It's now been 31 year since my Clavinova was manufactured, and I am still using it. Surely, if you used your PC XT with 8086 processor from that time up until now, there would have been a fair chance that the BIOS would get corrupted! :-)))

Clearly, two factors: PC BIOS chips are less dense, and therefore more robust, technology-wise. And the active life span (caused by mostly the obsolescence of the performance spec) of the average PC is well below the data retention time of the BIOS ROMs used in it.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

because even if the data in the original ROMs is still good, it can get corrupted any time now, as the chips are well past their data retention period.

Interesting that I have yet to hear about something like this with PC BIOS ROMs.

I'm actually more worried about SSDs right now! I had one where I think there was sudden and silent data corruption, where the only symptom, was a Windows error, and not the usual kind in the event log! I chucked that SSD alright!
(It was a Patriot Pyro)

[ds2010]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

I think, now, when we figured out the good ROM dumps, the approach should be to replace all three ROMs with the reprogrammed ones anyway (see post #114 on the previous page), first, because that would take away all questions about the integrity of the data in GEW ROMs, and, second, because even if the data in the original ROMs is still good, it can get corrupted any time now, as the chips are well past their data retention period.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

UPDATE. I pulled the ROMS from the PCB and installed turned pin sockets. With no ROMS inserted I powered up. All was silent (as I'd hoped). I hit a few keys Some of the lowest keys generated a very quiet 'click' sound. I then inserted IC8 (GenROM1) and powered up. I was met with a cacophony of noises, screetches and the usual weirdness as per previous posts. Maybe I had got it in one? I pull IC8 and inserted IC9 (GenROM2) and had very similar sorts of sounds, but not as intense. Mmmm. I pulled IC9 and put in IC10. Nothing. Quiet and no response to any keys. So I put IC9 and IC8 back in. Powered up: all quiet, no response to keys.
So I'm moving away from the ROMs being the problem.

If your photo was how it originally was, then IC8 looks a lot like it was manufactured a bit later than the others of the three. (9022) (The others are 9018)
Looks like of the three, they were manufactured in 1990 during week 18 and one during week 22.

[PMD]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

i forgot to attach details previously. here it is.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LA104-Digit...72.m2749.l2649

[ds2010]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

BTW, what model of the CRO/analyzer did you buy?
Is it standalone or PC-based?

[ds2010]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

Fair enough.

Good luck and write back here when you have some news for us.

[PMD]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

Hi DS, Thanks for follow-up, since im away from my home locations for a while on my job commitments, i didnt had time to do the testings on construction of daughter board. also i had ordered pocket size Ossiloscope\signal analyzer too and waiting for delivery and heard it reach my home today( witch will help me on several other works as well). so couldn't go through the test. will update no sooner i did the test!

[ds2010]

Re: Yamaha Electric Piano CLP550 no keyboard output

Hi PMD,

You've suddenly gone quiet after our last exchange.

Does this mean a complete success or complete disaster? :-)

Let us know of you progress, will you pls?