Power button questions

[daleSP]

The power button on my SX900 feels a bit wobbly, i.e, when I put my finger on the power button, I can move the button around a little bit (not a lot).

Is this normal (wobbly) on the SX900 ?

The reason for this question is that, given the lockdown, I can't go to a music store to check other SX900s and on my S900 (old keyboard), the power button is very different and stiff to push, i.e, feels much more sturdier.

Another question ...

What is the best practice for powering off the keyboard ?
a) Power off at the keyboard itself or
b) powering off at the power bar to which the keyboard is connected (after waiting enough time to ensure all I/O operations are complete) ?

I have been doing b) for my S900 keyboard for years with no problems so far (knock wood) but I suspect that option a) is the best method of powering off the SX900 now especially after reading about the reliability problems experienced by some other SX900 owners here in the forum.

BTW .. I am doing option a) first now and then powering off the power bar, i.e, I don't want to take a chance.

However, is there anyone daring enough to regularly do option b) on the SX900 or even the Genos ?

(I would hope that the SX900 would have the ability to power down as gracefully as possible in the event of a sudden power failure but that is probably wishful thinking)

[Normanfernandez]

The Power Button here is designed to have Automatic Shutdown.
I personally think it's a good feature as a safety measure.

If you have a Power Failure, getting a UPS would solve this issue, it also would would take care of the voltage fluctuation. 


As far as auto turn off goes, the issue that I've faced was

If I'm listening to music via the Aux in 
And I haven't touched a key within the set time. The keyboard would turn off.

What I would do is
Mute a right hand voice, and press it once in a while when I'm playing something via the Aux input

Regards Norman.

[reya]

Dale,

Older keyboard models had mechanical power switches, a bit like the one probably on your power bar.
These switches physically make and/or brake electrical connection in an instant when pressed.

The current generation power switches/buttons in keyboards are no longer mechanical. When pressed they just send an electrical signal to the keyboard which reacts to that by powering on or off.
That means when powering off these keyboards with their build in power button, these keyboards do not just (only) shut down, but they also perform a power down sequence, making sure that everything is nicely written to non volatile memory and probably doing some other stuff that only Yamaha knows
Using your power bar to power off these keyboards will prevent them from going through that power down sequence and may (one day) cause problems.

Compare it to removing the battery from a laptop pc to power it down in stead of having it shut down the normal way.

I too, have the keyboard on a power bar, and before (with Tyros) I just used the power bar switch to power everything down. But now with Genos/SX I allways power down the keyboard first with it's internal switch before switching the power off on the power bar.
It was easier before, but not worth the risk doing it otherwise I think.

Having said that, I powered down the old way a couple of times (power bar only) by accident and it did not damage anything.
But that is the same with pc's. They survive a power failure for 10 times and after the 11th time they no longer start up ...

So my advice would be to allways power off the keyboard by it's internal switch first.

Best Regards
Rudy

[Enildo]

The power button on my SX900 feels a bit wobbly, i.e, when I put my finger on the power button, I can move the button around a little bit (not a lot).

Yes, the button is a little soft, as it is not a mechanical stop button. Mine moves a little too.

[Rick D.]

You should always shut keyboard off with its own switch. They go thru a shut down sequence before it shuts down. If you shut it down with the power strip, it can't shut down properly. It is similar to doing an illegal shut down on your computer. You could lose data, or cause some other damage.

Rick D.

[Janus]

You should always shut keyboard off with its own switch. They go thru a shut down sequence before it shuts down. If you shut it down with the power strip, it can't shut down properly. It is similar to doing an illegal shut down on your computer. You could lose data, or cause some other damage.

Rick D.

When you turn a keyboard off and  quick on can give also demage
There is a buffer condensater to take the peakpower by turn on the keyboard
When you shut off the condensater needs time to release the piekpower
And by quick restart the condensater is still loaded and can't buffer the peakpower

[EileenL]

I always turn volume to nil and then hold off button for a couple of seconds as instructed by Yamaha.
Do this and you won't get any problems. You have to remember these new keyboards are more advanced than the old ones.

[daleSP]

Hi everyone ...

Thank you all for your great advice.

I am comforted in knowing that I am not alone in having a wobbly power button on my SX900. I assume that this is a "feature" of the SX900 (and perhaps the SX700 & Genos) keyboards.
I am hoping that this "wobbliness" is not an indicator of a potential failure point of the power button in the future. :-)

I am intrigued with Janus's observation that there is a power buffer that dissipates power from that buffer when the keyboard is shutdown.
I wonder if this power dissipation is enough to gracefully shutdown the keyboard in the event of a sudden power loss whether from the power bar or from the entire electrical grid.

However, I am not inclined to test this theory with my expensive keyboard.

So, I am going to follow all of your advice ... power down at the keyboard first then the power bar.

Thanks again,

[Toril S]

My Genos power buttons also wobbles, no worry. Normal

[Ingar]

I think that wobbling and soft rubber buttons it`s an advandtage because it will contribute to reduce  the pressure on the mechanism below.

That was not the case on my Tyros 5. Hard plastic buttons and they broke in the heat during gigs.

Regards Ingar

[hans1966]

Hi guys, so far so good with the power button

[rcpilot]

Remember, Also, did you know you can change the auto power off to no, or change the time?
Lee