Will they have to open my keyboard to replace a sensor on a black key?

[Toril S]

Hello friends.
I have a black key that sometimes gives a banging, loud sound when I pley. It is most prominent when I play the piano sounds. See my thread about strange behaviour of a key. I have talked to the shop where I purchased my S975. The warranty has expired. They believe it is a bad sensor that makes the issue. I wonder; will they have to open the whole keyboard to fix this? I am afraid that can cause other problems. Is there anything I can try besides blowing air at the keys to get the dust out? This keyboard is a warranty replacement for my S970, that also broke! Any advice appreciated.

[Normanfernandez]

Yep you'll need to open the keyboard for that.

[Toril S]

Thanks Norman.

[Gleston]

Dear Toril

yes you have to open the keyboard to change the sensor, but it´s better to change all the keys , because as my experience tells me , it will begin to fail many keys from now on.

I´ve already change in my PSR S970 , that I bought in 2017.

Sometimes all these Yamaha keyboards has these problem. Sad but true.

My old PSR S900 had the same problem too.

As I have technical background , I buy the spare parts and change myself.

[Toril S]

Thanks Gleston. I will have to take it to a service center.

[Aquilauno]

Hi Toril before taking it to service center test with the can of compressed air, the air that comes out expanding causes condensation, always wait for the humidity to evaporate and try if this solves the problem. You never know ...
Pietro

[Toril S]

The man at the service center saud I absolutely must not blow air into it, but I will try anyway.

[andyg]

The man at the service centre is correct, do not use an air can.

1) it probably won't get to the contact
2) it will blow any dust inside the keyboard around, with the potential (albeit slight) to cause other issues.

The correct procedure is to open up, access the contact(s) that are troublesome and gently clean it/them out with a cotton bud dipped in denatured alcohol. This type of contact has been in use by all makers since the 1980s, and it's been an issue since then for all of them. Some keyboards/pianos/synths/organs never have a problem, some will have lots. Depends to some extent on the use they keyboard gets and the environment it's in.

And never, ever follow the sometimes-given 'advice' to press the keys repeatedly, to press them hard or to 'wiggle' them. That worked for old style 'whisker' contacts but on rubber/carbon contacts, all it does is press the dust/dirt harder into the contact.

[Toril S]

Thanks Andyg.

[EileenL]

Maybe it is just the rubber strips that need replacing.

[Dnj]

Toril.
thru the years all the way back to my psr9000 till today with a few of my Yamaha arrangers I have had the same exact problem you mentioned.....
the unit needs to be opened up and the rubber contact strip needs to be replaced you can buy them from Yamaha or other places online also. . It takes longer to remove all the screws then to replace the affected keystrip.once done put the back cover on and rescrew it ....done....

Good Luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZIiVuBJo6Y

[Toril S]

Thanks Eileen and dnj. I am not going to open it myself!!! It will cost 2000 NOK for me to have it done, so I am trying the canned air first😀

[overover]

Thanks Eileen and dnj. I am not going to open it myself!!! It will cost 2000 NOK for me to have it done, so I am trying the canned air first😀

Hi Toril,

I wouldn't do cleaning with compressed air if I were you. You would never reach the right place from the outside. The actual contacts are on an internal circuit board, below the "rubber contact" strips.

In addition, it is usually not due to normal dust or dirt, but either the contacts on the circuit board are oxidized (can be carefully cleaned with isopropanol / denatured alcohol), or it is due to the graphite contacts of the "rubber contact" strips. These could be temporarily repaired with a soft graphite pencil (as shown in various YT videos), but it is better to replace the rubber contact strips.

Please check out some YT videos regarding the rubber contact strips in Yamaha keyboards. Then you will probably quickly see that compressed air applied from outside cannot do anything here:
>>> https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yamaha+psr+%22rubber+contacts%22+OR+%22key+contacts%22


Best regards,
Chris

[Toril S]

Thanks Chris. Then I will have to bite the bullet and take it to the repair shop.