Casio EP-10 problems.

[Rivers of Blood]

Hi, first post. I'm from Scotland and like to play with casios 

I unfortunately have a problem with one of them, a casio ep-10 (Muppet Babies). I've broken one of the prongs on the power switch (more wear and tear than anything I reckon as it is 20 odd years old) and now it doesn't work. I had just completed bending it and this happens as I put it back together. Sigh.

Needless to say I am gutted as the sounds it makes with the feedback loop alone are amazing. I've looked all over the internet to try and find what this stupid switch is even called never mind where to find it and even Casio themselves are  unable/unwilling to help.

Anyone who has opened an old casio will know what this slider looks like, it's 2 lots of 4 tiny metal prongs mounted on a piece of black plastic which contact the pcb and act like a DPDT switch. There are some of these on my MT-65, but I don't want to kill that.

Anyway, I need one of these switches to resurrect my EP-10. If anyone can help I would be overjoyed, thanks .

[andy_wheels]

how about replacing the switch with a standard one? just solder wires on to the circuit board points where the slider switch would connect and bob's your uncle.

[Rivers of Blood]

I fixed it, but it's still a work in progress due to parental responsibilities!

I simply swapped the power switch with the identical volume switch, this resulted in power on but no volume. However it was easier to trace the volume part of the circuit, so I ran a jumper wire to bypass it and it's now on permanent full volume, but I'm adding a pot tonight to be able to turn it down.

I've added a pitch control by removing the mini-pot on the board and wiring it to a surface mounted pot, I've also added a variable feedback loop with a on/off toggle switch and a  push-to-break "kill- switch". I have a few more bits and pieces to add this weekend and I'll be done. It goes from cute to ultra-violent very quickly, I love it!



   

[jamiewoody]

are these things good for bending? i saw a lot of them on ebay. i thought about trying one.

[Remork]

well, they're supposedly dumbed down versions of VL-1/PT-1 heritage.
http://weltenschule.de/TableHooters/Casio_VL-1_PT-1.html
i've got one opened up around here but haven't gotten round to finishing it.. it's residing in a shoe box somewhere.

so: no ADSR synthesizer.
no 100-note sequencer memory either. you would need the calculator chip for that one, i suppose.. who knows.

(extreme) pitch bend pot is definitely possible, since it isn't crystal clocked.
iirc there's separate outputs for melody and drums, so that might be of interest. i managed to bring out the extra guitar sound and in my notes i wrote something about a squelchy fuzz bend. that probably made sense to me at the time, but it's loooong ago. 

all in all it's very basic, this ain't no SK-1 holy grail style keyboard if that's what you're after.
if it's just for laughs, then yeah, this might be your thing. not too much info on the 'net to be found though, apart from the Burnkit Frogsquasher.