I got this synth off eBay a couple of months ago. I managed to get it to boot on the day it arrived but not ever since. In a series of posts I will attempt to get the JX-305 working again.
A lot of folks have the same symptom as I with this particular synth. Apparently the ROM chip has a defect on the main board. However some owners got lucky and found out that if one of the three power supplies are broken on the board it will result in the same error: Black blocks on the upper half of the screen with the tempo LED shining yellow. No sound, no functions, nothing works at all.
So I got another main board from Vintageplanet.nl (a great source for old hardware parts). Unfortunately the new (also used) board gives me the same error as the original one. Could either one have the same bad ROM fault? Not if I’m lucky.
In the next post I will attempt to measure if the board has the proper voltages at the proper places. Comments and advice are welcome. Stay tuned.
I found a tech in Austin, TX who told me he found a guy with “the last 2 replacement screens on earth.” He told me he’d buy it and install it for $210. I passed because I paid less than $300 for the JX-305. A lot of the screen letters/munbers aren’t working but the sounds still are find & it works well as a MIDI controller. I’m afraid to try Gino’s tricks as my keyboard at least still works. Wish there was a cheaper way to fix the screen without paying almost the price of another used JX-305!
Do the iron trick it works on the 505′s
find a post about the jx
!Re: My JX-305 is back
Posted by bert of kosmic on 12/12/2003, 9:15 pm, in reply to “My JX-305 is back”
213.10.77.238
I experienced the problem with “err! Flash ID”, and the continuous beat lamp “on” and I decided to take my 305 to the local music store Peter Verspuy in Rotterdam.
There they had my 305 picked up by Roland Benelux, and after 1 week, I got it returned. Repaired.
It was said to be the flashrom that Roland has reconnected (welded) to the circuitboard. Overall cost 42 EUR. Not too much I would say. I´m happy to have my 305 back in one piece and working again!
This was the issue with my own JX-305, it may be a product of these new “environmentally friendly” solders – likely not as good as the older stuff, or they had a bad run…
Elie
Some of my characters are disapearing on my display and the sound quality has gone down the tubes. Any ideas?
What part number is the correct one to use when ordering a replacement display?
This is the Solution !! (for me it worked)
Step 1: Leave u’re JX-305 on for approx. 1 hour.
Step 2: Turn u’re JX-305 off and back on while holding down the “Mute ctrl”button and press 3 HH (insert) (while still holding mute ctrl). Now press “enter”. When u receive the message: Err! Flash ID (beat indicator RED)” start again with step 1. If this message keeps coming up, u can try switching off and on multiple times continued with step 2 until you receive the message: “Please send data”. If it doesn’t u probably have a different problem than I had. But hold on, The JX will test your patience
Step 3: When the message: please send data” is in display u need to dump the firmware (1.06 from roland ftp site/check the link from ellieman’s post) into your JX-305. I used cubase sequencer and played the midi firmwareblocks @ 160bpm with 6 seconds separated from each midi firmware block. When the JX-305 accepts all 16 midi firmware blocks go to step 5. If not go to step 4.
Step 4: U probably receive the message: Err! Voltage low, or, Err! Erase (beat indicator is RED) Leave it this way (JX on with Err message, beat indicator red) for at least an hour, then start over again with step 2. When you reach the “please send data” part without problems, it’s a good sign.
Step 5: U need to manually reboot u’re JX-305 after completing the 16 blocks firmwaredump. When it starts up the displays shows the message: groovesynth Roland JX-305. Now bring your JX-305 back to factory settings (Utility – select factory preset with page buttons – press “enter” – selected “all” – Are you sure? Press “enter” This can take up to 5 minutes. Don’t touch it and keep power on.
After restart u’re JX-305 is fully functional like it was before.
Thanks! I will certainly try this!
Thanx alot Gino! This worked for me too! Couldn’t be happier!
First time dumping the firmware at 120bpm didn’t work. The JX-305 didn’t reboot correctly. Second time dumped the firmware at 240bpm and waited a little longer before i switched it back on when rebooting, which worked out allright: it’s fully functioning!
Great job, thanx again!
Congrats, guess this works as long as there’s not a related hardware issue – my board needed solder touchups to the System & User Flash chips. Otherwise I had to go through a similar exercise just to get it to take the flash then it would die until the solder fix. : )
Thank you! After resoldering the system Flash ROM I was able to reload the 1.07 update. At first I got an memory damaged message but after Utility-> Factory Presets everything worked fine.
… forgot, firmware 1.07 works fine (available on the Roland Website ( ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/productsupport/ ). Also, the other PSU issue I mentioned about the ‘Memory Back-up’ proved to be a circuit for muting the audio during start-up so no issues there….
Not sure if my last comment is in the que…Just wanted to know if there were any additional efforts from Ivan?
I’ve been playing around with one of these as well – same issues with the single row of LCD character and the beat LED being lit. I’ve been able to get it working intermittently, when it does, it sounds too good to give up on. : )
I’ve been able to intermittently apply the firmware update as per the Yahoo Groups JX-305 group using firmware 1.06 via MIDI (slow!). Basically drag and drop each midi file in order on the sequencer screen with a gap to allow time for the update after each sysex block (16 of them).
You have to ensure each block loads up with the correct Checksum – if one fails, you have to stop the sequencer process – rewind it to before the failed block – turn off the synth, reboot into the firmware update page and restart the sequencer at the Sysex block that failed.
When all 16 blocks have properly loaded, power off and back on the JX-305 and hopefully it will have loaded the new firmware. You may have to press a key or two while powering up to have it catch on (UNDO/Redo or MUTE/CTRL or EDIT). Thereafter, reset the memory to factory default via the UTILITY key function – this takes a minute or two for entire process, hopefully the keyboard will hang in there while it does. Otherwise, you should be able to powerdown and power down/up to restart the machine and retry the Utility memory reset option.
I will pull the board off and redo any suspect solder joints – I’ll verify the switcher supplies outputs are clean and holding their value via an oscilloscope. If issues appear I will try to see if there is a suspect component or joing B.T.W. the supply to the JX-305 should be a regulated 9V @ 1000mA like the official power brick. If these don’t work, I would substitute in a separate power supply that provides the same functionality. I had removed a decoupling cap by one of the PSU chips and an attempted update produced a ‘Low Voltage’ warning – likely due to noise spikes intermittently bringing down the supply voltage or even producing oscillations. In any case, this tells me that the PSU is very sensitive
More importantly is the Memory back-up functionality which manages the power-down and power-up of them memory. It’s very well may be where the machine is losing it’s stability – if that portion fluctuates, it’ll corrupt the memory contents so this may be first to check before the PSU….
So not giving up yet – let me know if you guys have any luck… or any comments?
Thanks
Hi,
You are pretty lucky to get to the update screen. The thing is, that my JX doesn’t even get there. It just sits with the black blocks on the screen. By now I sent it (and both boards) to the UK for a guy who claimed he can fix it.
From what I read, if you can boot the thing you probably have a proper main board. So your problem should be PSU/soldering, etc, which is good, because it can be fixed for relatively cheap.
I’ll post an update as soon as I have any news.
Ivan
Hi Ivan, guess you did/didn’t try the firmware upgrade routine?
Otherwise the black blocks line seems to be a consistant fault as it was with mine. I did all the power-supply solder touch-ups to be safe – still same symptoms.
What was more revealing was when I found the self-test routine, power-up while holding down UNDO/REDO then pressing ‘Number 7′. This tests the USER and SYS Flash, anyway, it flagged the SYS Flash so I found out where that was on the board (there’s two) and touched them up using a basic solder iron and magnifier.
Next I re-tried the Firmware upgrade routine, came up clean everytime vs. previous 1 in 20. Thereafter I was able to do a system update via MIDI (much fast er this time around) and it all works like a charm… (did the system reset and went through all the button/led/input-output tests). So I’m a very happy camper to say the least and wanted to pass the info to whomever else … : )
Just be sure you do a clean job of the touch-ups (especially the Flash) otherwise you will end up with solder bridges and shorts galore…
Any progress on this Ivan/Bill? Similar issues everyone else has posted in various forums. But I’ve had this keyboard working on-off this way (see below) for a bit – sounds fantastic when it does work so I’m not giving in yet.
When it has allowed me to, I’ve managed to flash mine with the operating system (V 1.06 worked, don’t know about 1.07 yet) via MIDI, very slow process using a MIDI sequencer with all update files played sequentially.
To get to the UPDATE screen, power-up while holding MUTE/CTRL and then press ‘number 3′ key to get the Flash Update option – Hit yes and you may get a ‘Flash ID err’ I’ve had the error but had some luck unplugging, restarting later when it finally will say ‘Send Midi Data’… if that eventually works out without block update errors (you can go back to beginning and flash that single block again – just make sure your checksums are coming up with the correct values as per the update document.
It may take a number of powerups and button presses to get the reboot to happen properly after the flashing. When it stays stable, I do the Factory Reset procedure.
I’m going to have a closer look at the board and resolder connections on the mainboard – failing that, I’ll have a closer look at the on-board power supplies. Noticed some caps etc. missing so I’ll have to verify if that’s an issue – had removed one decoupling cap whilst trying to resolder it – tried the update with it off and eventually got ‘LOW Voltage Error which tells me the internal supplies are very touchy – the MC-505 has a separate switching supply mounted internally so is better that way.
IF the internal switching PSU looks bad and can’t be fixed, I may try providing an equivalent solution as the MC-505 by adding in a separate supply that provides the functionality of the JX-305 on-board switcher.
It may be a lost cause, but I’ll keep at it for a bit and follow-up with Roland in case they have something intelligent to say on this – maybe a new mainboard etc.
Comments?
Watching this closely: I have two of these bricks on the shelf…same problem. Wasted much ‘phone time with Roland – their help-line people seem to be about 12-years old. Only advice was (1) check the battery )there IS NO battery, kid) and (2) take it to a service center.
Having had a similar problem on Alesis QS-series boards, I found a replacement display form NewHaven and stuch that in tonight — NO CHANGE !!!
Had checked the power first off…seems ok.
Good luck to you.
Bill Tomlinson
Kentucky
Any useful tips from my experience Bill that you want to have a go at?
Let me know if you need someone to walk you through any of this -it would be interesting to know if the issues are the very same or similar…
Elieman