Motivation
After my efforts to repair the (old) Alesis DM Pro drum-trigger module by solder-rework had
Comparison
my “old” unit had
- firmware V 1.06
- Trigger inputs (all tested)
- Screen in good shape
- Buttons in good shape
- Audio Outputs all bad
my “new” unit
- Firmware V 2.0, which fixes some bugs, allow for newer (Roland) switch triggers.
- Trigger inputs all goo
- Screen shows some fading
- Buttons, the Trigger Select < and > buttons seem faulty, so this would be a problem if I didn’t want to use “chase” mode to select whcih trigger I’d edit by hitting it…this is a notorious problem setting thresholds and you “lose” your target, so being able to select manually, without chase, should always be included.
- Audio Outputs sound ok from internal sounds, but I could not enter the Test Menus, which require booting up while holding the above Trigger Select buttons.
Looks like a perfect opportunity to transplant the front panel UI assembly (“face”) from the old unit to the new.
A tiny surgery.
Take his face…
…OFF!
To the Bench !
full removal of the Face will require careful handling of multiple (criss-crossed) ribbon cables between motherboard and UI board.
Out with the old
In with the new
the new (incoming) face had it’s ribbon cables anchored on with heavy silicon…
…so I had to scrape/lift that out in order to continue the transplant.
Transplant Complete
Further work … ?
…for me : unfortunately, this leaves me to (eventually) need to repeat the battery holder transplant when (not if) the units memory fails.
…for you : If you or someone you know needs work on a rack unit like this, please contact me.
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Hello Patrick, my Alesis Dmpro display is reducing in the number of characters appearing on screen. is this an lcd problem or a battery problem?
the battery is WAY easier to service than the display… through the Alesis product of that ear had a bit of a rep for displays that would fritz or fade.
The screen is highly integrated to the UI/jack board… and it would be easiest to do a franken-swap if you could find one whose back end was dead, and just swap their faces like I did…or we can arrange to do it.