Nord User Forum

[ThirdDegree]

Last night I became the proud owner of a Nord Lead 2 rack. However when I plugged the unit for the first time in I got a shock (literally) that took down the power in half my house. On further inspection it seems that this unit is shorting about 50VAC across the metal chassis regardless of whether it's turned on or not. I'm not sure if the problem is with the Nord's transformer or just its switch, and I've never seen this issue on any piece of gear before, but the bottom line is that this unit is dangerously faulty.

Has anyone seen this issue before and/or have a schematic of the Nord Lead 2's power board so i can diagnose a fix? I've sent an email to Clavia but I'm not sure how helpful they'd be with this old piece of gear.

[pterm]

Sorry to hear about your problem.

The only thing that seems to be available is this: http://www.workhousepoets.com/NE2%20Service%20Manual%20&%20Schematics.pdf

If you see mains power on the chassis, the problem (most likely) is either the transformer has an internal short circuit from input to output side or, the chassis is damaged in a way causing it to short to the mains side of the power supply.

[RedLeo]

I imagine Nord would not be very happy to hear of somebody being electrocuted by one of their products, so I don't think you need to worry about them being helpful Because it's such a serious safety issue, they will undoubtedly advise you to get it repaired professionally. I am pretty sure they won't give you any help to fix it yourself, and quite rightly. You might think you know what you're doing, but they can't be sure, and they won't take the risk.

Oh, and have a word with the person who sold it to you. The word I would choose is "baseball bat"

[pablomastodon]

gee, Red, I'd always kind of figured you were in UK, but am thinking "baseball bat" would be a foreign term and you might perhaps have used "cricket bat" instead...

[Cornopean]

Oh no, a baseball bat slips up the side of a coat much easier than a cricket bat. We save the latter for actually playing sport with.

[RedLeo]

gee, Red, I'd always kind of figured you were in UK, but am thinking "baseball bat" would be a foreign term and you might perhaps have used "cricket bat" instead...

A cricket bat simply wouldn't be sporting, old chap. One would have to give the bounder a head start, Marquis of Queensberry rules and all that. Then set the butler on him.

[pterm]

Thanks all - problem is now fixed. I emailed the seller who told me (I kid you not) that before he sold the synth he opened it up to check that everything was OK and saw an 'empty screw hole' on the power board.... so he grabbed a spare screw and screwed it in! Armed with this somewhat disturbing piece of information I opened up the unit, removed the power board and found a loose screw wedged between the power board and the chassis. I'm guessing this rattled loose from wherever he put it and managed to get in the right position to start shorting mains power to the chassis. Lovely. Moral of the story is don't add screw where it don't belong as it's liable to rattle free and at the very least given someone a rather nasty shock.

[pterm]

Thanks for closing the thread. I am also thankful you resolved it without bats (cricket, baseball or fruit).

[Mr_-G-]

"If it isn't broken, do not fix it" comes to mind...
All credits to you! Glad to hear it is sorted.

[kroffe]

Ouch! Happy to hear this problem was solved before anyone got hurt or your house burnt down.