Dead Stage 3 88

[pterm]

Just wanted to update you folks, in case in the future someone else has a similar issue. So I've tried pretty much everything I feel like I have the ability to try up to now.

Hi tuejan,
Did you try to measure any voltages on the power supply with the AC power connected and the power switched on?
One likely cause for the entire unit appearing dead is the loss or incorrect operation of the +5V supply. I expect that this 5V powers all the digital electronics on the main board.

Most main board designs provide a circuit that monitors the voltage level of the supply. If the monitor circuit senses the voltage is too low, it keeps the digital electronics in reset and no obvious activity occurs. A good main board design contains a circuit that monitors the incoming power and if it finds it either too high or too low or if the mother board draws too much current it disconnects the power to prevent damage to the main board's electronics. So I think there is a good chance that this problem is isolated to the power supply.

The simplest check requires a measurement of the +5V supply output with all the cables and screws connected and the unit switched ON. I suggest this because the Nord supply appears to use an LM2676 switching regulator and often simple switching regulators like this behave strangely with little or no load connected. The pictures you posted also appear to show that the screw holes connect the power supply's PCB to the chassis (most likely to sink heat from the regulator integrated circuits). If you measured the+ 5V under different circumstances, the result might be unreliable.

If you did not measure this voltage, but feel confident to try it, please contact me by Private Message on the forum to discuss your electrical or electronics experience, equipment, the method, precautions, and other options (if you don't feel confident to try it yourself).
-pterm

[Hlaalu]

They are a small manufacturer and have outsourced all service to the national distributors.

Fair enough, it's their decision to make, but whatever they do in this respect, when you have an official website with an official Support page that claims "an answer will then be delivered to the email address you stated in the support form", whatever is the route that that message takes, I think at least getting a reply is the very minimum from a keyboard company whose products cost 3,000 euros on average.

If you leave them a message, it's directly forwarded to your national distributor.

Yes, but as the Service page states, "A copy will also be CC'ed to the Nord HQ".

On some issues, you would get a message directly from the developers in Sweden,though.

I am starting to wonder which kind of issues would count as the ones that Nord in person feels condescending enough to even care for. Maybe your keyboard spitting flames and speaking in ancient Greek, painting 666 over my walls? Then maybe they are going to send me a reply?

I don't want to sound caustic (and FZiegler, nothing against you! I am just following on what you said, I know you aren't necessarily defending them), I have been owning the Stage 3 for a year now and I am really in love with this keyboard. That said, the Support service has been totally non-existing so far for me, and this does play a role for me in deciding what my next keyboard is going to be.

[FZiegler]

Wow! Didn't want you to get loaded. I was writing in behalf of tuejan who really has a nightmare of a problem and wanted to say: It looks like a repair problem. I fully understand Nord not to mix in those questions as far as there's not a design problem behind.

But of course, I'd expect answers for the questions - be it bugs or strange behaviour - you posed in the last months. That's different to me.

Just don't ask me what I'd expect to be the line between the two - I don't know.

[Hlaalu]

No you didn't get me loaded! I was (maybe a bit too cinically) pointing out what I find to be a big problem with Nord Support.

[tuejan]

FZiegler&Hlaalu - Don't stress it guys, 2020 was already enough for everyone .

TBH My main peeve was that it broke. I mean, it was never moved (it had issues before this move only to the basement), never dropped, spilt over etc. Nothing weird ever attached to it. Sat alongside a ton of other cheaper equipment running on the same power supply in the same environment. Plus if I look back to when this started, I think it was quite a while ago, so it would only have been a couple of years old at that point. My Breville Espresso broke last month (yeah it's also on the "to fix" bench), it gets hit up for a latte minimum 3 times a day for over 2 years. I spill water all over it, it's temp diff is huge, it get's banged about all day. My previous Breville one I had for 6 years and still sort of works. Breville are the "cheaper" end of the market, not exactly Pro. But the Nord is Pro, I think that's my real surprise in all this. It's just not what I expected. But again no disrespect to Nord, it's an amazing keyboard and the only issue is really that it broke when I'm not in the best position to have it repaired. And I just setup my new space in the basement and it's great, except I've basically lost two pianos and two synths (I don't really use the organs on it) and my only hammer action keyboard.

Again, thanks for everyone's help and interest.

[Hlaalu]

Unfortunately I am not capable of giving you meaningful help, technically speaking, but please do keep us posted as to what the developments are.

[FZiegler]

Tuejan, don't worry! Hlaalu and I are coming to terms with each other. As far as I know.
Unless, I hadn't talked like that.

[Hlaalu]

Tuejan, don't worry! Hlaalu and I are coming to terms with each other. As far as I know.
Unless, I hadn't talked like that.

?

That little rant had nothing against anything you said.

It's just a bit discomforting to know that, if and when such problems occurr, they aren't as responsive as they probably should...

[NORD_Hammond]

Hi there,
I had the same problem a few days ago but I thought it was due to the fact I had the NS3 connected to the computer via USB while switching ON....?
I cannot find any warning one should avoid this, though.
After disconnecting USB before switching ON I did not have that problem again.
Coincidence?
I wouldn't want to imagine this happening just before a gig!!!!!!
Has anybody had the same issue when powering ON with USB connected?
Thanks and greetings

[Hlaalu]

There was a thread about this a while ago (I myself asked that), and the consensus seemed to be that the order in which you power things on and connect the USB cable from whichever end first (Nord first or PC first) is totally irrelevant and doesn't damage anything.

From this post on: nord-stage-forum-f3/usb-connection-issu ... sb#p130629

The only bit worth care seems to be not to disconnect it while trasnferring data, which is common sense, but even in this case I think the worst it could happen is that you lose that data, not physically damage your keyboard. Now if you disconnected it during firmware flashing though, that could be a different story... not physical damage but you might brick it to a point that you'd need it serviced.