What screws to unscrew to open up a Stage 4

[agmiddlet]

I too am going from a 230 Stage 4 to a 115. I wrote to Nord and this is what they said:

"1) flip switch ( need to open the top, the switch is in the power supply section)
2) change fuse (recommended rating is 125mA for 230v operation. US 115v operation uses 300mA. All fuses are 250v slo blo)
3) plug in and turn on"

He also sent a very vague image suggesting that I take the screws out of the back but not detailing which ones.

As it stands, I have the fuse and have taken out the screws that went into the red part of the back. And the ones on the wooden sides. But it still wasn't opening easily. I do not want to force it!

When I wrote back to Nord, the same guy said:

"There is a screw on the underneath , may be located lonely in the middle.
you must be careful when the top panel is released because there is a risk of breaking the cable that goes from the top panel to the bottom frame."

I see a number of screws on the bottom so do not know which he's referring to. (Also wondering why he couldn't have warned me about the cable the first time I wrote.)

Overall, I'm confused on a number of fronts: why there isn't information on this in the manual (or a reference to more information); why, after I wrote to them, they couldn't have better information; and what to do now. I found one hasty video on YouTube that skipped over which screws to remove and another where the guy took his entire S3 apart (not going down that route). Last question: I was told by someone that there isn't an automatic transformer because of "noise" issues. I asked for confirmation from the Nord tech support guy but he declined to answer that (twice). Is Nord support usually like this?

Any thoughts?

Thanks so much!

[agmiddlet]

In older models (I assume the same might be for the NS4) there was a tip to not remove completely some of the side screws, so they can be use them as a 'hinge'.
The bottom screw I believe is one at the centre of the bottom panel, as they told you.

I do not know the answer to your other questions, sorry.

[agmiddlet]

Thanks, Mr G! Perhaps something was changed from the S3 to S4. I ended up unscrewing all the big screws from the bottom and that only loosened the keys within the casing (the bed slides around now). I then unscrewed all the screws on the back. At that point, all visible screws except three really shallow ones on the bottom were unscrewed. I didn't see how they could factor in (being so shallow) but, not seeing any. other options, I tried them. And that worked. So look for the three small screws on the bottom (nothing "lone" or "lonely" at all). They attach to some braces that hold the top on.

In other news, I wrote again to Clavia. I really hope their tech support isn't always this bad.

[agmiddlet]

Another issue: the fuses I bought — that conform to what that tech support guy specified — are much physically larger than the fuse that came with it originally. Does that matter? I suspect that I need to send these back and try to find something smaller. This is turning into an epic. Good grief.

[agmiddlet]

In other news, I wrote again to Clavia. I really hope their tech support isn't always this bad.

Just a reminder: as stated on Nord website, it is your local Nord distributor that is supposed to respond to your support questions and is your primary contact point, not Clavia itself.

If you bought your NS4 from a 230V country, the seller should have done the fuse/voltage change for you or anyway, being the NS4 under warranty, normally this type of operation should be done by the authorized service (in some countries, opening the device yourself voids the warranty).

About the fuse, it is common that specifications indicate the mA value and blo type (fast/slow), but not its size/format, so it is always best to check the existing fuse shape and size first.

[agmiddlet]

Thanks. The Clavia website relays the tech support request from their website webform to your home country anyhow. I'm living in the US temporarily and I realized last night that my service request went to Canada (my home country where the support person doesn't seem to know or care), not Nord. I don't know if that request ticket routing is done automatically or if someone filters it. Either way, I'd be happy to have had someone do the work for me but that ship has sailed. But I still want to know how to do it for when I travel otherwise.

I'm living in Chicago right now and I couldn't find anyone who carried the exact fuse specifications in town. And this is a big city! Even online, it took a while. Now I have to try to do that all over again but with a different physical dimension. (Which aren't always detailed!) I'm just a bit taken aback at how much work this is taking. I know very little about electronics (just wiring for my studio years ago) so this is a learning process.

I'd still love to have confirmation as to why they are not using an automatic transformer, as much modern gear has. I'm happy to believe that it might be for noise purposes. It would justify all this runaround.

[Mr_-G-]

If you are temporarily in a country with a 110V mains, you could get a 110-->220V external transformer and just plug the power to that, no need to change anything.
I do not think anybody here could tell with authority why they chose to have a transformer with a switch in their design, this is not an official Nord forum; we are only users of Nord instruments.
Thanks for the info about the bottom panel screws.

[maxpiano]

If you are temporarily in a country with a 110V mains, you could get a 110-->220V external transformer and just plug the power to that, no need to change anything.

This

[spradders]

Yep you need to unscrew the end panels, all the screws along the back, and one screw roughly in the centre of the bottom of the keyboard. Which model do you have? I can send a pic showing which screw on the Compact if it helps.

[agmiddlet]

I have the S4 88. The video, below, shows the S2, which is consistent with my experience. Apparently, Clavia limit this information to create a bit of "region lock" according to a rep I talked to. A German company is messing things up for distributors. The Amazon of audio? They're gutting the industry through discounting. The rep said that the warranty throughout the industry is all through the distributors (except for Yamaha and Roland, which are so huge they do their own distribution) so I have none by crossing a border. Seems to me that Clavia could be more upfront about this but maybe they don't want to mess with said company either. (They don't need to name them; they could just say that warranties are only valid in the region of purchase.) The rep said they are 10 times bigger than any other music gear company and they are creating problems for the industry worldwide. The problem with the region lock approach is that you don't know this until _after_ you've bought it elsewhere. I can't undo the purchase and buy it here. Not easily.

The screws I had to undo were these: all the ones on the back of the red panel; the three smaller ones towards the back of the underside of the keyboard; most from the wooden panels. I unscrewed all of the wooden panel screws and had no trouble putting things back but the hinge approach (by leaving the rearmost bottom screw of the wood panels only loosened) would be fine too. I also did unscrew ALL the ones on the bottom (because the first rep, the one I quoted above, gave me only partial information); this loosened the keybed but it wasn't a problem fixing that. Or not that I'm aware of as of yet. Still haven't turned it on in this country. I just ordered my fuses (as above but 5 mm x 20 mm) so will know how everything is sometime this next week. And for electrical newbies like me, 3/10 Amps is (of course) the same as 300 mAh (which is the same as 300mA).