Advice for Allen R250 Problem

[LFPC]

This past Sunday, our Allen R250 (built 2001) changed registrations on its own and the speakers popped in the middle of a hymn. Everything seemed fine for the remainder of the service.

I'm curious to know if the Allen experts have experienced this before? We've considered placing a service call, but since the organ appears to be working ok now, we're not sure the technician would find anything wrong.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bill

[toodles]

Is there any chance the organist hit a piston or toe stud by accident? Perhaps the "recall" piston?

I suppose a power surge might have caused a glitch--is the organ on a surge protector? It should be regardless of whether a surge caused this problem or not.

[LFPC]

Thanks for the input. No accidental toe stud or recall button.

I will look into the surge protector. If isn't already already plugged into one, I will be sure to get one.

Bill

[don60]

I would suspect that a voltage drop, not a spike, caused the loss of registration. A voltage spike sufficient to affect the output of the dc power supplies would likely be sufficient to damage the supplies and at least some of the downstream components. Since the organ works OK, a more benign event is probably the culprit.

[jbird604]

I agree with don60 that a voltage drop, perhaps a few cycles of power outage that didn't even make the lights flicker, was enough to initiate a shutdown, which was quickly aborted once the power returned. But the audio mutes might not have had time to close, thus the pop. And the capture action just did a random thing, not knowing what had happened.

But, it could also be a symptom of an issue that has plagued early Renaissance models -- a faulty 5 volt regulator in the power supply. The trouble was pervasive enough that Allen has made a policy of replacing the power supplies free of charge under certain conditions, even when the organ is out of warranty. (To be honest, your description doesn't sound like the typical symptom of a faulty 5 volt supply, which more commonly causes notes to hang and stay on after you release them.)

This does not apply to ALL Renaissance models, or to all the variations of the power supply. But it could be that you have one of the faulty ones. A call to Allen with your model and serial number might tell you, if your tech doesn't know. The replacement power supplies with upgraded components have a big yellow dot on the top cover, as I recall. So you could look in there and see. BTW, Allen does not pay the technician to do the replacement or for the return shipping of the old one. So you won't get this done at no charge, but you won't have to pay a thousand dollars for the PS unit.

[LFPC]

Thank you, jbird604. We had to have the power supply replaced a couple years ago.

What are your thoughts on using a power conditioner? Do you think it would help?

Bill

[jbird604]

Anything to smooth out the power would be beneficial. A UPS device might be necessary if the power is truly glitchy.

[LFPC]

Thanks, John. I appreciate the help.

Bill