Hammond XC3 repair situation

[David Anderson]

I was contacted about a Hammond XC3 that reportedly made no sound after a lightning storm some five years ago. Another tech looked at it at one point and pronounced it non-repairable.

I gather that the XC3 is the dual manual console version of the XB2 from the 1990s. Is the repair status the same insofar as there are no master processors left for the XB2 in the event that the motherboard is fried?

[muckelroy]

It would be a main board donor situation I'm afraid. I've had this occur on two different digital pianos, both requiring new main boards. It's a disappointing end to what would otherwise be a great rig. Even if you were to find the right CPU and someone skilled at repairing these types of boards, there may be ROM or other data loaded onto it that's Hammond proprietary. If someone else has a different answer please give David better news. :)

[Jaim]

Have you had a chance to eye ball it? I've repaired lightening damage in a LCD TV and a thermal printer by replacing the obviously fried parts.

Jim

[tpappano]

Might at least be worth a look, could be as simple as a power supply problem from a line transient. The first guy might have been intimidated by the mere possibility of severe damage. Of course it could also have been totaled by a direct hit 8)

[muckelroy]

In the cases I've had of lightning damage, no visual charring or damage was seen. One had the A/D converter screwed up, so that there was audio but it sounded like distorted digital garbage. It would take special equipment, such as a logic analyzer, to diagnose that problem, and even more special gear to desolder and solder a new one. In another case, it powered on but the LCD showed garbage characters. I had no idea if it was a CPU problem, a memory problem, or what.

Depending on the size of the components and traces, you might be able to do a signal trace if it powers on but has no audio.

[David Anderson]

I have not yet seen it in person. I suspect I know who looked at it before, and he does know what he's doing.