Bohm 280 CT Faults

[ButterFingers]

Hello, I was recently looking to upgrade my Roland Atelier AT30R and saw a Hammond, but a friend of mine who got me into playing the organ said I would be disappointed as the Atelier sounded better and told me to wait. He did however give me a Bohm 280 CT 20 note short pedal-board, a very kind gesture, which I offered 2 months of free piano lessons for in return, regardless of where the organ can be fixed or not. It was a good excuse for him to buy one of the top range models, an Emporior 600. But he said the 280 CT had faults. First when he got the Organ he had the new capacitors soldered to get rid of the popping sound, they were bloated in bad condition. The display was flickering but turned out to be a loose connection.

One day, after coming back from a business trip six weeks later, it simply would not turn on. It has a humming sound and there seems to be power coming through, but the organ remains dead. He did tell me that Bohm Organs especially the 280 CT are quite temperamental Organs. But when they work they are astounding, and I have played this organ in the past, the sound for such as small organ with such small speakers shows it to be one of the best sounding from its time (2003) I believe.

I have called out an engineer but they are busy and it could take a couple of months for them to fit me in.

Does anyone out there have experience with these problems, with Bohm Organs. Is there anything I can pass on to the engineer that might help?:'(

I would dearly love to have this organ working again, I hope it can give me years of joy before I can afford an AT800 or 900. I do love Bohm but I personally do not think the build quality is the same as Roland and Yamaha, despite being better in other areas.

It works from an independent power lead that fits into the back the same as a computer, and it uses a kettle lead as well.

Love to post some Youtube videos with it. If I can get it working and play, that would be a start. It is a complex organ to use, but until I do upgrade I do not think I could do better.

Thank you!

[Seahog]

Although I own a Bohm Organ (Overture Stage) I can't specifically help with your problem but I would suggest you try the Facebook Group "English Speaking Bohm Organ Owners". This is a fairly new group but it also has contacts within the wider Bohm players community including within Bohm itself so maybe somebody can point you in the right direction.

[seamaster]

Brace yourself, ButterFingers. Mention Böhm on here with even the merest hint of criticism and it's "SWARM! SWARM! SWARM!" from the faithful. :D

[abacus]

Sounds like a power supply problem which any decent engineer should be able to fix.
Here is the actual link to the Facebook page mentioned https://www.facebook.com/groups/379995789138915/ also try Music Traders or Bohm Germany (Keyswerk) to see if they can help.
It’s a nice instrument that can be upgraded to the latest spec if required, but is not for everybody as each will have their own personal preference.
Hope you get it fixed soon.

Bill

[andyg]

Who did you call for service that said a couple of months to fit you in?

There aren't many organ guys around these days, but I'm sure one could get to you quicker than that.

I'm with Bill in suspecting the power supply. Your comment about the bloated capacitors is worrying. If the previous owner had already got them done and the organ is only 15 years old now, that suggests they weren't of the best quality when built. (In contrast, my two Kawai SR6s were 1987 and 1988, and both had original caps in perfect order. My 1969 Hammond T402 was the same!) You may need to get your engineer to check and if necessary replace all of them in the power supply.

[Claus]

Hi ButterFinger!

diagnostics from far away are always difficult, but most time, indeed, such problems on these elder models are caused by bad power connections.

At first: Turn on the organ while pressing the buttons ENTER and START/STOP for a few seconds (hope, I'm right remembering this combination, it was difficult to the other models, which are using ENTER and STORE for that). Now it should to a complete reset.
Does this work?

if not, please check a few things:

Are there all internal voltages present? There are some LEDs on the divider board, next to the power supply. Are they all lighting when instrument is turned on?

On the upper CPU board (in the middle, underneath the upper keybard), there's LED. When switching on the organ, this (reset) LED must only do a short flash one time. It must not light continous. If it does, please adjust the small potentiometer next to it, until the LED will just stop lighting. Try again to switch on. It should do the short flash now.

Turn off and disconnect and reconnect all the white power connectors (three and two pole ones) on the several boards a few times. After the years, there could be some corrosion causing bad contacts.

[ButterFingers]

Thank you I will try that. If this does not work for me, then I will pass it on to the Engineer. He is fully booked for a few weeks and the keyboard needs readjusting as the bottom keys on the lower keyboard knock against the top, looks very slight to me but a very annoying noise.

[stefanv]

our comment about the bloated capacitors is worrying. If the previous owner had already got them done and the organ is only 15 years old now, that suggests they weren't of the best quality when built.

Not necessarily bad quality (at least, Bohm probably thought they were getting good quality). 15 years ago was about the time most of the "capacitor plague" capacitors were sold. These resulted from a case of industrial espionage gone wrong. One company stole another's RoHS-compliant but not-quite-done capacitor electrolyte formula, but they stole the one from before the victim company had realized that they needed to add one more ingredient needed as a preservative. As a result, there were a lot of bad caps from that time period. I had to replace all the electrolytics on two 2005 PC motherboards in 2012, and recently had to replace the ones in two Dell 2405 monitors.

[ButterFingers]

Bohm 280CT Cannot Find an Engineer in Sheffield

Hello everyone, recently got a Bohm 280CT, contacted an engineer who said they would help then nothing. Emailed several others, no reply. I am desperate now. I do not know what to do, no one seems to want to help me. I have tried electricians, PC specialists I am that desperate. Is there anyone out there that can help.

:'(

I live in South Yorkshire.

Thank in advance

As this is basically a continuation of your previous thread, I've merged them, to keep the responses together. That way, anyone who has any help to offer will be able to see the whole picture. Andy G-Moderator

[andyg]

Hmm. The PC engineers wouldn't understand how it integrates into the organ or how the rest of the instrument works. Some of the organ engineers might be reluctant to work on a PC based organ, as that's outside what they usually do.

Did you try Richard Madin? http://rmes.org.uk/ Based in Nottingham but might travel? There's also Tim Turner Pullen in Manchester, PM me for his details if I haven't already given them to you.

[ButterFingers]

Thank you everyone, Bohm Engineer Robert Davies will be coming out to see my Bohm after Easter, and has spare parts. So I am very pleased, and soon hopefully will have my 280Ct working. It sounds as though I am having the whole power supply replaced, hopefully that is all that is wrong.

Let you know how it goes.

[andyg]

That's good. If he's willing to have his details added to my admittedly rather short list of UK organ engineers, please pass them on. Does he only work on Bohm?

[Claus]

Great News! Robert uses a 280CT as concert instrument since many years. He knows everything about the instrument :)

regards,
Claus