Roland PH-830 service manual

[Mark Hammer]

Stumbled onto this today:  http://elektrotanya.com/roland_ph-830.pdf/download.html

The Roland PH-830 is probably one of the most complex commercial phaser units ever in production. You can find it in their 1979 catalog here: http://brochures.yokochou.com/keyboard-and-effector/roland/1979/en_index.html

The scan in the service manual is not the highest quality, but it is legible where you need it to be.  Two 8-stage channels of LDR-based phasing, with a wide variety of modulation options.

[StephenGiles]

Wonderful, thanks Mark.

[Mark Hammer]

'Tis a complicated beast, innit?

The LED drivers for each pair of stages have a trimpot.  Yeee-owch!!

[frequencycentral]

Doesn't seem to want to download for me. 

[Mark Hammer]

If you search for Roland PH-830, that link will show up.  Perhaps you get better results if you approach it from there.  It's only 1.3M.  Worst case scenario I mail it to you.  I'll try and post the schematic later tonight.  It needs a bit of rotating to fit well into a legal-sized page with maximum enlargement.

[Rodgre]

I often wonder about these beasts, as well as other 70's/early 80's era Roland stuff and how their circuits were or could be simplified with modern components.

This unit, for example, might be the ultimate in clean. hi-fi Phasors (Mu-Tron style, for example) with all the right parts: Great LFO, external CV control, dual 8-stage phasor circuits which could be put in series with a patch cable....

But looking at how complex and LARGE this circuit (circuits, really) is, and knowing that Roland/Boss would later make much smaller and probably pretty similar-sounding units with the PH-2 and especially the RPH-10, micro-rack phasor, would it be moot to try to build a clone of such a beast?

I bet I could get the same sounds and more with a pair of RPH-10s and only take up a single rack space!

That said, does anyone know where you could find schematics/service manuals for the Micro-Rack stuff? I think the RPH-10 Phasor and RBF-10 Flanger are two of the coolest boxes I own and there is relatively little info on them online.



Roger

[Mark Hammer]

Here is the promised cleaned up, rotated schematic:  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/mhammer/PH-830schem.png

That's a great little picture by the way.  I have posted the RPH-10 schematic in two parts:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/mhammer/rph10-b.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/mhammer/rph10-a.gif

[wavley]

I'm a really big fan of this era of Roland stuff, my SVC-350 and RE-501 are two of my dearest possessions, not to mention my older RE-101.

I really wish I could find one of those Roland P/V units, it's just a little too much to DIY... I know it could be done, but that's quite a project.

[Mark Hammer]

There's a page here on the SPV-355:  http://www.joness.com/gr300/SPV-355.htm
Pretty self-contained unit that does more than just pitch-to-voltage.  It's a complete mono guitar synth that would have gone head-to-head against the Korg X-911 and the Arp Avatar in its day.

[wavley]

There's a page here on the SPV-355:  http://www.joness.com/gr300/SPV-355.htm
Pretty self-contained unit that does more than just pitch-to-voltage.  It's a complete mono guitar synth that would have gone head-to-head against the Korg X-911 and the Arp Avatar in its day.

I've played with one, it's pretty squirrely about tracking, but I like things like that and it gets some pretty great sounds, plus it would look awesome racked up next to my SVC-350

[Mark Hammer]

I imagine it would.  There's just...something...about a matched set of anything.  Could be two or more complex pedals with the same form factor (e.g., a pair of L6 modellers), or two or more big books from the same publisher series with a common spine colour/design, or a pair of matching his-n-hers vehicles in the driveway.  

I've only got two of the Rxx-10 series in my armada (RPH-10, ROD-10), but side by side they look imposing.  Individually, not so much.