The “passionate life” of an old electronic organ technician.

BALDWIN D911 (Circa 1990)   Diagnosis and repairs

BALDWIN Howard D911 top and back open

Location :  St-Leon Le Grand Parish’s church near Amqui, Quebec, Canada. 260 km return trip from 

Rimouski, Qc. my home base.

First call:  April 1^st 2015, (not an April’s fool day joke) Temp. was -20 deg C. (That’s cold)!! Easter is approaching and the organ must be repaired ASAP.

Problem reported:  1)instrument does not keep user presets in memory, factory presets are OK.

2) Organ locks up and requires shut down. When power is turned back on, it  plays normally until you hit a (any) user preset, then it locks up again.

Repair:

Found memory backup battery dead, replaced battery 3vdc. (CR2032). I had doubts about the replacement battery, it was not fresh,   it was the last one on the shelf at the local 7-11 ...

Note: Battery was changed in 2007 and a new battery holder (support)  and a CR2032 battery was installed, it lasted about 8  years, not bad!

I  turned  the power back on and then reprogrammed users presets immediately!

Note: if you touch any user presets before reprogramming them, it will lock up again and you will have to shut off the organ, remove the battery CR2032 and reinsert it again, then turn the instrument back on.

Done that:  It played fine finally and beside the scratchy potentiometer on the expression pedal, it sounded OK. I played for about 30 minutes and then, I cleaned up and closed the organ. Turned on and off half a dozen times, it kept the user memories ok. Voltage reading on the 5vdc power supply  test OK but  the heat sink runs hot like Hell. I remember this is normal for this organ but I don’t like it, that BDW83C  NPN Darlington power transistor(U1) is way too hot for my liking, there should be a fan cooling the bugger!! Or a bigger heatsink!!

A 3 hour service call plus 260 km trip all that for 280 can$, of course not paid before 15 days by check. (I am too expensive?)

Second call: April 21^st2015

Problem reported:  Organ  makes  poping noises when turned on and locks up! I asked the lady at the church to call me using a wireless phone while sitting at the organ and I made my diagnosis by asking her to turn the instrument on while  I was able to listen to the organ when it came on, (I heard a poof) I knew right away I had a real problem, I suspected the 5 vdc supply!

April 23^rd 2015: Here we go again, 260 km return trip from my home base, and it is snowing, temp. is +2 deg C.

This time, I will bring with me a couple spare Darlington Power BDW83C and a fresh pack of CR2032 batteries.

Back at the church  23 days after the first call.

The D911 BALDWIN Organ is switched on, it powers up, it makes a pop and it locks up and does not respond, stoptabs  on or off, no sound.

Note: Turn the power off and unplug the organ.

I removed the top, the roll top, the top back panel and the bracket above the vertical boards on the treble side of the organ, I removed the CPU board, the first vertical board on the left.

 I replaced the CR2032 battery. I replaced the board on the mother board connectors.

Note : You have to be very careful to insert the board on the right way, be careful before removing the CPU board, look carefully where the pins should be and  ground yourself, watch for static electricity. If you are on carpet flooring, discharge your body on a metallic object before touching the boards. You can never be too careful!

Note:  Take pictures with a camera if you want to remember something like:  parts layout, wirings, cable colors, etc... it is always useful, take written notes also.

Plug the ac cord, turned switch on and right away reprogrammed user presets.  All stoptabs work properly,  all  looks fine and the organs plays well.

I checked the U1 heatsink and it’s getting hot by the minutes, I can barely keep my fingers on it.

I wiggle a wee bit the U1 heathsink  and “poof”,  it makes a loud pop and the organ goes into a lock up!

That’s it! Now I know! One of the 3 pins on the Darlington transistor has a cold joint and intermittently does not make contact and the 5vdc supply is affected.  This could have been caused by the excessive heat on this part and by expansion and cooling of the related circuit!
Time to remove the power supply board and have a look and see! The fun starts!!

Time to Power off , unplug the ac cable. Remove the green tie wires  keeping the wiring in place, unplug the large black cable in the middle and then, remove the black, red, yellow and green, yellow, blue, brown, make sure each wire is marked where it should go on a diagram on a piece of paper. Be careful, they have to go back at exactly the same place on the connectors.

Remove the 4 large screws holding the PSU board on the shelf.

 Do not remove the small screws around the board  holding the little plastic frame under the PSU board.

Lift the board gently, pushing the wires aside, be careful! Expose the bottom... of the board and locate the 3 pins of the Darlington Power transistor. Remove the nut, lock washer and bolt keeping the transistor on the heatsink, this is not easy.

Unsolder the transistor and remove it, you should inspect the copper circuits to make sure there are no break! Insert the new U1 Darlington Power BDW83C and solder carefully, inspect your job. That’s it! Re-connect and re-wire every cable and wires. Inspect for the last time before trying to see if it works.

Remove the CR2032 and re-insert it, plug the ac cable and turn the instrument on! If it powers up and does not make the pop noises, try a few stop tabs, it should play, reprogram the 5 user presets right away with basic settings. If it all works fine, feel the 5 vdc heatsink , it’s feeling warm already. Then the ultimate test!!! Wiggle the heatsink slightly, no noise and all is fine! You made it. Screw the 4 screws holding the PSU board on the shelf, attach all cable and wires.

Play on the organ and test all settings.

The scratchy control on the expression pedal can be help a bit, if you don’t have a replacement  potentiometer (it’s a 22k pot),  just pump that pedal every second for 2 minutes and I guarantee you the problem is gone for now...but for how long??

Close up and get out of there before it quits again, just joking!

Don’t forget your tool kit, your hat or your boots!

And don’t make the bill before 30 days, just in case!

How much should I charge?? What do you think?

Gilles

BALDWIN D911 Power supply board

Darlington Power Transistor heatsink in the middle with new transistor installed and old one in front

I might translate this text in french if I get to it someday! Sorry les amis français! 

It took me more time to write this article than to effectuate the repair.

I wrote this article has a guide to repair the D911, this is my own experience and I am not responsible if you screw up...

 Be careful or better yet! Call a technician with experience not the church caretaker, please!!

Visit this website "The Organ Forum" Visitez ce site "The Organ Forum"

ORGANS - PIPE ORGANS - OLD ORGANS - DIGITAL ORGANS - VIRTUAL ORGANS

Si vous êtes ici, vous êtes sûrement intéressés à ce sujet, allez voir le site internet The Organ Forum:
If you are here, you have to be interested in this subject, you must  browse The Organ Forum website:

http://www.organforum.com/gallery/index.php


Just a small reminder, for old time sake!
Un petit rappel, souvenirs du bon vieux temps!

You can reach me by email at: pianopro@globetrotter.net
Vous pouvez me rejoindre par courriel à:  pianopro@globetrotter.net
Gilles Plourde
Rimouski, Qc
418-724-2421

The BALDWIN organ story / L'histoire des orgues BALDWIN

The Baldwin Organ Story, written in 2008 by John ? from Arkansas.

This article was copied from the Organ Forum web site:

http://www.organforum.com/forums/showthread.php?7999-Baldwin-Digital-Organ

As a church organ builder, Baldwin is now defunct. However, the company was once a major player in that market, witness the large number of old analog Baldwin organs still in service.


Baldwin organs were primarily built in Fayetteville, Arkansas until the early 90's,  I believe. Some were assembled in the Cincinnati, Ohio plant as well.


There were several phases in Baldwin's organ-building history. They were one of the early producers of analog electronic organs and built some good-sized organs back in the 1950's and 60's, some of which survive to this day.


Early models were vacuum tube, then they converted to transistors. These models all used the 12-master-oscillator-divider scheme. They recognized the drawback of this lock-step tuning and incorporated various devices including long, multi-stranded reverb springs and rotating speaker vanes to give the sound more activity. In the 60's they came up with the "tone expander" system which applied a kind of delay and detune effect to the sound, It made these lock-step organs sound much bigger, as if there were multiple ranks of oscillators at work.


In the late 60's and early 70's they built some very large and elaborate organs with multiple sets of master oscillators and sophisticated diode and transistor keying circuitry. These models went head to head with Rodgers and Allen analogs and had some nice features and good sound.


Around this time they also experimented with an exotic system using actual pipe organ tones optically recorded onto whirling disks and read by optical sensors. This was "sampling" and "looping" using what amounted to analog hardware borrowed from the film industry. It produced astounding reproductions of real pipe sounds, but alas, it was just too complex and clunky. They built a few dozen of these "Opus" organs, but I doubt that any are still in service today.


In the 70's they switched from the 12 master oscillators to a single master clock with "top octave synthesis" and IC dividers. The cheapest organs in the line at that time had no tone expander circuitry, so these models sounded pretty dead. However, for the larger models they used a system they called "rate scaling" to derive as many as 4 or 5 separate top octave frequency sets from a single high frequency clock.


This rate scaling technology gave their higher-end church models a degree of pitch independence that rivaled the multiple rank sound of Allen and Rodgers analogs. There could even be a true celeste rank with this system. All these subtly out-of-tune generator sets were linked to that single master clock, so transposing the whole organ was a matter of simply altering that clock frequency. Many of these models, such as the big 636 and 645, were truly wonderful and ahead of their time in many ways.


When everyone went digital in the late 80's, Baldwin designed and built in the USA a series of rather good digital church organs. I happen to own one of these, a model D422, from about 1989. I have written about it several times on this forum, and you might be able to search for that if you're interested in details. There are several of these instruments in my service area and I play them frequently. They are pretty good, especially considering their age. They probably sound about as good as what Allen was doing at the same time and have some nice unique features, full MIDI capability, etc.


The Baldwin company was in bad shape financially by this time, though, due to various factors including bad management and some needless diversification of the company into such sidelines as grandfather clocks and bank financing. They didn't have the money or the will to continue developing their digital organ in the US, so they began importing Italian organs around 1990 and slapping their own name on them.


The D-911 D912  are one of the early imported models. At first they imported Galanti organs and put the name "Howard" on them -- which was one of their piano brands. Later they turned to Viscount to build their organs which they sold under the Baldwin and Wurlitzer names. I think the D-912 is a Viscount model, but I'm not certain. The Galanti and Viscount systems are much alike anyway.


These organs have a pretty decent sound, especially the larger models. They were early adopters of true sampling, and they have better attack transients (chiff) than some American organs of the same era. If there is a downside, it's the "European" tone quality which doesn't appeal to everyone's ears.


The small ones are pretty cheap both in sound and construction, and I know of some that have been junked already. The D-912 is one of the better ones that I've seen and may be reliable enough for a practice organ. I know of one in the chapel of a retirement village that is giving excellent service. The biggest problem we've had with it has been the erratic and scratchy volume knobs.


Obviously, a company that doesn't even have the resources to do its own design and manufacturing is not on a stable footing, and Baldwin eventually collapsed. They went bankrupt and were sold to Gibson, the company that makes guitars and drums and such. Gibson totally disowned all the organs and digital pianos, leaving a lot of instruments orphaned.


Viscount continues to provide parts and support for the organs they made under the Baldwin name. Music Electronics in Springdale, Arkansas provides parts, manuals, and technical support for all the older Baldwins, all analogs, all US-built digital models, and even to some extent the Galanti-built models. General Music Corp (parent company of Galanti) also has a presence in the US and can provide some assistance on these organs.

John ?

Thank you John for this article, I don’t know John’s last name

Comments: John, I hope you don't mind me filling in a few blanks here


Baldwin's fortunes in the organ business began to falter IMHO when they went to using transistors. Their tube jobs were more reliable and sounded better than their first transistor efforts such as Model 11. They increasingly lost out in the marketplace after Allen introduced their digital (MOS-1) organs. Even so, they came out periodically with interesting organs. One such organ was the 640, with a good spec., moving drawstop console that was reasonably well constructed, had as many as 16 audio channels. It even sounded good, and is today still respectable. As you mention in the 80s they produced the 636 and 645 (3 manual ) organs, which were decent but not great. By the mid 80s Allen had improved on the MOS-1 stuff and Rodgers better efforts, such as 870 and 925 were considered better than Baldwin's efforts. Added to the fact that Baldwin ran into financial trouble, and you can see that they were losing the battle to stay in the marketplace.


In the late 70s, the organs with the optical waveform pickups, were called the Baldwin Multi Waveform organ. I heard a recording of one, and it sounded good, but somewhat like an early digital. They only made a few of them, and because they were hugely expensive and were a servicing nightmare, were discontinued after only a few years. My guess is that only a handfull, if that are still functioning.

Fast forwarding to the late 80s, Baldwin came out with 3 digital models, of which yours is one. I thought they were good for their time, perhaps the orchestral section being the best. However they were expensive, and didn't sell well. About the same time Baldwin struck an agreement with General Music, to be exclusive distributor in North America for the new digital organs that they developed. That agreement seemed to have been broken by General Music about 6 months later, when they setup an independant distribution channel called Galanti Organ builders, headed by some ex-Rodgers executives. The Baldwin folks were not impressed, and so, around late 1988 they went to Viscount, who by that time had reverse engineered the Galanti Praeludium organs, which they were selling as D900 and D910. The Viscount models were I believe D911, D912, C250, C300. They sounded good, if you liked European sounding organs, but had a common failing--bad power supplies. The 5vdc line usually went down the river after a few years, as the Darlington transistor got fried through thermal cycling. In other words, the voltage regulator ran way too hot, and eventually failed.

This article was written in 2008 is from this website:  www.organforum.com
.

The BALDWIN "HOWARD" D-911 L'orgue BALDWIN "HOWARD" D-911 circa 1990

 BALWIN Church Organ System  D-911 Organ  circa 1990

L'orgue BALDWIN "COS" D-911 Organ  circa 1990

Voici un bel instrument avec une bonne sonorité. Le modèle D-912 était similaire au point de vue des circuits mais avec des pistons au lieu de "rocker tabs". Cet instrument fabriqué en Italie par Viscount était vendu par COS (Church Organ System), compagnie formée par des anciens employés de BALDWIN. Cette compagnie a fermé ses portes à la fin des années 1997-98 ou aux environs.
La faiblesse de cet orgue était le bloc d'alimentation (power supply). La pile de 3.6v qui maintient la mémoire doit être changée quand elle devient trop faible, je pense que cette pile vient court-circuit dans certaines conditions, voir photo ci-dessous. Il faut modifier le circuit pour mettre un support de pile. Après avoir installé une nouvelle pile, vous devez reprogrammer les boutons poussoirs des mémoires d'utilisateurs.

The BALDWIN "HOWARD" D-911 made in Italy by Viscount and sold by COS (Church Organ System)  company made up of former Baldwin staff. This company closed its doors around 1997-98.
This instrument had a good sound and was easier to service. The D-912 was similar to the D-911, it had pistons instead of Rocker tabs. The Power supply was the weak part in this beautiful instrument.
The 3.6v memory battery must be changed when it gets to low.It might short out and leak.
The board must be modified with a new battery support and the new battery installed.
Then, you have to reprogram the user memory pushbuttons.

Une nouvelle pile dure environ 5 à 7 ans.        Faites vérifier votre orgue!!!
A new battery will last  5 to 7 years. Have a technican check your organ!!!

Pile de mémoire a coulé- leaking memory battery

Support et pile neuve installés  -  Battery support and new battery installed

Eglise de St-Joseph, NB près de Edmunston,NB. This D911 was used in the church of  St-Joseph Parish, near Edmunston, NB

Planned Obsolescence / Obsolescence programmée

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsolescence_programm%C3%A9e

What is the life expectancy of this organ? 20-30, years more or less?Quelle est l'espérance de vie de cet orgue? 20 à 30 ans plus ou moins?

There are quite a few of them around, some are defective and unused.
Il y a plusieurs modèles D-911-912- au Canada, plusieurs de défectueux et inutilisés.

Voici la liste des endroits ou j'ai vendu ou installé les BALDWIN D911/D912:
D911  Sully,QC  en 1990 enlevé défectueux et remplacé quelques années plus tard.
D911 St-Léon Le Grand, QC en 1994. Réparé et vérifié OK le 31 mars 2015.
D912 Ste-Cécile de l'Ile à Petite-Rivière-de-l'Île, sur l'île de Lamèque,  NB..
D911 Lac Baker, NB - probablement défectueux, pas de nouvelle de la paroisse.
D911 St-Joseph de Madawaska, près d'Edmunston, NB - probablement défectueux.
D911 St-Jacques, NB près d'Edmunston, NB - pas de nouvelle de la paroisse??
D911 St-André près de Grand-Sault, NB - vérifié il y a 2 ans OK.
D901- comme la D911 à Pohénégamook, QC. Vérifié il y a 4 ans OK
D912 St-Quentin, NB vendu et déménagé à Sept-Iles, QC

C'est un peu la raison de ce blog. 

J'aimerais connaitre là ou il y a des D911/ D912 défectueux et  inutilisables.

This is the reason I decided to make this blog. 

I would like to know where there are D911 / D912 unused and defective.

If possible, I would like to restore a bit of life in these instruments.

Si possible, j'aimerais redonner un peu de vie à ces instruments.

GP

Under the hood pictures of a BALDWIN D911

Voici plusieurs photos de l'intérieur d'un BALDWIN D911 lors d'une réparation.

Make sure you turn the power off and unplug the organ if you remove the top and back panel!

Fermez l'orgue et débranchez-le si vous enlevez le dessus ou le panneau arrière!

BALDWIN D911

D911 bass side (power switch red button) Turn power off and unplug instrument if you  work inside.

Remove the music desk by sliding (be careful).

Unscrew the top and remove by sliding towards the back.

The roll top removed

Inside view od the D911 from the treble side

Carefull, this  aluminum heatsink gets hot (too hot) 

D911  Power supply and amplfier

Input AC transformer and circuit noise filter

Reverb circuit by Alesis

The heart of this instrument.

Inside only for the technician.

Top removed

Fuses

Power supply fuses and amplifiers

Midi and input / output connectors board at the back  at the bottom.

Behind the stop tabs

Lifting the stop tabs control 

Lifting the great manual

Eproms connectors (great swell and pedal)

Under the manual (great)

More data cables and circuits

Power supply and amplifier on the left

Control data cable.

D911 Backup battery problem!

The microprocessor board with the defective battery. Easy to spot 

The original memory backup battery has leaked! Clean the mess!

The microprocessor board connector (the board is removed)

Microprocessor board on the left, the 3 generator boards in the center and the mixer board on the right

Mixer board (the one on the right viewed from the back)

Volume pedal and crescendo view from the back

D911 Pedal board needs ajusting (make sure it's tight)

D911 Viscount manufactured parts

D 911 Expression pedal and Crescendo pedal (check for scratchy controls)

COS D911 Technical manual  with new battery support (holder)  and  3vdc CR2032 battery

Here are a few schematics of the power supply and power amplifier of the D911Voici quelques schémas du bloc d'alimentation et de l'amplificateur du D911

Baldwin D911 Power Supply and power amp

Baldwin D911  schema : in the center the 5 vdc cct

Baldwin D911 Power amp 

BALDWIN D911  organ  5 vdc cct in the power supply 

D911 CPU board cct schema

Memory Backup battery cct

The D911 and D912 were about the same circuit wise!!

The D911 and D912 were manufactured by VISCOUNT International

Les D911 et D912 étaient fabriqués par la Compagnie VISCOUNT International

Viscount organs are made in Italy.

Les orgues Viscount sont fabriqués en Italie.

Visit the Viscount web site:
http://www.viscountinstruments.com/