FR8xb keynoise.

[Pipemajor]

there is an outside chance that you don't know for sure
what you think you know

so the best next step is for you to go and meet with someone
else who owns one AND has successfully edited and saved things

you take your roland and he plugs his memory stick in it and loads
his global/all saved settings

you verify that they saved by turning your box OFF turning it on
again, and verifying it really truly for sure saved his settings

Thanks Ventura.
Obviously that would be ideal, except I don't know of anyone who has an FR8.
I have previously updated the version to the latest one, changed bellows settings, installed the Richard Noel sets, and installed the Alpine, Dallape, Accorchestra sets, and Balkan, all successfully and without any problems.
Yet now when I try to change settings, all following the instructions in the manual, the screen says write completed but when I test, nothing has changed. I've just been trying to change the Master Bar recall from 8 to 9 but it doesn't change, although if I go back to change it again it says that it is set to 9.It's as if the master bar switch isn't functioning.
Same with the key noise. When I go back to check it says off, yet the noise is still there.

 

[Pipemajor]

Since my last post, I've changed the startup set from 1 to 11, no problems. power off and back on, it's still there.
I then tried to change chin switch 3 from celeste to musette, saved Ok, but when powered off and on, back to celeste. Tried multiple times with same result. There seams no logic to it

 

[Ventura]

sorry i can't help beyond common roland knowledge..

are you past the Lemon law date for return/replace ?
i would imagine Roland repair center would have a hard
time figuring out what to fix so Warranty would take awhile
and probably end up replacing the main board

wish you luck..

 

[debra]

Since my last post, I've changed the startup set from 1 to 11, no problems. power off and back on, it's still there.
I then tried to change chin switch 3 from celeste to musette, saved Ok, but when powered off and on, back to celeste. Tried multiple times with same result. There seams no logic to it

It is possible it is just a defective unit, unable to save some (random) settings.
I had this happen with a radio/alarm-clock I bought recently. If you tried to set the date/time and saved it the time would jump to an arbitrary different time than what you tried to set it to... (and it also had a bug where it could not set the date/time automatically to anything other than GMT).
Defects sadly do happen. I needed to have my Yamaha digital piano repaired because a faulty chip caused one note to produce a terrible loud sound (instead of piano sound) when played loudly... No problems after the chip was replaced.

 

[Pipemajor]

sorry i can't help beyond common roland knowledge..

are you past the Lemon law date for return/replace ?
i would imagine Roland repair center would have a hard
time figuring out what to fix so Warranty would take awhile
and probably end up replacing the main board

wish you luck..

Thanks for all your help Ventura.
Sadly it's well out of guarantee. I bought it second hand, from the original purchaser, in the South of France, the only place I could get one.

 

[Ventura]

well, one more idea then

changes are held in a temporary memory space, which is
defined by the settings area you are "working" in

supposedly, this cache stays alive until either the power is
turned off, or when you switch out of the sandboxed area.

as a test/workaround, since we do nor know where the fail lies,
could one ALWAYS save any edit as "global/all" rather than saving the
specific edits as per the manual

i am thinking Global/All is the superset, and might override
or blow past the error and brute force the save

 

[Pipemajor]

Thanks again Ventura.
Once I've found out what/where the Global/All is I'll try it out

 

[John M]

Thanks again Ventura.
Once I've found out what/where the Global/All is I'll try it out

With the 8X, on screen editor, you have 3 Write/Save options: System, Set, and User Program. When the 8X boots up (or any other time), Press and hold the Menu/Write button. You will then get the "Write" screen. You can then select, between System, Set, and User Program. Do the a "Write" for each one.

The other option is to use the 8X PC Editor. Once in the Editor, select "Tools" in the upper left hand corner and all your Write options will be there (System, Set, and User Program).

 

[Pipemajor]

Thanks John,
I'll give it a try over the weekend.
I've not used the PC Editor yet, although I have it on my laptop.
Must try it out.

 

[Rodney]

A new problem has reared it's head.
I went to check all the setting I had done previously and they had all returned to original!!.
Now I know I am saving them corrctly as I followed the manual and have done it many times before with success.
I'm now wondering if the Roland FR8 has a an internal battery the same as on PCs, to save the settings when powering off.
If they do, perhaps mine has failed, giving the the results I'm getting.
Any of the Gurus know?
Thanks

I’m a very long way from being a guru, but by chance have the exact answer to your question! The battery for my 8x was pretty much lifeless by the day after I’d unpacked my new treasure. I contacted Andertons, the retailer, who put me in touch with Roland. All I had to do was create an account then submit a report of the circumstances. My new Nickel Metal Hydride battery arrived within the forecast 10 days. Getting to and replacing the battery is covered in the owners’ manual on pages 18-20. I hope this helps

 

[JerryPH]

I have lots of custom settings (bellows, noise settings, MIDI channels, custom startup name, etc...) and custom sets. When I pull the battery I don't lose anything. Never pulled the battery for long. The longest I recall is a couple hours, it was all there when I got it back in.

 

[Pipemajor]

I’m a very long way from being a guru, but by chance have the exact answer to your question! The battery for my 8x was pretty much lifeless by the day after I’d unpacked my new treasure. I contacted Andertons, the retailer, who put me in touch with Roland. All I had to do was create an account then submit a report of the circumstances. My new Nickel Metal Hydride battery arrived within the forecast 10 days. Getting to and replacing the battery is covered in the owners’ manual on pages 18-20. I hope this helps

Thanks for your reply Rodney.
The battery on my Roland is fine,
I was wondering if there was a small button type battery installed inside the accordion to save the settings, such as you get with a PC or laptop. I have had one fail on a PC before and all the settings are lost on power off, but it appears the Rolands do not have this.

 

[Ventura]

quite a nagging issue..

to answer your question, you will need the full schematics
and study them closely to find any "sub" coin battery backup

i have never seen fr8 shematics, but a battery symbol is a standard
part of electronics and should be findable if it exists

if it exists, and is not hidden under a circuit board, just closely
looking at the boards once you pop the grill might be revealing

more difficult to identify is when a design incorporates a dedicated
capacitor to perform the trickle voltage function. This is used in devices
which are intended to normally be powered on with regularity, or to
support the changing out of the primary battery on occasion.

 

[Rodney]

Thanks for your reply Rodney.
The battery on my Roland is fine,
I was wondering if there was a small button type battery installed inside the accordion to save the settings, such as you get with a PC or laptop. I have had one fail on a PC before and all the settings are lost on power off, but it appears the Rolands do not have this.

I’m happy to know your 8x battery is fine. I think I recall seeing that new ones cost around £230, perhaps the custom shape is costly to make! (joking, well half-joking anway)

 

[SergeRbt]

Hello,
I have never heard nor seen any mention of back-up battery in any FRx document.
But it is required you to save your settings before switching the FRx off.
The reason is that the settings are saved in Flash Memory, which means a longer storing time and a limited number of possible writing operations.
Serge

 

[Snoopz]

which means a longer storing time and a limited number of possible writing operations.

We are talking decades of storage when modern techniques are used as well as tens of thousands of writing cycles, meaning you can change a single setting every hour for several years before you possibly run into trouble. Just so that nobody gets the wrong idea.

 

[SergeRbt]

We are talking decades of storage when modern techniques are used as well as tens of thousands of writing cycles, meaning you can change a single setting every hour for several years before you possibly run into trouble. Just so that nobody gets the wrong idea.

You are right Snoopz,
this way of handling the storing avoids saving every seconds, and makes the number of possible writing operations larg enough so that we do not have any problem.
result is a reliable storing without any problem of back-up battery