HR-16 Restored Drum Machine

[@J_Trask]

Thanks so much for posting this! I just got an HR16, and almost all the buttons were finicky until I cleaned off the board with alcohol and rubbed graphite on the button contacts! Next I’ll be soldering in a battery holder and replacing the dead battery.

[@susanhutchison1270]

Thanks for the video. Bought one of these when they first came out. Used, abused and enjoyed it for about 5 years. Returned it to refurbish buttons once. Wore it out again. I’ll be taking it apart and restoring it myself. Will be fun again after 20 years of rest. Remember when the memory is full it’s a “bummer dude”. Thanks

[@ERIC-65]

"IT'S FULL BUMMER DUDE" ! Workaholics were there quickly ! 😆

[@kbtube8125]

i still have mine too. i trigger my DM-pro with it. great job on all the repairs. even the buttons are back to their correct colors.

[@keefercfer]

I have a dead HR-16 and a fully functioning HR-16B. A friend gave me the dead one YEARS ago and I've never tried to troubleshoot the thing. I bought the 16B from an auction at a former employer when they were upgrading to something else. I think I bid $25 at most. I was looking around YT for demo or instruction vids and yours was in the queue. I'm glad you went through the process as thoroughly as you did. I do have a little experience with studio gear having worked in a shop for 5 years servicing and repairing amps and desks, etc. We did installation of PA systems and full studio builds. Since the B works, I'm not to worried about completely destroying the one that's already dead. Now I'm back to the hunt for a users manual online.

[@paulroberts5943]

This is great Ron, I just bought a used HR-16 and this is really helping. Having checked the carbon pads for resistance, when you press the probes into the material, the resistance drops, which makes sense as they are touch sensitive. Probably explains why you are getting variable readings on each drum pad. I've just gone over the control pads with a pencil and they seem to be working great - like you say, just an on-off circuit break like the footswitch control. Great fixit video, big thanks!

[@ronaldgerth5120]

Thanks Paul, It is gratifying to see so many people trying to re-use old gear! Never thought this video would see more than 40 to 50 views. It feels good to be useful!

[@paulroberts3871]

@@ronaldgerth5120 I'm still getting a bit of a problem with some of the more used buttons (play/ stop/ + and - buttons), so I'm going to paint those with some graphite shielding paint that I used on a guitar cavity to make doubly sure that they have a decent contact. As an aside to this, I managed to load midi data from cassette onto this unit from when I had my previous HR-16 (foolishly sold some years back). 30+ years on a cassette and the data loaded perfectly!

[@marantz1]

Wow that was such a great video. Thanks for sharing!

[@ronaldgerth5120]

Thank you Dominic. I started recording to chronicle my impending failure. Succeeding was not expected and felt great! One less circuit board to recycle.

[@code64music]

Thanks for the video will try to get our hr 16 working again after this video.

[@ronaldgerth5120]

code64music, good luck with your album "STORM" my Swedish brother! I hope you get some love.

[@chasethehorizonx]

Just got one of these, and I think it has the graphite issue. Thank you for making this!

[@blakeboyer]

Thank you for the video! My unit has the same button issues. 👍🏾

[@piktormusic2538]

Thanks so much for this information and demonstration. Great job.

[@jackcrook4435]

Fantastic video! I cant wait to graphite up my pads now. Do you have any suggestions for a volume fader maintenance? At zero it outputs no volume like normal at 1 its full volume then as you move up it slowly fades to about 70% volume when set at 10. Its quite strange. I suppose it doesnt really matter since I can crank the gain on something else. Just a funny problem

[@jackcrook4435]

Never mind, I took it apart and cleaned it and its working fine now!

[@hilaryandsandra1385]

Hi Ron, and thanks so much for this video! I was curious about the ribbon cables. I noticed you labeled them as A, B and C, and was wondering why you did that. Are they different form each other or is it just the length you were considering? My Alesis HR-16 is not working, and I will use your video to try to repair it --fingers crossed. Thanks again, and happy summer!

[@ronaldgerth5120]

Hilary and Sandra, I labeled the ribbon cables and board to make sure I put them back in the correct sockets. Good luck to you and thank you!

[@hilaryandsandra1385]

@@ronaldgerth5120 Many thanks for the quick reply! And say hi to Bob, the Cat. He seems like a really cool feline dude ;) Thank YOU!

[@markkilley2683]

I 'd better check mine.