Roland R-8 - Accessing the drum machine - Restoration Part 2

Welcome back to Part 2 of my restoration series, where I move on from the initial assessment in Part 1 and start actually accessing the Roland R-8 itself. In this video I open up the case, remove the covers, and begin working my way through to the internals, taking care to document each step along the way for anyone following this project or attempting something similar on their own unit. I'll be walking through the disassembly process in detail, pointing out fixings, connectors, and any areas that need a bit of extra care so nothing gets damaged during the teardown. This stage is all about getting safe access to the boards and components so we can properly inspect what's going on inside once we're further into the project. If you haven't seen Part 1 yet, I'd recommend starting there to see the full assessment that led us to this point before diving into the access and disassembly stage covered here. With the Roland R-8 now opened up, the next video in this series will cover the internal inspection and diagnosis, so make sure you're subscribed to catch Part 3 as soon as it's released. As always, drop a comment if you've got tips, questions, or experience working on one of these yourself. Background The Roland R-8 was acquired as a job lot with another instrument. I am a sucker for a drum machine, so the acquisition of this Roland R-8 was a bonus. The second bonus was that when I opened the box containing the Roland R-8 I also found a Roland R-5. But the R-5 will be the subject of another video series. On acquisition I noticed that the screen on the R-8 was not displaying the characters correctly. After a bit of Googling and reviewing a number of the forums it appeared that R-8's having defective screens was a known issue and would require the screen to be replaced to fix the problem. This created a problem in itself. Most instruments of this era were supplied with an LCD screen and back light combination. And there are after market screens based on OLED technology that, with a few changes, can be fitted to the instrument. This is not the case for the Roland R-8. This LCD screen made by Samsung has a custom display and is no longer manufactured. There is no OLED equivalent that replicates this custom display. Once I started to strip the drum machine down I found that there was additional work required to bring this instrument back into use within my studio. The equipment mentioned above (if you can still buy it!): Roland R-8 (Used): https://themusictechguyuk.me/3ewF3ZE Tools and spares used to make this video: Stanley Ratchet Screwdriver : https://themusictechguyuk.me/3m4eMFQ Bosch Screw Driver Bits: https://themusictechguyuk.me/2WcZR3l 📖Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:13 Initial access to the Roland R-8 from underneath 01:02 Science behind the 'bits' box 01:31 Removing rear screws 01:57 Channel promotion 02:20 Removing the rear plate 04:09 Removing the main R-8 logic board 08:13 Main logic board recap 09:12 Disconnecting the ribbon connectors 11:19 Main board removed 11:28 Removal of the foil shield #rolandr8 #RolandR8DrumMachine #r8 #Roland #drummachine Videos in this series: Part 1:    • Roland R-8 - Assessment of the project - R...   Part 2:    • Roland R-8 - Accessing the drum machine - ...   Part 3:    • Roland R-8 - Removing the display from the...   Part 4:    • Roland R-8 - Installing the display to the...   Part 5:    • Roland R-8 - Removing the rear plate for r...   Part 6:    • Roland R-8 - Repainting the Backplate - Re...   Part 7:    • Roland R-8 - Reassembling the circuits to ...   Part 8:    • Roland R-8 - Cleaning the top for assembly...   Part 9:    • Roland R-8 - At last the final assembly - ...   Part 10:    • Roland R-8 - Clips from the cutting room f...   For less than the price of a cup of coffee, support The Music Tech Guy UK channel, join the TMTG community: http://themusictechguyuk.me/Community 🎼The Music Tech Guy UK can be found in the following places: Youtube:    / @themusictechguyuk   Website: https://www.themusictechguyuk.com Patreon: http://themusictechguyuk.me/Community Facebook:   / themusictechguyuk   Instagram:   / themusictechguyuk   X:   / musictechguyuk   Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog... Don't confuse the The Music Tech Guy UK or Music Tech Guy UK with copycat channels. There is only one me! Roland R-8 - Accessing the drum machine - Restoration Part 2 - 2025-05-31