Hi,

I recently purchased an 804. The manual is a bit grey in certain areas regarding the memory, there are certain conditions were it states the memory is wiped 80 minutes after turning the piano off.

From what I've seen so far, every part of the memory is wiped after you turn it off....even down to registrations. Surely this can't be right? Why allow you to store 24 panel settings and then have to redo them every time you switch on? Seems stupid to use volatile memory for this feature, or maybe I'm missing something?

Many thanks,

Mike.

Hi.

The "short term" memory (80 minutes) use a little battery to work.
Lifetime for the battery are most often 5 years or so, the same as i.e.in a PC mainboard to
backup Bios etc.
A replacement should fix that easiy, but to save your settings on a floppydisk or whatever
media the different keyboards use, are always a good idea.

I also you'll find something about this matters in the usermanual.

Happy Playing
GJ

Hi GJ, thanks for the info.

I dare say the 80 minute memory works fine, it's just no use to me - I don't see the point of it to be honest (unless it's there in case you forget to save to disk after turning off, meaning you can quickly switch it on and do the deed).

I think I misled you.....the battery is probably fine. What I should have said was that the memory is wiped (for everything) if left overnight, for example.

Cheers,

Mike.

Well, 80 minutes may do if you get a sudden electrical power shutdown I guess.
GJ

As long as the power is restored in 79 minutes I suppose.

It's the most hideous thing I've ever seen implemented in an instrument, or anything else come to think of it. I'm just glad my car radio isn't Technics or I'd probably have to retune my stations every day, or start the engine every 80 minutes.

I quite like it, but I'll be going back to Yamaha as soon as funds allow (not that I have any choice if buying new) .

Cheers.

Mike, all you need to do is save your keyboard setup with your disk drive. All the things that you are concerned about losing will be put on the disk. Then simply reload that disk next time you turn the keyboard on. See page 94 of your manual.

Hi Bob, thanks for the info.

I was experimenting with the info found on page 94 last night.....I think once I get used to it, I'll quite like the idea of being able to recall everything from floppy. Just takes some getting used to.

Regards,

Mike.

Hi Mavermick,
I have a 903, and the same thing applies. Probably all digital pianos are the same (different to keyboards),because they are superior.LOL. Once you get used to saving on floppy you will find it invaluable.
Ray

------------------
Ray The Saint

Thanks for all your comments.

Yes Ray, I've just been experimenting loading a complete bank (all 10 sequencer slots) of MIDI songs, complete with different panel settings. As you say, it is a nice feature to be able to put the disk in and everything be set up perfectly, I quite like it now........but still think it's a little behind the times (if my memory's right, this model was launched in 2002).

I must say it will be nice to prepare a few floppy disks that will load my favourite songs with registrations to match.

Thanks again all!

Mike.

Has it always dropped memory settings like this even when it was new? That is very strange. I have never heard of a keyboard with digital memory doing this before. That is why they always have an internal battery to hold memory when the keyboard is powered down. Maybe the battery in it is flat or has always been faulty.

It would be very inexpensive to replace it to see if that is causing your problem. You would just have to open the keyboard to find it on the circuit board somewhere.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 02-07-2009).]