CLP-130 Clavinova

[paulofr]

Hi!
I’m (was?) a happy CLP-130 Clavinova owner. Bought it new, some 4 years ago. But, unfortunately, a few months ago I started noticing some problems with it: the buttons that should turn on/off the “Demo” and “Preset” songs, started malfunctioning (some times they responded to the pressing, and some times they didn’t). The problem got worse and worse, and now it just is not possible to turn on the “Demo” and “Preset” functions... Nothing happens, when I press those buttons... It seems they’re just deads..
Is this a known problem? Is it easy to solve? (I’m quite a handy guy...). Does the CLP-130 have some kind of a “reset” button that I could use to turn the piano to the “factory defaults”?
Any help would be most appreciated!
Thanks in advance,

Paulo Flores Ribeiro

[brucem]

I don't know if there's a "factory reset" on the CLP-130. (I have a CLP-240 ... there's a display and and "function" button. According to the user manual, I can select the appropriate function number and then reset various settings. I don't know if that applies to your CLP-130.)

Button failures such as yours are not uncommon. My guess is that there's a small "popple" switch under each of the buttons. It's just a small convex metal dome that buckles when you press it, making contact with a small metal tab underneath it. These can go bad after a while.

It's also possible that the switch buttons have a rubber sheet under them, and the rubber collapses inward when you press. A small black (carbon?) button underneath the rubber touches the circuit board when pressed, activating the circuit.

I can't be sure which of these is present in your DP. But I suspect the former because of the firm, click feel.  The latter (as used on TV remote controls) gives a softer mushy feel.

Anyway, to repair it, you'd have to open up the unit ... if you think you can. I can't say how ... I don't know. But you might get lucky and find a service manual online at retrevo.com or some similar place. You'll probably have to pay for the manual.

Assuming that you can open up the DP, you'll need access to the control panel switches. And you'll have to see if the popple switches can be removed and replaced. If it is indeed a popple, you don't necessarily need a "genuine Yamaha" part. Any popple switch of similar size will do. You'll have to google to find the part.

It's possible that a whole row of popple switches are merged onto a single thin sheet of clear plastic, making replacement more difficult. The popples could even be on a thin "flex circuit" ... a thin tinted plastic with thin conducting wires embedded in it, along with the popples. That's even more difficult to replace, and would require an exact Yamaha replacement.

Much of what I've said is guesswork. There are many possibilities, and I've never looked inside a DP, Yamaha or otherwise.  So this is not a trivial operation. It might be better to have it repaired at a Yamaha-capable shop.