Piano disc PDS-32

[Harry Dulcamara]

Greetings, esteemed piano techs.

I recently bought a nice 1930’s Chickering baby grand (for my grand baby….) with a Pianodisc PDS-32 system.

The unit played nicely once, but then died. If traced the problem to the control box, and I think to the power supply board. (I done my interweb research and understand that the PDS-32s are obsolete with parts difficult to come by and the system has been orphaned by Pianodisc.)

Hedging my bets I bought a PDS-128+ control box with the hope that it can substitute for the PDS-32 box given the “proper” conversion; I.e. the 128s are powered by 10v supplied by the PDS-128 CPU through two pins on the connecting DIN cable, getting away from an internal power supply board on the 32s. I’m hoping that the PDS-128+ logic controlling the solenoids are the same as on the PDS-32s.

I need guidance on my thoughts, please:

• anyone know of a PianoDisc guru that has resurrected a PDS-32 control box?
• Can a PDS-128+ control box substitute for a PDS-32 box in a PDS-32 system, if yes, what needs to be done?
• anyone know of a reputable company that can repair a printed circuit board power supply? The power supply system on the 32s were poorly designed as the master power supply switch is in the rear of the box, making it difficult and non-intuitive to shut off, resulting in the power supply board unnecessarily “on” for long periods when the system is unused which results in the board failing. Ditto for the power supply “breadbox” for the CPU and solenoids. 

Any other thoughts would be appreciated. 

Thanks,

Harry

[Larry Fisher RPT]

pds 32 is a 32 bit system.  128+ is a 128 bit system. They don't like each other.

The power supply board was the weak point in the pds32.  Good luck with fixing it.

Lar

[Kyle Kahn]

Hey did you ever end up fixing it? If not, I was wondering if I’d be able to buy the sustain pedal circuit board off of you as mine just failed.