Did this... it worked... for a while. AKAI needs to recognize this as a fault in the design of their instrument and actually HELP the people who bought their expensive product!! Outrageous that I’ve been trying to get ahold of customer support for years and they continue to dodge the issue, recommend I pay to “fix it” and tell me to buy new batteries. You can’t “repair” an instrument that is broken by design!
Thanks a lot buddy. A miilion gestures of gratefulness. you saved my life. I had this equipment lying idle at my place with no hopes. I am able to revive and be able to play it again. Thanks again. Kudos to you
Many, many thanks, this really saved my day, my week! (bought a B-stock EWI5000 which was delivered with battery mounted, got it to work thanks to this)
Markus, Thanks for the video. I had the problem develop overnight (from Sunday when I played at church to Tuesday) so I figure I had left it on in the case. Your shock charge worked perfectly (current limited adjustable supply) and my 5000 is charging as I type. I agree with all of your comments about the 5000 vs 4000 except that the 5000 sounds seem to have more presence to them. I wish the 4000's oscillators had a mode to use samples as the waveshape source but everything else was the same as the 4000 architecture. Again, thanks for doing the basic research for me. Gordon
Gordon Gunzelman Thankyou Gordon. Im pleased you got it charging again. I wish Akai would have made this with a proper battery bay that would have taken standard sized batteries. other than that I still think its a good sounding instrument.
Mr. Fuller, I agree that Akai (and all the other companies) should have used standard batteries. I run my 4000 on 4 rechargeable AA cells that I bought over the counter. It's MUCH simpler for us as players. It would have been simpler for them as well as they could have reused the tooling from the 4000 on the 5000. A thought (question) for you on synthesis in general: Analog synths had the "hard sync" feature on the oscillators which created metallic harmonic rich sounds but I was wondering if anyone had built a "one-shot" type oscillator. If you could control the speed of the one-shot separately from the driving signal rep rate, you would be able to create a signal where the output of the one-shot would have a formant effect based on the cycle time of the one shot. Now go one step further and make the one-shot output a single cycle of a sample and I think you could get a very nice sound for solo passages. I just can;t figure out how to do this in a mockup although I suspect an app like C-sound or PD might make it possible. You might be able to do it in hardware. Thanks, Gordon
Thank you for your efforts re the battery. I had the same problem after returning from a month-long trip to find that my EWI wouldn't charge and I thought at first it was broken. BooHoo. after watching yours and several other people's videos who had the same problem I decided to try to shock the battery back to life with my Sony backup battery that I use with my iPhone. I plugged it in (the backup battery) after having fully charged it and when I switched it on the EWI started changing immediately. It is now functioning as before. Thank you for your efforts that saved me a trip to the repair shop for something I could easily fix myself.
Mark! You saved my life, much appreciate your help, i did everything as you showed and it work perfectly, I own you a drink if you come to Spain! Saludos amigo and keep doing this! Diego
Quick question, how long does the EWI have to be idle for this problem to occur? Will this happen after a few days? Or will it take a couple of months? I just want to try to avoid it as much as possible in the first place, so how often should I play and charge the instrument?
Thank you so much for that expose. I nearly bought one and I can see that would have been a mistake too. Poor design and after-market extortion. That's a bad look Akai. You, sir, are a scholar and a gentleman!
Dear colleagues, I've just use the Charger, which can send 3.1 V for channel - and charging process starts. There are a lot of such chargers on the market. Will update on the results.
I wonder Markus if you considered shaving a mm or so around the battery housing to fit the more common, larger battery? I can understand its not ideal on a costly instrument too though!
Fantastic video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you please make more In the future, If I have battery problems, I would consider melting or filing the battery door area to allow a 1865 battery to fit.............and then velcro or devise another way to close the door....... What would that 1865 battery be like? Manny
Interesting video. I had a couple of Akai Professional products and it seems they all have this "rushed into production" feel to them. This is for sure another example.. It is a shame, Akai used to be such a great quality producing company in the past!
True I have had some very good Akai products in the past. I hope the next version of this will get back to standard AA batteries or at least something that is easily obtainable.
Thank You very much. I try to realise that some people may not know all the Tech stuff so I always attempt to keep it as understandable as possible so everyone can know what I am trying to do. my science teacher at school use to break down technical problems into easy to understand ways so everyone got a good idea of what he was talking about. he was a good teacher.
hi. i enjoyed you movie. can you help me ? my ewi won't turn on.😢😢😢 when i push turn on button, trans ,save, hold,interval button are lighting , but when i release my's hand from a button , the power is off. i need your advise. help me please
Markus - I viewed this video awhile back when trying to get some info for a replacement battery. I use my EWI5000 strictly as a MIDI Controller (via USB) and it is powered during each performance by a Plugable hub connected to my Dell (Windows 10) tablet. The hub was designed to charge the tablet and it also powers the EWI. My question to you is - do you have any idea how long the EWI battery may last? I play with our church orchestra and we are recording a CD in September of this year. I would certainly NOT like to see the "Double 8" indicator right before the recording session starts! (FYI - I purchased the EWI in August of 2014) The EWI has worked flawlessly as a controller (hated the Onboard Sonivox sounds), but I'm starting to get concerned about the "special order" battery. Thanks!
I have an EWI4000S and it seems to have grounding issues? Seems to intermittently power on when I touch certain places. Any good advice on how to hunt down and find the issue? I have a multimeter! Thanks a ton you've taught me so much!
interesting! i've had mine (on to the 3rd one!) for a few years now. it's very good WHEN it works! 1st return was the battery thing, probably the 2nd time too, + other things. changing banks - sometimes does this when i change patches and at other seemingly random times - still is a problem - always need to keep checking or i blast out a sax instead of a pretty flute sound! i also had (have) lots of clicky things - discovered it is my fingers accidentally touching the stupid ('cos i can't work them very well!) glissando strip. the wireless thing is a pain too as it has a very small amount of latency, so when playing completely solo i get slower & s-l-o-w-e-r! the battery now seems fine ..... i shouldn't say that - tempting fate! i was thinking about busking on the underground with it, but the battery operated speaker i bought to go with it has a problem - the battery will no longer charge!! (at least it works at home from the mains!) i must start playing it again ....
hola markus, excelente vídeo , me podrías explicar que tipo de cable debo usar para hacer la conexión entre la batería y las baterías 2A? ,¡ importa la forma en que conecte ambos extremos de los cables hacia la batería de litio y las tres baterías juntas? es decir + - ? .. muchas gracias
Hi mark,i need help,my ewi 5000 black showing Ld sign on display,cannot boot up,the problem is the sdcard corrupt or damage,it's only showing 1.8gb,and cannot backup,copying..always stuck on 26% when copying,did you have backup your sd card mark? Because i can find on internet
Hello. I am guessing here but I think the LD sign was just displayed while it was loading data, I think there is a 2GB micro SD card on the circuit board inside but some of the space may be reserved on that card for other system settings so it may only show 1.8gb available to the user. I do not know why Akai did not make this card accessible so the user could simply change them over easily. many companies do this. even the latest roland fantom flagship synth has micro sd cards on the boards inside that is not accessible to the user. I do not know why yours is getting stuck on 26%. I sold my ewi many years ago so cannot have a look inside now. sorry about that.
Thanks for the repply@@markusfuller sorry for my mistake mark,yes actually there is 1.8GB,finally back to live my ewi,the problem is the sd card is corrupt,bad sector,So i try repairing using chksd on command promp,and it's work,then I backup using aomei backupper,the next step is copying all the data to the new SD card,that formated FAT32...thank god It's work mark,here's the step what Im doing ruclips.net/video/y10FcQkNJkU/видео.html
Great work! A must watch for EWI 5000 owners! I posted a similar solution to error code 88 on forum.saxontheweb.net (Feb 2014, based on the video of KManAuto), using a simple battery charger instead of 3 1.5V batteries. After this stressful 'episode' was looking (for ages...) where to find a replacement battery just in case, and finally found (on a trip to Europe in May 2016) a German retailer and bought a second one. Yesterday (25/04/2018) I had error 88 for the first time in almost 4 years - probably it had run down without me noticing or I shouldn't have left it plugged into a USB hub overnight (oddly voltage was only down to 3.2V) , and jolted it with the 'charger' method. Just connecting about 10 seconds a few times worked. No overheating or smoke etc detected whatsoever. All good again, and it charged up to 96/97 as before. However, this original battery is now over 4 years old - still playing for many hours but I think I'll need do an 'endurance test' next and compare results to the newer one (which I keep at ~50% charged but also use in the EWI every 3 months for a little while). Charging on average once per week, the original one would have reached about 200-250 cycles by now. PS I was told the Inmusic part number of this battery is 102 861 and in 2016 it was 34.90€. I bought it from:- Music Store Professional GmbH Istanbulstrasse 22-26 T +49 221 8884-3651 51103 Köln (Cologne) Germany Also Musikhaus Thoman/Thoman UK is also supplying it within the EU afaik
ozzoid hello could you please direct me toward a battery charger? I’m not sure what to search for that would give me the appropriate product for such a battery.
I can't believe you don't have a proper variable lab power supply with current limiting capabilities. Would be much more saver with that. Also the handy cables with the pins for breadboards you have in your blue chest should fit into the plug without falling out. Love your videos.
Hello Foamidable. I have the agilent 6632b which is perfect for the job and yes as you pointed out there are the pinned cables (well spotted) but the majority of people who may own this musical instrument would not have access to these laboratory devices. I was thinking of making the video in a way that almost anyone can have a go at this fix themselves as most people would have 3AA batteries and a piece of wire. sometimes I feel my repair videos need to take into account what most people would have at home. Best wishes from Markus
Makes me wonder if a good mod for one of these is to try and fit an 18650 socket in there with the charging circuitry from the old battery (out of warranty of course!).
@@markusfuller Hmm, you'd likely have to cut into the plastic around the battery housing. Maybe a bit too hack-y, I'm not sure how it would come out. It's possible that it just wouldn't fit inside, as they seem to be quite crowded internally. It just seems a shame that when Akai discontinues these like it did the 4000s and stops selling replacement parts, people will have to just give up on it when the battery fails. Batteries tend to be the most replaced part of anything electrical, so it's kind of a bad part on the manufacturer when they make it awkwardly proprietary. Great vid though! It really helps people understand what BB/88 really is and how to troubleshoot rather than just rma their EWI.
Thanks for the info in video. I was considering to buy EWI 5000 and stumbled upon the problem and now here the workaround. I will not buy it if this issue still persists with the device. When i messaged a support staff of an online store, I was said this problem is solved by Akai already. But not sure if it is really a case. Has any one purchased recently and knows that the problem still exists?
Dear Markusfuller, I am from Brazil. I have a tyros5. It is not recording songs in "Audio Recording Player". Yet, I formated the disc, but the problem exist. What can I do more? Thank you antonio
wow, what a great video, pretty sure that is the problem i have also.... haven't been able to play it in a couple years, but did not sell the 4000 i got earlier, so been using it instead... but i do like some of the features of the 5000... your ending comment now has me very attached to the 4000.. :-) mahalo for all the effort and advice... aloha, forest
hello I'm with the same error 88 in a EWI4000S model that does not have battery. the error occurred after the false fitting of the power source. Is there a diode I can change?
same here - i think it got reversed when I connected adapter the wrong way - be sure to put up a video if you find the solution cause this thing CANNOT BE SITTING THERE IDLE.
my old battery had 4.1 volts and a new one bought from china is showing me 3.6 volts. Before buying the new battery, my EWI didn't show anything at all, no sign of life, not even 88. Now after putting in the Chinese battery, first the EWI started showing error 88 and then after putting in the old battery, that one also started showing error 88 now. So the old one started working, too, for some reason, but both show error 88. With the Chinese battery though sometimes at first when the battery just arrived, plugging it into the EWI made it to show blinking LEDs sometimes (without the EWI working), but now after a few more tries all I'm getting is error 88 from both batteries, no blinking LEDs either. Any ideas what I could do? Assuming the Chinese battery is simply not working, I assume I need to discharge the older one? Or maybe the EWI is broken after all... EDIT: After reading for a bit, it seems like the 4.1 volts one is actually a normally charged battery, and the 3.6 is probably somewhere around 30 - 40% of charge. I guess the EWI is done for :(
I do not think the EWI is done for. It just needs a battery with enough charge in it for the EWI to run. I think akai could do a software update that will allow the ewi to charge a battery rather than state a fault just because the battery has fallen below a certain voltage. I did get rid of my ewi5000 and just use the ewi-solo now - it has not let me down yet but i believe it still uses a similar small lithium battery.
Hi i have a problem with my ewi 5000 it get Freeze AND i can't turn ir off or play it just put LD on the LCD screen.plese jelp i disconet the batery ir works a few hours AND then again pot the same error LD
Hi Gorky. I cannot find that error code in any of the akai websites. all I could find was how to reset to factory reset by pressing and holding FX, LEVEL, BANK, and SAVE button, then pressing the POWER button while those 4 buttons are held down. other than that I do not know what to advise as I sold my ewi5000 in 2016.
This makes me wonder, if a small firmware upgrade wouldn't solve the problem? It would appear that there should be something like a very strick threshold for the minimum voltage on the battery. On a different matter... Darth Vader called: he wants his spinal cord back! ;)
Hi Philip I too think there could have been a software update to fix this as I doubt the onboard battery circuit is refusing to charge when it dips below 2.7
so this allowed it to get to 2.7v? simply adding low voltage protection would have saved all the bother. However at 2.7v charging it is no real danger as it's not low enough to start damaging itself and causing copper to form on the internals where it shouldn't. Seems like they made a simple mistake they shouldn't have.
Yes I kinda think this part of the design was simply overlooked and it went into production. other than those flaws its a pretty interesting instrument
I have one of these and just noticed this video.. ive not had any problems with my EWI as yet but if i do i will know what to do so cheers :) and yeah the sound glitching due to the sample library is a pain in the ass but the sounds are nice and i love playing mine
Interesting channel. Your profession is an Electrical or electronics engineer? I wish i could repair my own synths, but i have no engineering skills, and cannot go to engineering school. Does it take a long time to learn to repair synths? How do we get such skills without school?
I only did my electronics certificates later in life and I only did music tech at college not electronics. though it was always my hobby since I was a small child, I was self taught mainly through trial and error.
Love these lithium battery featured vids! Btw, sounded like someone was doing dishes in the background. Was that person aware that you where trying not to blow yourself up in the lab? =D
Hi Jakob. yes my food was being prepared in the kitchen as I was rushing along to finish this video, sorry about that. I like making the battery videos but Im not always comfortable in thinking other people may try this and something maybe goes wrong for them. still at least I try and warn people of the dangers. anyhow nice to hear from you I hope all is well.
+markusfuller Yes, all is well with me. Had a bit off work to get out of the way. I was finally able to cl catch up with your latest a videos. Great as usual man. And no need to apologise for the background noise. I found it amusing and I liked hearing that stuff was going on somewhere else in your house. I can relate to it since I make vids myself. And sometimes one can hear the sound of my washing machine humming in the background. Regarding lithium batteries, I never dare tinker with them myself. But these types of batteries fascinate me completely. The way they operate, how sensitive they are. The fact that they need circuits checking for errors and temperature. Moody little buggers aren't they. =D
when I had the ewi4000 I used the MidAir by M-Audio though thats like hanging a brick from the device. but it worked and like the fool I am I guessed newer is better. but not in this case. I would swop this 5000 for a 4000 without hesitation.
hi marcus, we spoke a while back about connecting up my moog sub 37 to the 5000. i find the panda audio midi beam works really great - it's not expensive and the range is amazing. easily goes 50 feet or more in an open room. panda-audio.com/midibeam.php I use mine a lot live and am a bit worried about the battery now - would like to get a spare just for safety. can you give me a clue where i can get ripped off for $49 please? :-) BTW i agree with you about the sounds - i have a vintage ewi 3000 and 3020m which sounds great and although i never had the 4000s i heard them and they sounded pretty good. as a controller the 5000s is better as you can program the breath controller to output any midi cc which is pretty flexible. i decided i never wanted to hear it's actual sounds again after about 10 minutes messing with it!
Hi as long as you take out the battery when you will not be using it for months then it should be ok. mine was on the shelf for several months with the battery installed. I found them following akai website then off to spares etc. they are on there for $49.
yeah - i just checked mine and although i haven't played it for a while it's still at 92%. it's more of a belt and braces thing as I use it live. would be good to have a spare charged up in the gig bag just in case! i'll see if i can find it - i presume it's on akaipro...
true I have the quadcopter charger and bench power supplies (good thinking). but I was trying to consider what the average person would have to fix it with ie 3xAA batteries and a piece of wire.
Oh yeah I totally see where you are coming from, I just wondered if you could use the cheap three pinned Li charger(s) you have - they are pretty much ten a penny on banggood etc.
I had the same issue with my 5000 I ended up putting the battery in the freezer for 30 minutes ,removed it and let it go back to room temperature, placed it back into the ewi and it started charging.
wow you froze the battery, brilliant - i never thought of that one. I have just put my EWI up for sale with 2 batteries for £195 ono but it seems there is no interest in it. maybe in time to come these will be worth more - I just never play mine anymore.
hi ¿realmente te funcionó meter la batería al congelador 30 minutos y se vuelve a poner en el ewi después ? ¿ usaste el cargador original despues, o el de un ipad? gracias Did it really work to put the battery in the freezer for 30 minutes and put it back on the ewi? Did you use the original charger afterwards, or the one of an ipad? Thank you
Just remove the two round plastic covers from the battery sides and put it into a 18650 charger (~£6 on Amazon) for like 5 minutes, enough to get it over the 3V threshold, that's all I did.
Hello If the display shows 88 then it is displaying "Battery Fault" and may not play . the battery must have enough charge in it for the EWI to work correctly.
Hey there@@markusfullerIve been getting the 88 error code as well, tested my battery and it gave a reading of 4.16v. so it seems like it maybe overcharged. could it be possible it damaged my EWI? and if so, how would i go about troubleshooting it further and what do you think it might be? Is there any hope left for it?
Hi Yes I could have used my bench PSU but I was trying to achieve this in a simple manner thinking not everyone will have such a device but may have 3 AA batteries. plus I have to mention all the warnings etc as it is going on youtube - kinda just a way to cover myself.
LOL AKAI they should just ship a charger with the thing now.... lol.... I talked the US tech and he basically just apologized said buy 2 batteries and a charger and change them out every day.
Ill tell you the fix just buy a charger for the battery they sell them on amazon just match the battery type as long as the charger charges at a man rate lower than the listed on the battery it is fine. Make sure it's a flat top charger and you gotta tear the paper CAREFULLY off the ends and expose the battery teminals. the end where the electronic connecter is attached to is the negative
Hi Markus, My ewi died on me last night, charged it overnight just get have a 88 flash at me all day.Any way you could carry out the fix for me, rather pay you £50 to akai right now,Thanks
I am a EWI4000S player and thought for a while that I'd found the ideal instrument for me in the 5000, but after reading about the hassle with the Lithium Ion batteries I have decided to look at another type. So disappointed.
Hello Clive. I agree it is so annoying especially as the battery bay could have been made a millimeter wider quite easily. I just wonder can this ever be trusted at a gig if you needed to rely on it as your instrument especially as you cannot even charge the thing or use it on the power supply if your battery drops below that certain point. practically dead in the water. pity as the ewi4000 just took 4 AA batteries.
Clive Flint It's all about the money, they're obviously making it to a price with the slow software and with the soft on/ off switch they can also rake in the cash with replacement battery's. SoShine™ make a good universal lithium charger, it'll charge from 18650 all the way down to the 16340 battery's so it would also fit these battery's too.
Вадим Кулик Hello I am very soory but I cannot make the batteries for you. they are similar to the li-ion 18650 batteries but they are slightly shorter so a 18650 is too big and will not fit in the battery compartment. I an unsure what the correct size is maybe AKAI website can tell you where you can get them from. my apologies.
hi markus i could make ur life easier just grab urself as nitecore d2 or d4 battery charger if you peel either end off its basically the same as a vape battery 18650 justa different size u can put the battery in and give it a proper charge in that charger
Hi David. I checked this morning after a long charge and the battery is up to 96% according to the onboard display. so I guess I was pretty lucky there that I did not toast the battery.
Did this... it worked... for a while. AKAI needs to recognize this as a fault in the design of their instrument and actually HELP the people who bought their expensive product!! Outrageous that I’ve been trying to get ahold of customer support for years and they continue to dodge the issue, recommend I pay to “fix it” and tell me to buy new batteries. You can’t “repair” an instrument that is broken by design!
I felt like a mad professor resurrecting my EWI, thanks a lot for the video!
Thank you Sir! It worked like a charm!! My EWI5000 was down and out since 2019!!! I ended up buying both EWIUSB and EWISOLO!!! Now I have 3!!!
Thanks a lot buddy. A miilion gestures of gratefulness. you saved my life. I had this equipment lying idle at my place with no hopes. I am able to revive and be able to play it again. Thanks again. Kudos to you
Many, many thanks, this really saved my day, my week! (bought a B-stock EWI5000 which was delivered with battery mounted, got it to work thanks to this)
Markus, Thanks for the video. I had the problem develop overnight (from Sunday when I played at church to Tuesday) so I figure I had left it on in the case. Your shock charge worked perfectly (current limited adjustable supply) and my 5000 is charging as I type. I agree with all of your comments about the 5000 vs 4000 except that the 5000 sounds seem to have more presence to them. I wish the 4000's oscillators had a mode to use samples as the waveshape source but everything else was the same as the 4000 architecture. Again, thanks for doing the basic research for me. Gordon
Gordon Gunzelman Thankyou Gordon. Im pleased you got it charging again. I wish Akai would have made this with a proper battery bay that would have taken standard sized batteries. other than that I still think its a good sounding instrument.
Mr. Fuller, I agree that Akai (and all the other companies) should have used standard batteries. I run my 4000 on 4 rechargeable AA cells that I bought over the counter. It's MUCH simpler for us as players. It would have been simpler for them as well as they could have reused the tooling from the 4000 on the 5000.
A thought (question) for you on synthesis in general: Analog synths had the "hard sync" feature on the oscillators which created metallic harmonic rich sounds but I was wondering if anyone had built a "one-shot" type oscillator. If you could control the speed of the one-shot separately from the driving signal rep rate, you would be able to create a signal where the output of the one-shot would have a formant effect based on the cycle time of the one shot. Now go one step further and make the one-shot output a single cycle of a sample and I think you could get a very nice sound for solo passages. I just can;t figure out how to do this in a mockup although I suspect an app like C-sound or PD might make it possible. You might be able to do it in hardware.
Thanks,
Gordon
So it's missing a low voltage cut off circuit? Why would they leave that out? That seems very strange.
Is it possible to bypass the battery completely and just rewire it so it runs on the AC adapter only?
Thank you for your efforts re the battery. I had the same problem after returning from a month-long trip to find that my EWI wouldn't charge and I thought at first it was broken. BooHoo. after watching yours and several other people's videos who had the same problem I decided to try to shock the battery back to life with my Sony backup battery that I use with my iPhone. I plugged it in (the backup battery) after having fully charged it and when I switched it on the EWI started changing immediately. It is now functioning as before. Thank you for your efforts that saved me a trip to the repair shop for something I could easily fix myself.
Great! This worked exactly as you described it, now the EWI is charging again. Thank you!
Brilliant solution and very clear video. You saved my musical bacon. Thank you
Mark! You saved my life, much appreciate your help, i did everything as you showed and it work perfectly, I own you a drink if you come to Spain! Saludos amigo and keep doing this!
Diego
Quick question, how long does the EWI have to be idle for this problem to occur? Will this happen after a few days? Or will it take a couple of months? I just want to try to avoid it as much as possible in the first place, so how often should I play and charge the instrument?
mine took a couple of months.
Thank you so much for that expose. I nearly bought one and I can see that would have been a mistake too. Poor design and after-market extortion. That's a bad look Akai. You, sir, are a scholar and a gentleman!
Do you know if the EWI Solo functions the same way? I mean if the battery is dead, it also doesn't power on? Thank you!
Siii, también tiene el mismo problema...
Dear colleagues, I've just use the Charger, which can send 3.1 V for channel - and charging process starts. There are a lot of such chargers on the market. Will update on the results.
Mark Thank you so much for the info. Great expose , now the battery is charging normally.
I wonder Markus if you considered shaving a mm or so around the battery housing to fit the more common, larger battery? I can understand its not ideal on a costly instrument too though!
Fantastic video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you please make more
In the future, If I have battery problems, I would consider melting or filing the battery door area to allow a 1865 battery to fit.............and then velcro or devise another way to close the door.......
What would that 1865 battery be like?
Manny
Thanks man! You saved me $49! Very cool video. Get the 4000 and have both.
Interesting video.
I had a couple of Akai Professional products and it seems they all have this "rushed into production" feel to them. This is for sure another example.. It is a shame, Akai used to be such a great quality producing company in the past!
True I have had some very good Akai products in the past. I hope the next version of this will get back to standard AA batteries or at least something that is easily obtainable.
Forgot to mention Markus, I enjoy your channel very much. Very informative and you are quite elaborate in the tech details!
Thank You very much. I try to realise that some people may not know all the Tech stuff so I always attempt to keep it as understandable as possible so everyone can know what I am trying to do. my science teacher at school use to break down technical problems into easy to understand ways so everyone got a good idea of what he was talking about. he was a good teacher.
Man I love your videos. They are really... calming. You've got a great voice. I hope you get more subs in the future.
Thank You very much Man Spider. I really do appreciate all the comments as they help me to shape things as i go along. Best wishes from Markus
hi. i enjoyed you movie. can you help me ? my ewi won't turn on.😢😢😢
when i push turn on button, trans ,save, hold,interval button are lighting , but when i release my's hand from a button , the power is off. i need your advise. help me please
Markus - I viewed this video awhile back when trying to get some info for a replacement battery. I use my EWI5000 strictly as a MIDI Controller (via USB) and it is powered during each performance by a Plugable hub connected to my Dell (Windows 10) tablet. The hub was designed to charge the tablet and it also powers the EWI. My question to you is - do you have any idea how long the EWI battery may last? I play with our church orchestra and we are recording a CD in September of this year. I would certainly NOT like to see the "Double 8" indicator right before the recording session starts! (FYI - I purchased the EWI in August of 2014) The EWI has worked flawlessly as a controller (hated the Onboard Sonivox sounds), but I'm starting to get concerned about the "special order" battery. Thanks!
I have an EWI4000S and it seems to have grounding issues? Seems to intermittently power on when I touch certain places. Any good advice on how to hunt down and find the issue? I have a multimeter! Thanks a ton you've taught me so much!
The only reason to put a nonstandard battery in there and to make it useless on adapter is to generate some nice revenue for messrs. AKAI.
interesting! i've had mine (on to the 3rd one!) for a few years now. it's very good WHEN it works! 1st return was the battery thing, probably the 2nd time too, + other things. changing banks - sometimes does this when i change patches and at other seemingly random times - still is a problem - always need to keep checking or i blast out a sax instead of a pretty flute sound! i also had (have) lots of clicky things - discovered it is my fingers accidentally touching the stupid ('cos i can't work them very well!) glissando strip. the wireless thing is a pain too as it has a very small amount of latency, so when playing completely solo i get slower & s-l-o-w-e-r! the battery now seems fine ..... i shouldn't say that - tempting fate! i was thinking about busking on the underground with it, but the battery operated speaker i bought to go with it has a problem - the battery will no longer charge!! (at least it works at home from the mains!) i must start playing it again ....
The sound is very nice.Rob
hola markus, excelente vídeo , me podrías explicar que tipo de cable debo usar para hacer la conexión entre la batería y las baterías 2A? ,¡ importa la forma en que conecte ambos extremos de los cables hacia la batería de litio y las tres baterías juntas? es decir + - ? .. muchas gracias
Hi mark,i need help,my ewi 5000 black showing Ld sign on display,cannot boot up,the problem is the sdcard corrupt or damage,it's only showing 1.8gb,and cannot backup,copying..always stuck on 26% when copying,did you have backup your sd card mark? Because i can find on internet
Hello. I am guessing here but I think the LD sign was just displayed while it was loading data, I think there is a 2GB micro SD card on the circuit board inside but some of the space may be reserved on that card for other system settings so it may only show 1.8gb available to the user. I do not know why Akai did not make this card accessible so the user could simply change them over easily. many companies do this. even the latest roland fantom flagship synth has micro sd cards on the boards inside that is not accessible to the user. I do not know why yours is getting stuck on 26%. I sold my ewi many years ago so cannot have a look inside now. sorry about that.
Thanks for the repply@@markusfuller sorry for my mistake mark,yes actually there is 1.8GB,finally back to live my ewi,the problem is the sd card is corrupt,bad sector,So i try repairing using chksd on command promp,and it's work,then I backup using aomei backupper,the next step is copying all the data to the new SD card,that formated FAT32...thank god It's work mark,here's the step what Im doing ruclips.net/video/y10FcQkNJkU/видео.html
Great work! A must watch for EWI 5000 owners! I posted a similar solution to error code 88 on forum.saxontheweb.net (Feb 2014, based on the video of KManAuto), using a simple battery charger instead of 3 1.5V batteries. After this stressful 'episode' was looking (for ages...) where to find a replacement battery just in case, and finally found (on a trip to Europe in May 2016) a German retailer and bought a second one.
Yesterday (25/04/2018) I had error 88 for the first time in almost 4 years - probably it had run down without me noticing or I shouldn't have left it plugged into a USB hub overnight (oddly voltage was only down to 3.2V) , and jolted it with the 'charger' method. Just connecting about 10 seconds a few times worked. No overheating or smoke etc detected whatsoever. All good again, and it charged up to 96/97 as before.
However, this original battery is now over 4 years old - still playing for many hours but I think I'll need do an 'endurance test' next and compare results to the newer one (which I keep at ~50% charged but also use in the EWI every 3 months for a little while). Charging on average once per week, the original one would have reached about 200-250 cycles by now.
PS I was told the Inmusic part number of this battery is 102 861 and in 2016 it was 34.90€. I bought it from:-
Music Store Professional GmbH
Istanbulstrasse 22-26 T +49 221 8884-3651
51103 Köln (Cologne) Germany
Also Musikhaus Thoman/Thoman UK is also supplying it within the EU afaik
ozzoid hello could you please direct me toward a battery charger? I’m not sure what to search for that would give me the appropriate product for such a battery.
I can't believe you don't have a proper variable lab power supply with current limiting capabilities. Would be much more saver with that.
Also the handy cables with the pins for breadboards you have in your blue chest should fit into the plug without falling out.
Love your videos.
Hello Foamidable. I have the agilent 6632b which is perfect for the job and yes as you pointed out there are the pinned cables (well spotted) but the majority of people who may own this musical instrument would not have access to these laboratory devices. I was thinking of making the video in a way that almost anyone can have a go at this fix themselves as most people would have 3AA batteries and a piece of wire. sometimes I feel my repair videos need to take into account what most people would have at home. Best wishes from Markus
It was dawning on me 5 min after I wrote the comment but I was to lazy to remove the comment ... now I feel awkward for my smartassery
No problem as I am pleased you bought this up.
I need your advice. I turned on the EWI 5000 charging. But after 15 minutes the screen turned on. And the tool stopped reacting to everything.
Hello. Can I use standard Iphone charger to charge my EWI 5000?
Hi I am not sure. as I no longer own the ewi-5000 or I would have tested for you.
Grazie Mark. Hai salvato il mio concerto.
hey i just had the problem and connected the ewi to my power bank and it just worked , hope it helps who needs it .
Makes me wonder if a good mod for one of these is to try and fit an 18650 socket in there with the charging circuitry from the old battery (out of warranty of course!).
That would be a good idea but the free space is about 5mm too short.
@@markusfuller Hmm, you'd likely have to cut into the plastic around the battery housing. Maybe a bit too hack-y, I'm not sure how it would come out.
It's possible that it just wouldn't fit inside, as they seem to be quite crowded internally.
It just seems a shame that when Akai discontinues these like it did the 4000s and stops selling replacement parts, people will have to just give up on it when the battery fails. Batteries tend to be the most replaced part of anything electrical, so it's kind of a bad part on the manufacturer when they make it awkwardly proprietary.
Great vid though! It really helps people understand what BB/88 really is and how to troubleshoot rather than just rma their EWI.
Impressive your explanation, but I have another problem. Can I contact you? How?
Hello I do try and answer most questions through this youtube messenger. what is your other problem ?.
Thanks for the info in video. I was considering to buy EWI 5000 and stumbled upon the problem and now here the workaround. I will not buy it if this issue still persists with the device. When i messaged a support staff of an online store, I was said this problem is solved by Akai already. But not sure if it is really a case. Has any one purchased recently and knows that the problem still exists?
Dear Markusfuller, I am from Brazil. I have a tyros5. It is not recording songs in "Audio Recording Player". Yet, I formated the disc, but the problem exist. What can I do more?
Thank you
antonio
Hello Antonio. I think you have to record to USB and that you have to format the USB in the Tyros.
I already formated the disc but even so the problem exist. What can I do. Thanks .Faleiro
wow, what a great video, pretty sure that is the problem i have also.... haven't been able to play it in a couple years, but did not sell the 4000 i got earlier, so been using it instead... but i do like some of the features of the 5000... your ending comment now has me very attached to the 4000.. :-) mahalo for all the effort and advice... aloha, forest
One down vote so far - probably from AKAI cursing you for ruining their cash cow battery replacement scheme.
hello I'm with the same error 88 in a EWI4000S model that does not have battery. the error occurred after the false fitting of the power source. Is there a diode I can change?
same here - i think it got reversed when I connected adapter the wrong way - be sure to put up a video if you find the solution cause this thing CANNOT BE SITTING THERE IDLE.
my old battery had 4.1 volts and a new one bought from china is showing me 3.6 volts.
Before buying the new battery, my EWI didn't show anything at all, no sign of life, not even 88. Now after putting in the Chinese battery, first the EWI started showing error 88 and then after putting in the old battery, that one also started showing error 88 now. So the old one started working, too, for some reason, but both show error 88. With the Chinese battery though sometimes at first when the battery just arrived, plugging it into the EWI made it to show blinking LEDs sometimes (without the EWI working), but now after a few more tries all I'm getting is error 88 from both batteries, no blinking LEDs either.
Any ideas what I could do? Assuming the Chinese battery is simply not working, I assume I need to discharge the older one? Or maybe the EWI is broken after all...
EDIT: After reading for a bit, it seems like the 4.1 volts one is actually a normally charged battery, and the 3.6 is probably somewhere around 30 - 40% of charge. I guess the EWI is done for :(
I do not think the EWI is done for. It just needs a battery with enough charge in it for the EWI to run. I think akai could do a software update that will allow the ewi to charge a battery rather than state a fault just because the battery has fallen below a certain voltage. I did get rid of my ewi5000 and just use the ewi-solo now - it has not let me down yet but i believe it still uses a similar small lithium battery.
I have just received EWI 5000, but I can't make any sound, display showing 1.7, first I want to start with hade phone. Please help me.
Hi, I use a very unexpensive usb-charger with my EWI. (Vanson charger, 15€). It works well! Osmo T
Hi i have a problem with my ewi 5000 it get Freeze AND i can't turn ir off or play it just put LD on the LCD screen.plese jelp i disconet the batery ir works a few hours AND then again pot the same error LD
Hi Gorky. I cannot find that error code in any of the akai websites. all I could find was how to reset to factory reset by pressing and holding FX, LEVEL, BANK, and SAVE button, then pressing the POWER button while those 4 buttons are held down. other than that I do not know what to advise as I sold my ewi5000 in 2016.
Thank you thank you thank you..... Thank you so much for that expose, now the battery is charging normally.
Brilliant! Thank you!
just fit a low profile switch onto the battery cover connected directly across the positive of the battery
Sasquatch I’m confused... can you explain?
Oh, I am so glad I kept my 4000s. 5000 is samples based? Did not know that, cause 4000 is a synthesizer.
This makes me wonder, if a small firmware upgrade wouldn't solve the problem? It would appear that there should be something like a very strick threshold for the minimum voltage on the battery.
On a different matter... Darth Vader called: he wants his spinal cord back! ;)
Hi Philip I too think there could have been a software update to fix this as I doubt the onboard battery circuit is refusing to charge when it dips below 2.7
so this allowed it to get to 2.7v? simply adding low voltage protection would have saved all the bother. However at 2.7v charging it is no real danger as it's not low enough to start damaging itself and causing copper to form on the internals where it shouldn't. Seems like they made a simple mistake they shouldn't have.
Yes I kinda think this part of the design was simply overlooked and it went into production. other than those flaws its a pretty interesting instrument
I turn the EWI 5000 tool into a socket for charging without a battery. It burns two 88. And the instrument does not respond to pressing.
hola yo tengo ese mismo problema me podrias explicar por favor como tengo que hacer para cargar la bateria en español gracias
I have one of these and just noticed this video.. ive not had any problems with my EWI as yet but if i do i will know what to do so cheers :) and yeah the sound glitching due to the sample library is a pain in the ass but the sounds are nice and i love playing mine
Interesting channel. Your profession is an Electrical or electronics engineer? I wish i could repair my own synths, but i have no engineering skills, and cannot go to engineering school. Does it take a long time to learn to repair synths? How do we get such skills without school?
I only did my electronics certificates later in life and I only did music tech at college not electronics. though it was always my hobby since I was a small child, I was self taught mainly through trial and error.
Love these lithium battery featured vids! Btw, sounded like someone was doing dishes in the background. Was that person aware that you where trying not to blow yourself up in the lab? =D
Hi Jakob. yes my food was being prepared in the kitchen as I was rushing along to finish this video, sorry about that. I like making the battery videos but Im not always comfortable in thinking other people may try this and something maybe goes wrong for them. still at least I try and warn people of the dangers. anyhow nice to hear from you I hope all is well.
+markusfuller Yes, all is well with me. Had a bit off work to get out of the way. I was finally able to cl catch up with your latest a videos. Great as usual man.
And no need to apologise for the background noise. I found it amusing and I liked hearing that stuff was going on somewhere else in your house. I can relate to it since I make vids myself. And sometimes one can hear the sound of my washing machine humming in the background.
Regarding lithium batteries, I never dare tinker with them myself. But these types of batteries fascinate me completely. The way they operate, how sensitive they are. The fact that they need circuits checking for errors and temperature. Moody little buggers aren't they. =D
Thanks for the tech demo. Seems like they should've used a faster processor, and memory. Very interesting instrument.
Hi Thomas. with just a few tweeks this could have been an upgrade version of the EWI4000 instead I think its a bit of a downgrade.
when I had the ewi4000 I used the MidAir by M-Audio though thats like hanging a brick from the device. but it worked and like the fool I am I guessed newer is better. but not in this case. I would swop this 5000 for a 4000 without hesitation.
hi marcus, we spoke a while back about connecting up my moog sub 37 to the 5000. i find the panda audio midi beam works really great - it's not expensive and the range is amazing. easily goes 50 feet or more in an open room. panda-audio.com/midibeam.php I use mine a lot live and am a bit worried about the battery now - would like to get a spare just for safety. can you give me a clue where i can get ripped off for $49 please? :-) BTW i agree with you about the sounds - i have a vintage ewi 3000 and 3020m which sounds great and although i never had the 4000s i heard them and they sounded pretty good. as a controller the 5000s is better as you can program the breath controller to output any midi cc which is pretty flexible. i decided i never wanted to hear it's actual sounds again after about 10 minutes messing with it!
Hi as long as you take out the battery when you will not be using it for months then it should be ok. mine was on the shelf for several months with the battery installed. I found them following akai website then off to spares etc. they are on there for $49.
yeah - i just checked mine and although i haven't played it for a while it's still at 92%. it's more of a belt and braces thing as I use it live. would be good to have a spare charged up in the gig bag just in case! i'll see if i can find it - i presume it's on akaipro...
You mentioned you didn't have a "proper" charger, what about the one for your quadcopter? Just a thought :)
true I have the quadcopter charger and bench power supplies (good thinking). but I was trying to consider what the average person would have to fix it with ie 3xAA batteries and a piece of wire.
Oh yeah I totally see where you are coming from, I just wondered if you could use the cheap three pinned Li charger(s) you have - they are pretty much ten a penny on banggood etc.
Many,Many thanks Markus...fantastic..i,m very graterfull...........muchas gracias
Is the reason they made the battery proprietary so that they could sell a load of $50 batteries ad infinitum? Good business model isn't it!
superb video, thanks
Yes, It works! Thanks a lot!
I had the same issue with my 5000 I ended up putting the battery in the freezer for 30 minutes ,removed it and let it go back to room temperature, placed it back into the ewi and it started charging.
wow you froze the battery, brilliant - i never thought of that one. I have just put my EWI up for sale with 2 batteries for £195 ono but it seems there is no interest in it. maybe in time to come these will be worth more - I just never play mine anymore.
hi ¿realmente te funcionó meter la batería al congelador 30 minutos y se vuelve a poner en el ewi después ? ¿ usaste el cargador original despues, o el de un ipad? gracias
Did it really work to put the battery in the freezer for 30 minutes and put it back on the ewi? Did you use the original charger afterwards, or the one of an ipad? Thank you
Thanks Darryl for the great tip, that worked for me too... I put it in the fridge (not freezer) for an hour and gave it a try.
Looks like a star trek compression rifle
resistance is futile :-)
WOW THAT WORKED!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me evitaste un gran dolor de cabeza!!! muchas gracias!! Saludos
I've only played mine like four times... why would it be giving me this 8.8 signal??
Did you watch the video? You need to keep charging it or disconnect the battery
Oh! You just saved me and my 49 $.
Thanks.
Thanks Jetset Willy :-)
Thanks man. Very useful
Just remove the two round plastic covers from the battery sides and put it into a 18650 charger (~£6 on Amazon) for like 5 minutes, enough to get it over the 3V threshold, that's all I did.
I turn the EWI 5000 tool into a network without batteries. It burns two 88. And the instrument does not respond to pressing.
Hello If the display shows 88 then it is displaying "Battery Fault" and may not play . the battery must have enough charge in it for the EWI to work correctly.
Hey there@@markusfullerIve been getting the 88 error code as well, tested my battery and it gave a reading of 4.16v. so it seems like it maybe overcharged. could it be possible it damaged my EWI? and if so, how would i go about troubleshooting it further and what do you think it might be? Is there any hope left for it?
Can't this be modded to use USB?
meh charging li-polys like that isn't that dangerous that one has protection too. Why didn't you just use a current limited bench supply ?
Hi Yes I could have used my bench PSU but I was trying to achieve this in a simple manner thinking not everyone will have such a device but may have 3 AA batteries. plus I have to mention all the warnings etc as it is going on youtube - kinda just a way to cover myself.
markusfuller s
LOL AKAI they should just ship a charger with the thing now.... lol.... I talked the US tech and he basically just apologized said buy 2 batteries and a charger and change them out every day.
Ill tell you the fix just buy a charger for the battery they sell them on amazon just match the battery type as long as the charger charges at a man rate lower than the listed on the battery it is fine. Make sure it's a flat top charger and you gotta tear the paper CAREFULLY off the ends and expose the battery teminals. the end where the electronic connecter is attached to is the negative
Hi Markus, My ewi died on me last night, charged it overnight just get have a 88 flash at me all day.Any way you could carry out the fix for me, rather pay you £50 to akai right now,Thanks
I am a EWI4000S player and thought for a while that I'd found the ideal instrument for me in the 5000, but after reading about the hassle with the Lithium Ion batteries I have decided to look at another type. So disappointed.
Brian Bassman Yes Its a pity i got rid of my 4000 thinking the 5000 would be a step up instead of a backward step.
I googled Heath Robinson, in America that would translate to " Macgyver". If you remember the tv show Macgyver you would understand.
I remember watching macgyver in the old days of Richard Dean Anderson. they were good fun to watch.
Have AKAI fixed the faults on the EWI5000?
Bravo ça marche très bien
Why do companies choose to use non standard size batteries and cripple them with stupid charging logic.
Hello Clive. I agree it is so annoying especially as the battery bay could have been made a millimeter wider quite easily. I just wonder can this ever be trusted at a gig if you needed to rely on it as your instrument especially as you cannot even charge the thing or use it on the power supply if your battery drops below that certain point. practically dead in the water. pity as the ewi4000 just took 4 AA batteries.
Clive Flint
It's all about the money, they're obviously making it to a price with the slow software and with the soft on/ off switch they can also rake in the cash with replacement battery's.
SoShine™ make a good universal lithium charger, it'll charge from 18650 all the way down to the 16340 battery's so it would also fit these battery's too.
Green Silver if the battery was open at each end then the soshine charger would be suitable.
markusfuller i did wonder if a spare battery could be made but that circuit board probably doesn't help.
Did I see that you are also in Brighton?
Hi Clive. Yes I live in Brighton UK
$49 is nothing. It's a support for Akai. They make great devices. $129 for Apple charger? No. But $49 for Akai, no problem.
Hello, I started to lose the power of the battery in EWI 5000. You can make me 3 batars. I live in Belorussia. In the city of Minsk.
Вадим Кулик Hello I am very soory but I cannot make the batteries for you. they are similar to the li-ion 18650 batteries but they are slightly shorter so a 18650 is too big and will not fit in the battery compartment. I an unsure what the correct size is maybe AKAI website can tell you where you can get them from. my apologies.
Thanks a lot. : )) It's really helped ...
I used my Fast Charger and I'm OK now
hi markus i could make ur life easier just grab urself as nitecore d2 or d4 battery charger if you peel either end off its basically the same as a vape battery 18650 justa different size u can put the battery in and give it a proper charge in that charger
give it 24hr charging time and see if that works out.
Hi David. I checked this morning after a long charge and the battery is up to 96% according to the onboard display. so I guess I was pretty lucky there that I did not toast the battery.
I own a 4000s if you are interested
4k$? that's a lot of money for a midi controller
I think they are about £500 UK. so $550 Dollars maybe
Scandalous of Akai
My vape mod even has a better battery then that