I've had a Zoom RT-223 for many years now, was my EZ-practice take along whenever we were missing our drummer. 400 stored beats (390 virtually unusable) - but for the 10 or so good ones, just add the footswitch and voila idiot simple drummer in place. So a few weeks ago I go into the practice room to work on a new song, and go to fire up a simple beat - the machine lights up - no beats, just displays "ZOOM". Tried a hard reset, nothing - luckily after a bit of searching I find I'm not alone. The ROM module is powered by a coin style CR 2032 battery soldered onto the PCB, this lasts about 5 years. I ordered a coin style battery holder and tried to update the PC board with a replaceable option. Unfortunately the one I ordered was the next size up, and even though the battery "fit" and I did my best to make it work. It was a no go.
The Zoom RT series is no longer available and the closet thing I could find was the Alesis SR-18 - a little different in design but still contained a bank of pre-set rhythms. So there would be a learning curve, but we'd be back in business. Anyway found a deal on Reverb and the new machine arrived. Works great, the old Zoom foot switch works with it as well. The pre-set drum tracks are much better sounding than the Zoom ever was.
As a side note, I had hand surgery a little over a month ago and during recovery I've been learning drums (I have a small e-Kit in the studio). One of the cool features on the Zoom unit is that the pads light up with the beat, so it's a great learning tool. Figuring that I might give it a second try, I reordered a coin battery holder (this time the correct size and removed my last attempt and cleaned up the PC board). Prepared for an imperfect fit due to other components, I soldered a short wire lead to the negative connection, and twisted the positive pin on the battery holder to allow it to miss the small capacitor on the PCB (and soldered it in place). Then snipped the negative pin off the holder so it was flush and connected the short lead (insulated under the holder). Put a new battery in and reassembled the unit - fired it up and did hard reset. Worked like champ. I'll keep the new Alesis unit for studio use and use the Zoom unit for drum practice. Made my weekend...
The Zoom RT series is no longer available and the closet thing I could find was the Alesis SR-18 - a little different in design but still contained a bank of pre-set rhythms. So there would be a learning curve, but we'd be back in business. Anyway found a deal on Reverb and the new machine arrived. Works great, the old Zoom foot switch works with it as well. The pre-set drum tracks are much better sounding than the Zoom ever was.
As a side note, I had hand surgery a little over a month ago and during recovery I've been learning drums (I have a small e-Kit in the studio). One of the cool features on the Zoom unit is that the pads light up with the beat, so it's a great learning tool. Figuring that I might give it a second try, I reordered a coin battery holder (this time the correct size and removed my last attempt and cleaned up the PC board). Prepared for an imperfect fit due to other components, I soldered a short wire lead to the negative connection, and twisted the positive pin on the battery holder to allow it to miss the small capacitor on the PCB (and soldered it in place). Then snipped the negative pin off the holder so it was flush and connected the short lead (insulated under the holder). Put a new battery in and reassembled the unit - fired it up and did hard reset. Worked like champ. I'll keep the new Alesis unit for studio use and use the Zoom unit for drum practice. Made my weekend...
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