Hing Hon EK-001

DETOX · Joined: May 22, 2008 Posts: 134 Location: Germany

Hey there !

I know a lot of people have already stumbled across this keyboard as I did some time ago. It has probably been produced more often than any other toy-keyboard all over the world.

Besides that it has a very characteristic sound, a mic input and is GREAT for circuit bending. It actually is my most successful bent.

Has anyone of you ever bent one? I accidentaly desoldered the mic-input jack, but i'd like to attach it again. does anyone of you know where to solder it on the pcb?

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image from http://weltenschule.de

droffset · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 2:34 pm Post subject:

Electri-fire has done some stuff with this one:
http://www.electri-fire.com/bartsmit.htm

I'm intrigued, need to see if these are available so I can play with it too.

electri-fire · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:08 pm Post subject:

Yep, but my web page has been screwed up AGAIN for some reason. No sounds, pics missing.

Well, the weltschule/tableHooters/waranty Void site has all the basic bends. The site is down a lot, I recommend you save the info.

More fun: Totally remove the pitch resistor and replace with a pot 500K-1M or higher. This thing can be pitched WAY down. I had a pitch with two 1.5M pots in parallel I liked a lot, as you can use one to set the range.

It's duophonic, each voice has it's own envelope signal sent from the blob that is smoothed with two capacitors. These can be replaced, or a pot inserted, or voltages added to change / scale / modulate the envelope. when doing different bends or settings at each capacitor with each key played the envelopes alternate.

An electri-fire discovery: Play with multiple sound select buttons held down. Now pitch way down. Nice right? I had the sound select buttons paralleled with spdt switches to select the button holds.

Mic connection? Ooh, I don't know. Somewhere near the amp section. Usually a 386 poweramp: http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM386.pdf (pin 2 or 3 ? , but I've had versions with a transistor amp as well.

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electri-fire · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:27 pm Post subject:

droffset · Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:06 am Post subject:

Wow, this person wants $55, I'd like to pay much less. Razz

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HING-HON-EK-001-Square-Wave-Keyboard-Synthesizer-in-Box_W0QQitemZ170440700052QQcmdZViewItemQQptZKeyboards_MIDI?hash=item27af0eb094

electri-fire · Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:57 am Post subject:

I never payed more than 5 euros at fleemarkets. That said, I haven't been looking for more bend targets for the last two years, I still have two or three unbent EK-1's among my stuff. I was having the impression the amount on offer is diminishing.

But $55? That's utterly ridiculous. I call that robbery.

droffset · Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:37 pm Post subject:

I think I got one, we'll see when it arrives in a few days, yayyy.

Also, Detox I think I found a schematic of this.

Useful link for info, pdf on pg 4:
http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/forum/forums.html/topic,142.0.html

Interesting link:
http://store.platinumgalleria.com/ak900.html

jamiewoody · Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 10:45 pm Post subject:

tetoks....you are going to LOVE this thing!

not only is it easy to bend, it is also very versitile. most of it is hand wired, so this makes it all easy to find.

heads up on a few things though:
• when the screws are not tightened, it is hard to produce a sound from the keyboard, because the sensors do not hit well.
• turn it upside down and be careful with removing bottom well. otherwise, those rubber buttons will go EVERYWHERE! not fun!
• you will find on the voices, when you press more than one key at a time, it sounds very glitchy...this is cool! i found the wires for these, and hooked them up to a rca patchbay!
• you can find lots of groovy stuff, pitch bends, etc. i am sure you will find even more than i did!

electri-fire · Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 2:04 pm Post subject:

Darn,I'm afraid these are getting scarce. Just a few years ago I left fleemarkets with maybe two or three, this year I found not a single one. Shocked

droffset · Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 2:27 pm Post subject:

I THOUGHT I had one but I'm not sure... There's a COB in it but it might not be the same...
If we can get a few thousand dollars together maybe the company will make some for us. Laughing

electri-fire · Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 6:37 am Post subject:

destroyifyer · Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 3:27 pm Post subject: Americanize that shit

destroyifyer · Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:31 pm Post subject:

The only bend I have on the last one of these I picked up is a 500 ohm pot on the + battery wire. It does somewhat velocity-sensitive envalope-sounding pitch mods with the pitch going up, I'm sure the power mod would do much more with other mods of course. My other one I had those 4 drum buttons hooked up to a couple spots, and you could hold them down with the thing off and do all sorts of cool sounds, like phased lofi noise sounds. I personally got much better mods out of this with the power switch in the off position...

destroyifyer · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 9:14 pm Post subject:

Also, if during bending this keyboard the 4 drum buttons stop working, I posted a paragraph on how to fix that here.

jamiewoody · Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 10:02 pm Post subject:

these things are a blast to bend!!!

hook up a few 500k pots...i found one bend that distorts, one that pitch shifts, i disconnected the"voice" buttons and wired a patch bay...WEIRD!

i was just looking at an elenco manual for a similar keyboard, and i came to the conclusion that mine is different! there is an op-amp and a 9037 in the elenco version. i looked inside of mine, and there was a small, pbc with a couple of transistors (not sure if npn or pnp yet), and a handful of resistors, 2 diodes and caps. there is also a small circuit for the keyboard. pretty cool!

i have a feeling that i could be doing so much more with this baby than i have!