[ John Johnson wrote in 110909 MMDigest:

> I agree that the PDS-32 has its crude points but all in all it is
> not a bad system and plays remarkably well considering how old the
> technology is and the complexity of many of the boards.  If anyone
> has any solenoids for the later model system 32 please contact me.

I'm a PianoDisc factory certified PDS tech.  The PDS-32 had a variety
of problems and burning solenoids was one of the big ones.  The pulse
modulation speed is slow, with longer durations rather then the fast
narrow pulses used today.  Consequently that caused them to be noisy
due to oscillating as well as to overheat, which resulted in either
seizure or burning out entirely.  This also sometimes damaged the
drivers and/or burned out the micro fuses mounted on the circuit board.

The PDS control box also had a fatal flaw.  A little transformer
inside would often burn out due to a manufacturing defect that was not
PianoDisc's fault.  For a while they were offering free replacements
for these to techs, but those days are long gone.  It may have been
possible to improve the pulse code problem with some programming
enhancements but the guy who wrote the proprietary code left the
company on argumentative terms and he took the code with him, leaving
PDS in a difficult spot.  By that time the PDS-128 was already well
into development so they chose not to pursue it.

In 2006 PianoDisc had a huge fire at the factory which destroyed
their inventory of replacement parts; thus if you need something they
couldn't provide it even if they wanted to.  The current Silent Drive
HD system produced today is vastly superior, so if a tech comes across
a PDS-32 that doesn't work the typical response is to just upgrade.

Tracking down and repairing problems is not particularly profitable for
the technician and when they inevitably fail again the owner typically
blames the tech.  From a business and liability perspective it is
better for the tech to just walk away than to get involved with it.

I might have a handful of salvaged PDS-32 solenoids packed away
somewhere but I would have to dig for them.  How many do you need?
No promises what condition they are in or how many I have.

Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, Nevada