Roland Saturn SA-09 Midi kit A03.2
Welcome to the metric system zone. Here we work with precision things and all dimensions are metric. 1" = 25.4mm. And yes, you need schematic reading skills.
Installation:
To your good usability select the friendly place to mount the LED, MIDI connector, button and PCB. Drill all holes that required and mount connector, LED and button before soldering wires of course.
Drill dimensions:
MIDI jack (DIN5) = 18mm.
LED holder = 6mm.
Push button = 12.5-13mm.
Be careful with drilling hole for button, it have so small range to get hole too big.
Board dimensions and distance between mounting holes:
Dimensions 111mm x 50mm. Height 17mm with inserted connectors.
Holes diameter 3.5mm.
Distance between holes 92mm x 39mm.
Do not allow the board to bend, it can break the board. Even inserting connectors
All ribbon cables are 90cm. long, enough for placing all connections and you can cut extra length. Reset "Panic" button is not included in the kit. If you prefer to install it part number is E-Switch RP3502MABLK
This picture shown:
First (1) pin/wire on all connectors. First wire will be start from this side.
J2, J3, J4, jumpers that divide common rails for every octave separate or split.
For Roland SA-09 they should be close
Bottom side jumper J5 should be close for Roland SA-09
The next picture shows the pinout for X6 connector ribbon cable and pin number of wires: Same you can see on bottom side of PCB for more convenience.
Ribbon cables pinout for better visual understanding. Even if wires go out on opposite side of connector, it still on same sequence - wire 1 at down or right on face to you. DIN5 shoved from legs side.
Wires 7 (V+) and 8 (GND) should be soldered on the next points on the power supply board:
Negative power rail is more powerful on this synth and MIDI kit is connected to it. Pay attention! MIDI board ground will be on -15V potential relative to synth ground. And do not connect both "ground" together.
All other wires should be connected to each key and button contacts:
Roland SA-09 button board legend, showed is bottom side of board. And wire soldering points for X1 ribbon cable connector.
Board pinout and MIDI note mapping:
Solder wires to key contacts and common bus. Find key contacts for note F (Fa) on the first octave and solder wires from the X2 (Blue) connector. Starting from wire 1. When you finish it, your last wire will be 12 and note E (Mi) on this octave. Repeat all this on every octave.
On X5 (Red), also start from wire 1 - F (Fa). Skip others that marked "skip" on table. Wire 13 from X5 connector should be soldered to common key contact bus.
Ribbon cable on X1 (Yellow) connector is used for buttons control.
One small important thing - use hot glue to fix inserted connectors to protect from disconnecting them during vibration when you ride on tour. Also fix ribbon cables strong. Do not leave them holding only on soldering joints.
Process for set MIDI channel: User operations
1. Stop all MIDI traffic.
2. To teach with which MIDI channel synth will work - push the black button (LEARN) LED will blink two times and stay ON to wait for MIDI messages at one of 16 channels. He will in OMNY mode.
3. Send any note on the MIDI channel which you want for this synth.
4. When the synth receives MIDI messages, LED will blink five times and turn OFF. It indicates that channel was received and saved. Then will ON with every NOTE ON messages on the selected channel.
5. Now the channel saved to memory and will never change before you push LEARN button again and starts settings process again.
In case of panic: Stop MIDI traffic on working channel. Push reset button (if installed) or turn ON/OFF the synth. For mode button control is enough to send short MIDI note once for enable/disable.
MIDI note mapping:
F3 - Tone 1.
F#3 - Tone 2.
G3 - Tone 3.
G#3 - Tone 4.
A3 - Organ.
A#3 - Percussive.
At moment when synth power on all keys will be sound and buttons might be randomly switched. If on this moment MIDI commands will received on saved channel it can be cause of panic.
Last update: 13 January 2026.
