Yamaha HandySound HS-200 (polyphonic squarewave mini-keyboard)

Did you know that beside the famous PortaSound keyboards Yamaha also released an even smaller instrument series called HandySound?

This mini keyboard has no rhythm, but features 4 note polyphonic squarewave sounds, which is quite unusual for such a tiny thing. The original German retail price apparently was 139DM (about 69€, mentioned in advertisement flyer).

main features:

eastereggs:

The main voice sounds of this instrument resemble much the Casio VL-Tone VL-1 but feature no multipulse squarewave timbres. The violin has a built-in vibrato. Unlike Casio VL-1, the harpsichord of the HS-200 has a fast attack rate and thus sounds more natural. The sound select switch internally selects the main voice sound and the corresponding capacitor filter through different contacts, thus setting the sound switch into intermediate positions play the preset sounds with "wrong" filter setting which produces additional sounds. This way between "organ" and "violin" there is a duller violin variant that resembles a dull brass sound. Between "violin" and "clarinet" a brighter clarinet (pipe organ?) appears. Between "piano" and "harpsichord" there is a brighter piano sound (like an e-piano or guitar?). The sustain switch adds a quite long sustain.

When I bought mine at eBay, the "off" position of the volume switch made a bad contact, thus the thing made funny blip noises when switched off. Playing "Decathlon" on the switch a few dozen times fixed this. (I haven't examined the hardware further yet.)
 
Like with the historical Yamaha PS-2, also the HS-200 still has its function sections written on the PCB.

An almost identical variant of the HS-200 with additional audiogames and LCD was released as Yamaha HS-500.
 

 removal of these screws voids warranty...    
WarrantyVoid
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