Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

Any chance I can get the part numbers on those Alps encoders you used.  I'm thinking about doing the same thing to my PEK.

--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "colossalhoagie" <colossalhoagie@...> wrote:
>
> Sorry this turned into such a long winded response on this matter.  Hopefully it is helpful 
> to someone experiencing encoder frustrations.
> 
> I too recently had trouble with multiple encoders on a MEK and ended up laboriously 
> replacing every single one with a slightly different type of encoder (i'll get to that in a 
> minute).  Here are my +/- two cents.
> 
> 1.  I hate to say it by I doubt that the issue you are having is some type of system wide 
> problem.  I too was hoping for the same thing.  It just seemed like there were *way* too 
> many of the encoders that were not working properly.  Now that all is said and done I 
> realize that it was just a ton of degraded encoders.  I get the feeling that the encoders 
> that come of the MEK could be of much better quality.  Internet/forum searching seems to 
> indicate a fair number of difficulties and/or failures.  
> 
> Probably 10 of mine were "bad" and 10-13 more that were "occasionally glitchy" and then 
> a few more that would on rare occasions jump.  To qualify the term "bad" I'll just say that 
> there was no way I would have used my MEK live.  It would have been embarrassing.  
> Crazy jumps in value would happen causing very noticeable changes in audio.  I would 
> turn knobs up and values would go down...bass vibrations would cause value jumps.
> 
> If you are under warranty you could contact them and they should offer to do a board 
> swap (they did for me).  Very, very easy to do.  
> 
> 2.  When trying to diagnose the issues with my MEK and isolate which encoders were 
> junked I am almost certain that I stumbled onto a bug in v. 1.3 of the MAIN OS for the 
> MEK.  I don't know if it applies to my particular revisions of PCB or to all out there.  I'm 
> actually dying to know if any other MEK users out there are experiencing the following:
> 
> When I would run v. 1.3 of the MAIN OS the "param 1" and "param 2" knobs were nearly 
> impossible to use.  When I reverted back to v. 1.2 which I found here the "param 1" and 
> "param 2" encoders were again usable.  I swapped out OSs about 10 times to make sure it 
> wasn't just a fluke.  Totally repeatable.  If you are on 1.3 you might try reverting to 1.2 see 
> if it fixes any of your encoder touchiness.
> 
> At one point I had mentioned this bug to DSI support in an email...I'm not sure if anything 
> ever came of it on DSI's end.  It was actually the two encoders mentioned above that 
> prompted my requesting a board swap.  Once I reverted to 1.2 and things were slightly 
> better I told DSI to just forget about it for now and just deal with it...
> 
> 3.  At some point I decided--warranty be damned--that I was going to replace every 
> encoder with brand new, totally different encoders.  I was pretty dissatisfied with the ones 
> that shipped with the unit and I was convinced that even with new boards that I would run 
> into the same issue down the road.  So I dug around, did some measuring with calipers, 
> read some stuff about encoders and decided to order a fleet of Alps encoders from mouser 
> electronics (if anyone wants the part #s I'm more than happy to dig them out).
> 
> I went with 24 detent/24 pulses per rotation for the majority of encoders and 12 
> detent/12 pulses per rotation for the param 1 & 2 as well as for the two misc param knobs 
> (for those sensitive adjustments...).
> 
> It was a long, tedious job that I wouldn't recommend unless you have a solid amount of 
> soldering/desoldering experience, some patience, and some good tools, solder, etc...
> 
> Now everything works perfectly (better than when it first showed up at my door IMHO) and 
> I really, really, really enjoy playing my MEK now.  Oh, and the bug mentioned above still 
> persists.
> 
> 
> --- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "J Lesser" <j.doerck@> wrote:
> >
> > Hmm... I guess I'm having a hard time believing its an encoder since
> > it seems to be happening across ALL the knobs... Is there any
> > possibility this is a system-wide issue?
> > 
> > --- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "dankselly" <dannyjive.u5@> wrote:
> > >
> > > I contacted DSI tech support and was told it was a bad encoder. I 
> > > ...
> >
>