Pots and op amps should not be failing after 4 years. Either the operation,
design or construction are in question with these kinds of failures.
To give some perspective on reliability, I have some experience on a
university Serge.. Photos are at Egres. The first box was a 3 panel Series
79 system (1979). The second was a four panel system, probably from around
1983. Out of 38 modules, I observed the following major problems:
1) NTO not working, no output from variable waveform, frequency only up to
16 Hz (probably an open in the frequency setting stage)
2) One blown Universal Slope Generator
3) One bad channel in UPAP
4) One nonfunctional keypad on TKB
5) One intermittent keypad on TKB
Considering the abuse that this system went through (it is located in the
beginning electronic music lab!) and its age I think the design and
construction (at the time) must be considered good.
The biggest problem I saw was with grooves cut into the pot shafts.
Apparently some knobs had come loose over time and were never tightened back
down. They still were tight enough to gouge out grooves in the metal shafts
when rotated, especially beyond their normal travel. With the grooves in
there, they could never be tightened back down to their original firmness.
Good preventative measures should be observed to prevent your own equipment
from seeing this problem.
There were of course the various noisy pots, though most of these seemed to
clear up with a few rotations.
John Loffink
microtonal@...
design or construction are in question with these kinds of failures.
To give some perspective on reliability, I have some experience on a
university Serge.. Photos are at Egres. The first box was a 3 panel Series
79 system (1979). The second was a four panel system, probably from around
1983. Out of 38 modules, I observed the following major problems:
1) NTO not working, no output from variable waveform, frequency only up to
16 Hz (probably an open in the frequency setting stage)
2) One blown Universal Slope Generator
3) One bad channel in UPAP
4) One nonfunctional keypad on TKB
5) One intermittent keypad on TKB
Considering the abuse that this system went through (it is located in the
beginning electronic music lab!) and its age I think the design and
construction (at the time) must be considered good.
The biggest problem I saw was with grooves cut into the pot shafts.
Apparently some knobs had come loose over time and were never tightened back
down. They still were tight enough to gouge out grooves in the metal shafts
when rotated, especially beyond their normal travel. With the grooves in
there, they could never be tightened back down to their original firmness.
Good preventative measures should be observed to prevent your own equipment
from seeing this problem.
There were of course the various noisy pots, though most of these seemed to
clear up with a few rotations.
John Loffink
microtonal@...
----- Original Message -----
From: <DarkStr717@...>
To: <SergeModular@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 1:34 PM
Subject: Re: [SergeModular] Serge reliability?
>
> In a message dated 3/18/01 1:51:09 PM, johnp@... writes:
>
> << Anybody else have Serge stuff go poof?
> >>
>
> I just had row "A" of an 8x2 sequencer got out after 4 years. Simple quad
> Op-Amp replacement. cost me a buck and 20 minutes of my time.
> Kind regards
> John
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> SergeModular-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> Keep on Patchin'!
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>