The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Is it possible to wear out the ribbon controller? Are the knobs 
hooked up to potentiometers? Will they wear out eventually?

Rainbow Jimmy
http://www.spaceanimals.com
http://www.mp3.com/spaceanimals

Jim,

>Is it possible to wear out the ribbon controller? Are the knobs 
>hooked up to potentiometers? Will they wear out eventually?

I haven't taken the AN1x apart to that level, but most ribbon controllers (and aftertouch strips) are made of a flexible plastic circuit that is basically like two intertwined, but unconnected wires, with a second layer that varies the electrical properties of the first layer when pushed closer together.  Collectively, they act like a potentiometer, but not in the usual manner.  While it's theoretically possible to wear this strip out, it takes a lot of use -- on the order of millions of presses -- to make any difference.

The knobs, OTOH, are hooked up to potentiometers, and could wear out.  The amount of time it takes is probably large however, as audio noise in potentiometers usually proceeds actual failure by a long time, particularly if the pot is not carrying heavy currents.  In the case of the AN1x, all the pots do is connect to a sampling circuit, and the actual "work" done by the pot is almost nil.

I have noticed that the operation of the AN's ribbon can lock up though, especially in the X-direction.  I was trying to use the Ribbon-X to toggle my vocoder a few weeks ago, and while it sometimes worked perfectly -- pressing the right half of the strip gave me a vocoder; pressing the left half gave me a dry mic -- at other times, it stuck in vocoder mode when I took my finger off the strip, as if it were returning to some value between 50-100% when standing free.  I finally gave up on using it as the vocoder controller, because of the randomness of the control.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions\ufffd   http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group and HiNote moderator
978.386.7389  voice/fax
bruce@...

Bruce,
    Have you ever run into a parts source for a ribbon like on the AN1x?  I was
looking for one for a project a couple of years ago and came up dry as dirt.

Ed Edwards
Leader: Ezekiel's Wheel      \ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffdRetro-Progressive Rock\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd\ufffd
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Ed,

>Have you ever run into a parts source for a ribbon like on the AN1x?  I was
>looking for one for a project a couple of years ago and came up dry as dirt.

No, I haven't -- but then again, I wasn't looking very hard.  As I said, the basic components, are used in just about every aftertouch-enabled keyboard known, so there has to be a source around.

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions\ufffd   http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group and HiNote moderator
978.386.7389  voice/fax
bruce@...

I heard Yamaha destroys all of their left over parts stock after a product has been out for 7 years.  For example, you cannot purchase spare DX7 parts from Yamaha.

> 
> From: Bruce Wahler <bruce@...>
> Date: 2002/05/24 Fri PM 06:38:50 CDT
> To: AN1x-list@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [AN1x] parts wearing out
> 
> Ed,
> 
> >Have you ever run into a parts source for a ribbon like on the AN1x?  I was
> >looking for one for a project a couple of years ago and came up dry as dirt.
> 
> No, I haven't -- but then again, I wasn't looking very hard.  As I said, the basic components, are used in just about every aftertouch-enabled keyboard known, so there has to be a source around.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> -BW
> 
> --
> Bruce Wahler
> Design Consultant
> Ashby Solutions\u2122   http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
> CloneWheel Support Group and HiNote moderator
> 978.386.7389  voice/fax
> bruce@...
> 
> 
> 
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http://www.futuresteprecordings.com
http://mp3.com/AddictiveMind

--- In AN1x-list@y..., Bruce Wahler <bruce@a...> wrote:
> Ed,
> 
> >Have you ever run into a parts source for a ribbon like on the 
AN1x?  I was
> >looking for one for a project a couple of years ago and came 
up dry as dirt.
> 
> No, I haven't -- but then again, I wasn't looking very hard.  As I 
said, the basic components, are used in just about every 
aftertouch-enabled keyboard known, so there has to be a source 
around.
> 

You might try EPR Electronics out of New York for parts 
http://www.eprelectronics.com/ I have some other links to similar 
dealers somewhere around here - if/when I find them I'll forward 
them.

Jon