Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

Me too - I had problems starting with just one or two knobs, but it got up to about a dozen or so, including (for me) critical knobs like filter cutoff and parameter amount.  It had gotten so bad that the knobs were basically unusable in a live situation.

I contacted DSI and they sent out (for free!) a tube of Deoxit which I used to treat every encoder on the keyboard (not just the ones that were acting funny), and now it is like I have a brand new keyboard again.  Everything is working perfectly.

Matt

--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, X + Z = 0 <xpluszequalszero@...> wrote:
>
> i had problemes too, it went from 1 to a dozen over some time
> never had problemes with the parameter knobs
> i did the dexoit thing like 4 months ago and still no problem anymore, 
> works like new.
> >  
> >
> >
> >
> > 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 
> > <mailto:DSI_Evolver%40yahoogroups.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 
> > <mailto:DSI_Evolver%40yahoogroups.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 
> > <mailto:DSI_Evolver%40yahoogroups.com>, "dankselly" <dannyjive.u5@> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > I contacted DSI tech support and was told it was a bad encoder. I
> > > > > ...
> > > >
> > >
> >
> > 
> 
> 
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