Maschine+ 4-D Encoder failure

Son_of_q

Haha! Cheers dude ;)
Quick update. I'm doing the repair myself.

NI won't allow me to get the unit fixed locally, and have basically said that there will be no guarantee I'll ever get the unit back if it gets lost by UPS.

With how bad UPS and UK customs are for losing stuff (despite attaching all of the relevant customs documents) it's just not a risk I'm willing to take. I also need the unit ASAP for something that has come up so waiting around for up to a month just isn't something I can do, especially for such a simple job.

Just waiting on the correct part to come now which will be Tuesday!

Wish me luck 🤞

Thanks for all of your help everyone! It's been invaluable!

D-One

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/185226#Comment_185226

Told you! 🤣

Still, I am bit surprised by that "if it gets lost, tough luck bro"… thats crazy, theres ussually options to ship things with ensurance, you do pay more for that tho.

From my experience the biggest annoyance is desoldering, the led free solder they use requires high iron temps, the only time I messed up was due to this… I used too much heat and rekt the connection PCB Pads.

You probably know this but i'll say anyway for anyone else reading: A pro in the old forum told about the simple trick of flooding the contacts with regular solder before using the solder sucker, this makes it much easier. This might be a non issue if you have a fancy iron instead of the 5$ one I have.

Good luck! Take pictures and post results please 🙏

PK The DJ

Assuming you have a suitable pair of cutters, I'd suggest separating the encoder first, by cutting the legs (as near to the encoder as possible) so you leave just the legs in the PCB. Then you can grab each one with tweezers and pluck it out whilst using the iron to melt the solder. Once the legs are out, it's a lot easier to suck the solder from the holes.

It's not easy to clear the holes of solder when the legs are still in there, especially if they're a tight fit. If the holes are through plated, you could damage it.

Son_of_q

UPDATE: So I bought an EC11N1524402 and… The shaft was too short 🤣 So it does look as if it needs a 20mm shaft so maybe something more like the EC11E15244G1 (https://www.lcsc.com/datasheet/lcsc_datasheet_1912111437_ALPSALPINE-EC11E15244G1_C370970.pdf) but I'll let @D-One confirm that ;) . However, whilst I had the soldering iron out anyways I thought I'd just flux the existing joints and apparently that has fixed my issue. Most likely a short to medium term fix so it will probably need to be looked at again but for now, my unit is safe with me, and is functional!

PK The DJ

Oh that's good news!

D-One

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/185795#Comment_185795

Broooo I told you, clean and reflow first before you go buying stuff!! 🤣 Good thing encs are cheap…😁

Humm… I measured it again and it indeed looks closer to 20mm, my bad… I'm doing it without disassembling. Spec sheet looks good afaik.

Glad you got it sorted, 5min fix instead of waiting for a month, i'd say thats a success!

Son_of_q

It's no biggy! The encoder was like £3-4 and I've got another use for it anyways (little esp32 project for a simple digi synth with memory to save patches).

Isn't that lead free solder a git to reflow though? I was worried I was gonna burn through the board lol. It's been replaced with good old toxic lead solder now haha

D-One

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/186098#Comment_186098

Yeah, it's a PITA! If i need to reflow i just drown it in the toxic stuff 🤣