Leaderboard

Hey guys. Finally got this resolved so thought I'd better post the results for anyone else that goes through this. Was speaking to Wilba last week (he's been flat out), and didn't have time to look at my 6582 as yet, but he did loan me his SMD desoldering tool so I could have a go at desoldering the encoders myself. Hawkeye (sorry man), forgot to ask Wilba about the OLEDs but I have to drop the tool back so will try to remember then. Anyhow. Took the machine home and ended up not using the desoldering tool anyway. I desoldered a couple of encoders the old fashioned way, solder sucker, braid, and replaced some of the bourns encoders with the new ALPs ones. The difference was like night and day. I left all the new ones detented too. But on the old bourns I could barely see a difference between different firmware setups (encoder3 vs encoder4) etc. With these, and the detents in place, it was very simple to detect the correct firmware setting to select the right encoder type. I then proceeded to do the rest of the encoders. Some proved a little hard to get off but I had a technique and stuck with it and got there in the end. Sadly though in my exuberance after I'd re-soldered all 15 new encoders I had 6 not working and 1 led that had taken a hit. Turns out I had put a little too much pressure under the encoders to get some of them out and must have broken some tracks on the board. So it took me a little while to trace the circuit. I never found the actual breaks, but I did manage to solder 3 bypasses to fix all 6 encoders and the led. So at the end I had a fully finished control surface that works perfectly. I was wrapped!! Also managed to get the feedback pots installed. On the first 3 sids at least. I busted the 4th going for that extra half turn to line them all up! Grrr. Then I figured I'd never need feedback on all 4 anyway. Pots are an awesome mod though now I want some extra SSM2044s or something else too! I also noticed 1 small problem in that if I switch the filter to ext on sid 4L I lose output. I haven't tracked that one down yet, and aren't that worried as it works fine for everything else and that engine doesn't have the feedback pot anyway now. So I'll use it for a "Standard Instrument" channel and it makes no difference. I'm trying not to be anal and go for that "perfect, no problem build", that always results in causing more and bigger issues. So all things are sweet as they are. In the end this entire thread was the result of some bitch crap encoders, purchased from Mouser. Either I damaged them during removing the detents which is unlikely as I was very careful, or they were just crap to begin with. I favour the later. Moral of the story. There isn't really one. Bourns are used everywhere. I was just plain unlucky I think. One thing I did learn though is that there is no wierd stuff happening, no shorts or power oddities etc. It's very easy to convince yourself of inexplicable wierdness when in reality with electronics there's only so few things it really can be. I should've tried replacing an encoder much sooner. I'm in the middle of assembling my MBSEQv4 now, it also uses bourns encoders, but I expect they will be fine. I've decided though that I prefer them with detents anyway and if you don't pull them apart then if they really are rubbish you can send them back for replacement. Herein endeth the saga of the dodgy detent removed bourns encoders. Cheers, Arkay.