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Encoder Jitter , Difficulty in picking a note


Futureman
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I'm having a bit of bother with my encoders.. It's kinda hard to pick out a note, or anything often.. two steps forward, three back etc.

These are the encoders from smash TV. (No disrespect to Smash, AWESOME KITS!)

I uploaded 3 different variations of the code with Detented, Detented 2 & Detented 3.

Detented was very difficult, and there did not seem to be much difference between D2 & D3.

When I assembled my Sequencer, one of the IC's in the DIN board was causing a short circuit, so I left it out (My Seq only needed 2.5 DIN boards)

I'm now wondering if this is the cause of my problems? ie, No IC in the hole?

Do i need to terminate the chain of DOUT's & DIN ?  All my buttons etc are working fine with no bounce etc.

Or is it a case of the Encoders? Should I source better quality encoders?

I was hoping for a hardware fix like this, which I did to my EMU Ultra with amazing results... but so far my experiments with my SEQ3 have been unsuccessful.

http://www.jsigle.com/musicol/emufix.htm

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Mike

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you might like to try the SRIO interconnection test, and the ai64_din128_dout128 app. The former will check the serial connections and the latter will allow you to check the encoders (as though each was two switches)

Smash's encoder quality is great, and you should be fine without the IC inserted.

Are you sure it was a dead IC? Did you swap it with one of the others and see if the short was swapped too? Maybe the short is still hanging around....

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The encoders are essentially working, ie, If i turn em to the left the value goes down, and if I turn em to the right, the value goes up.

It's more a case of sometimes, while increasing a value gently, the value might drop 4 in an instant.

It makes in near impossible to accurately pick a note.. for other values, say , gate length.. no biggy, thats not needing pin point accuracy.

As for the IC..

The core + LCD were working, until I plugged in the DOUTS, then not powering up.. I eleminated it to one core, then one IC that was at fault... as soon as that IC was lifted, everything was working fine.. can I safely assume that the IC was at fault? I'll check my soldering on the DOUT's however.

I'll get back with the results of the tests.

Cheers for your help.

Mike

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Nope.

every so often an encoder can become a little "loose."  i'm not sure where in the forums, but somewhere there is a sort of tutorial on how to "tighten" up an encoder.  try "encoder mods" or "fixing encoders" for a start.  i'll try and search and post back here if i can find it.  what is most likely happening is that when your encoder passes one of the contacts it is also gently hitting the opposite as well causing a sort of "back-slide" if you will.  i had the same problem with my MbSID.  i'm a little under the influence of alcohol at the moment but as soon as i am able i'll get onto that search. ;)

ol' buhler, always "drunk posting!"

[edit] BTW it's only 10PM(22:00) my time so no "starting early" jokes...

[edit2] well the post i remember was actually more along the lines of removing the detent but just in case:  http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,10184.msg84244.html#msg84244  there it is.  ask ganchan for any further details.  sorry i couldn't be of more help! :-[  as far as "tightening" the encoder, just adjust the contacts to they have more grab.  i.e. bend the "fingers" a little more than they already are so the have more of a chance to catch and touch the other contacts...  i don't think there is really any problem with the firmware or the IC's just maybe the sensitivity and responsiveness of the encoder itself.

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I think it'd be very unusual to get a batch of dodgy encoders, especially from smash... Unless maybe they were all overheated a bit when soldering...

If it was just one, then I'd be blaming the encoders, but chances are, when it's all of them, that there's a short which intermittently causes bad input.

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I'm at work right now, so I can't check everything out right now, but in the mean time..

- I'm pretty confident of my soldering of the encoders. Although anything is possible.

- The IC that was giving me grief, causes the SEQ'3 to not boot up wherever it is located (Thats why I assumed it was a dodgy)

- Can someone please point me to the "ai64_din128_dout128 app".. Not sure where this is located.

- I was doing a bit of reading, and noticed something about a kind of 'scan rate' of the encoders, ie, lowering it might reduce it's sensitivity to bouncing? or am i going up the garden path with this chain of thought? If not, where do i change that?

- I did the encoder speed test, and when it was at it's slowest (Slow 7 from memory) It was probably the easiest to deal with, ie, it did hardly ever go backwards.. but this is a little bit less than ideal, as it meant about 2-3 clicks to change something by one value.- How do i reduce the encoder speed in the SEQ3?

I LOVE THIS SEQUENCER, and this last tiny little thorn in my side is getting me ever so sad..

We've had a few jams over the last few nights, and it's been a welcome addition to my gear.. all my mates are very very jealous... they are not jealous of the fact that to change a note from a C to a C# can take me 15-20 seconds.. C - C - C - D# - C - C# (Yay!) D (too far ;[)

Regards

Mike

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- The IC that was giving me grief, causes the SEQ'3 to not boot up wherever it is located (Thats why I assumed it was a dodgy)

OK let me rephrase my response.. Yes, you can assume that the IC is the problem. But you'd only be assuming, you don't know for sure, cause you didn't test it. how do you know it's not the socket you had it in, or one of the wires it connects to being shorted, or.....

- Can someone please point me to the "ai64_din128_dout128 app".. Not sure where this is located.

Try the downloads page on ucapps ;)

- I was doing a bit of reading, and noticed something about a kind of 'scan rate' of the encoders, ie, lowering it might reduce it's sensitivity to bouncing? or am i going up the garden path with this chain of thought?

Probably. As far as I know, noone else needed to do that to make smash's encoders work.

How do i reduce the encoder speed in the SEQ3?

Read the comments in the source files :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, a bit of a breakthrough...

It seems that the encoders are at fault.. some are worse than others, And I've ordered some more to double check this..

(I tried a mates spare bourns one, and it was much better)

I'll let you know how it pans out, but initial experiments seem promising.

Regards

Mike

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