Hi all,
So this is just a quick post to update on a few hardware issues i’ve had that are not unknown. I’ve been touring this unit for about three years now, its been on hundreds of flights, in artic trucks, tourbus trailers etc. Without a doubt its an acid test for any hardware!
Anyway, i’ve had a few hardware issues along the way, all of which i’ve managed to fix, but worth reporting i feel. The first instance was 18 months ago after landing on site and getting into the hotel, booted her up only to notice that whilst the screen was showing and doing all the usual stuff, the footswitch LEDs, Volume knob and power button were certainly not. The LEDs were pulsing blue as they do during the first turn on, but never changing! Alarming as this was, I’m not someone afraid to take apart electronics and repair them (im in no way suggesting you do this, i spent my teens learning micro electronics and repairing motherboards under a microscope with all the right tools for the job!)
What i discovered was that, whilst every effort had been made by NDSP to stop connectors coming off of daughter boards, which is exactly what had happened here, the hot glue used to secure them had become brittle and come away. I took this opportunity to further take apart the unit, check all torx were well tensioned as some had come slightly loose, and to reseat and re-glue each side of the connectors. After doing so she was back to full function again and continued to work flawlessly for another year.
Within the last 6 months, a new problem had reared its ugly head; the volume knob (rotary encoder) had started to twitch! This was most annoying because the change in volume would constantly flash up on the screen. The short-term fix was to leave the volume at max, and untick its link to the headphones, instead adjusting that on the output page. I was thinking at some point to take it apart again, pull that encoder and search the part number to replace it myself when i had some downtime but for now i was able to carry on using it without distraction.
That finally brings me to this evening, when the blue lights of death on the footswitches visited me yet again! Show tomorrow, so out came the tools for a quick look inside. Of course, this was all a much quicker job this time around as i knew what i was doing. This time, however, only two connectors had slightly moved out of place. I don’t have the hot glue here that i use (and when i do that again im going to be a little more liberal with the application of it) So, within 15 minutes, it was back together and working as expected, only THIS time the rotary encoder was working perfectly!
Now i know people have definitely had this issue in the past with the twitchy volume. If you have a warranty, then send it back, of course. That’s not the point I’m making here. What was interesting was that there was clearly nothing wrong with the volume rotary encoder. Even though it was displaying very common signs of an encoder going bad with wear and tear, it was clearly down to the bad seating of a connector!
This is the sort of thing i’d happily write a picture guide on, but i have a feeling Neural wouldn’t like that much! So it’s really just for your information and interest. For those who may confidently tinker it may be valuable information.
It’s a solid, well-built unit, and it’s taken some serious road abuse. Easy fixes, easy to work on and well laid out inside the chassis.
Cheers.
