Sticky keys and jog wheel queries

Hey friends,

Another issue... the up cursor key on my MPC and the open window key are getting a bit temperamental. Sometimes they work OK and other times they become a bit unresponsive. Would contact cleaner like Deoxit be a good fix? What's the worst case scenario and how to go about sorting it?

One more thing... how can you tell when a jog wheel is starting to go on its way out? (I've had the completely broken mode in the past but had it replaced). When I'm scrolling to assign a sample to a pad (or something) sometimes I have to scroll back and forth a little to stop it from scrolling all the way to the right. This only happens in one or two functions. Mechanical or electrical problem?

Thanks,
Chris

chrisrob101 wrote:Another issue... the up cursor key on my MPC and the open window key are getting a bit temperamental. Sometimes they work OK and other times they become a bit unresponsive. Would contact cleaner like Deoxit be a good fix? What's the worst case scenario and how to go about sorting it?

Contact cleaner will probably work, but you need to take the MPC apart and spray it into the tact switch itself, don't try and spray around the edge of the plastic button top without disassembling the MPC to get at the tact switch.

Worst case is they stop working altogether, or you break a plastic button top by pressing too hard to try and make it work.

Best fix is to desolder old tact switches and solder in new quality replacements (Alps or Omron).

That blokes right
A careful bit of switch cleaner on the tact switches.

Sometimes they work if you push them at a particular angel ?

I think the plastic just wears away on the the keys you use a lot.
If you open it up and have a look at it, you will see the plastic part of the button mechanism isnt exactly made to last (over 10 years )
But sometimes aligning the chassis can get a better touch.

That's what I've found.

Thanks for your reply,

I realigned the chassis the other day and it helped quite a bit which makes me wonder. All in all, the button's gone from being a 1 to a 5 on a scale of 1-10. Still not being a hundred per cent, I've bought myself some contact cleaner from the electrician's and am gonna give it a spray. You mentioned being careful... what exactly have I got to do? I'm guessing avoid spray anything else, right?

You only want to spray it on the tact switch itself, not get it everywhere, and only spray a little, enough to get into the body of the tact switch and clean the contacts.

Spray it on the switch, the press the switch a number of times so that it works the contacts inside the switch and cleans them.

I sprayed 3 very small bursts onto the tact switch and worked each spray in. It's made an improvement but it's still not 100%. On one hand, it doesn't get stuck anymore but you still have to use some pressure to get it to work but then it works fine every time. To give you an example, my wife came over and pressed it normally and it did nothing. I pressed it with a little pressure and it works fine. At least it's tolerable now but I might consider getting a replacement. I saw some switches on the VST (?) website for $7.70 each, I'll assume they can be bought elsewhere much cheaper right?

Any idea on the jog wheel thing? Is it the first sign of terminal decay? I had this happen to me before (it broke down in a different way though) but bought a replacement board from the usual suspects... new jog wheel, switches etc. already soldered in for this one-off price... and this is what you get. **** crooks.

chrisrob101 wrote:I saw some switches on the VST (?) website for $7.70 each, I'll assume they can be bought elsewhere much cheaper right?

Yep, don't pay those prices for tact switches, get them from an electronic component supplier at more realistic prices.