Hi,

I have found a replacement part number for the rotary encoder, but I am looking for a new knob with a netter grip than the original one.

Does anybody have a part number for a good knob ?

Regads.
David

The knobs are custom components. I do not think you will be able to get a full match to them. If you are swapping the encoder, you might want to go for the encoder used on the Mark2A - it has a keyed shaft that does not have the slipping problem that the Mark2 knob had.

Will you be doing the rotary encoder swap yourself? I know you contacted Rob for support - he has a bunch of the parts there.

you'r right. I already asked Rob for support, but did not get any answer yet.
I effectively wanted to exchange the encoder myself by a Mk2a one. I already have found the part number and it is available in my country (switzerland). What I need is to find a different knob for this new encoder. a knob that have a stronger grip.

Rob may have spare knobs, but they are otherwise hard to come by. People who did the illumination hack may have spares that would work, but it was never an aftermarket item.

I might have a spare Mark2A knob in my box of parts. Let me check tonight...

By the way, not to try to talk you out of it, but make sure that you are very comfortable with installing the encoder yourself before trying to do it on your own. Those that have tried it said that it is extremely tricky to do, and there are few (if any) replacement parts for the display board or encoder daughter board.

Txs for your help and I wait your feedback for the knob.

Concerning the replacement, I will see after I open (one more time..) the empag. I also read that it was really hard to do this change. If I am not able I will either ask to eletronics/engineers friends or send it to somebody (Rob maybe). Do you know if there is a repair center arround London (I need to go there in 2 weeks)?

If you have to "ask electronics engineer friends", then you are most likely not qualified to do the encoder replacement yourself. This is something you need to be extremely confident about right off the bat. I would guess that you are much better off just waiting until Rob can replace it for you, don't even bother to open the unit.

I have electronics skills, but it's a long time I did not practive ;-)

This one is more than just electronics skills, it's surface mount rework skills. That's another level above.

I'm in the same boat (bad encoder), what is the part number for the Mk2a rotory encoder? (my searching skills apparently are not as good as yours, sensei.)

I just IM'ed Mark Lord about getting one (cause I did find that thread)... and I didn't want to bother Rob about it...

Won't the old knob work with some "electrical tape" molding to fill in the gaps? or is the post bigger in spots?

Thanks!

You could try an old machinists trick - get a very small file, like the needle file sets sold at Ratshack and put some small burrs/scoring marks on the shaft. These'll drag into the plastic knob, increasing the friction fit. That or you could use some very light loctite (such as the purple formulation for small screws), but I'd try the file trick first.

-Zeke

Loctite bad. Never get knob and lens off. Bread good.

hot-melt glue inside the knob also works for me; and it seems to allow me (at least) to still remove the knob with a firm tug.

Cheers

I still think it would be possible to make a shim to fill in the keyed side of the Mk2a knobs and then just use the Mk2 knob system.

These folks sell the d springs that fits a d shaft that you could sleeve over the shaft.

http://www.lectra-fasteners.com/


If you wanted to go the shim route, I've seen this done for old radios so it may work for the Mk2 but I have not tried it.

Get a pair of tin snips, 2 pair needle nose pliers, and a few large binder clips. Not quite spring steel but close. Use the snips to cut a 1/4" wide by 1" piece of binder clip. Holding the metal in one set of pliers, use the other pair to wind the metal around the pliers. You're looking for a "G" shape. You'll have to experiment with the size of the D in the center. Trim the outer ring to size. Then squeeze your d spring into the knob and slide the knob on the shaft. If you want to 'barb' the tail of the G, it should help hold when rotating.

I have the encoders ex stock (all types). I also have all the original knob types.

carsupport is your friend.

Tony - purple loctite is designed for very small screws and has a low release force. It is not the red hyper-strong stuff. You typically would use it for little itty screws like #0, #2, #4, #6 screws.

-Zeke