Repairdown: Model Cycles Elektron Synth Teardown 

Awesome! glad you liked it. Yes I didn't mention it in the video but I was also interested to see how they got the cost down to $300. Looks like one-sided PCB, low cost processor, plastic screws, minimal parts, and single PCB were part of the story

Extralife is here! I did look on the board for the the caps I suspected to exist. I couldn’t find a pattern of 6 identical caps and I didn’t put in the effort to follow the traces to the other caps I saw. Someone on reddit suggested to wire a 300K resistor in parallel with the force sensitive resistor and I think that that might work quite well, just to nudge the net resistance down a bit. I might try that if I’m having hacker’s block someday

awesome! glad you liked it

Thanks for letting me know! Lots more synth content coming up.

Haha thanks Phil I aim to please

glad you liked it! thanks for letting me know

Thanks for watching. My synth is actually happening! Just got a Teensy making sound last weekend. Definitely lots of videos to come. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KHlfCAg94u0.html

Thanks ginja!

Glad you liked it!

Doing what I can! Microfreak is next

@@TheNormalUniverse nice idea, lets see how that capacitative piano works

@@TheNormalUniverse Cool! I have one of those too. Looking forward to your teardown/analysis. I have already taken mine apart, to look at the encoders, so I could replace a bent one (matrix encoder). I could not easily locate a replacement, so I bent it back into place, and it works fine, for now. Please post, if you can locate replacement encoders. One other thing, that is a bit of a problem, is the 1/8" control/timing voltage jacks, are very stiff/difficult to plug/unplug. Thinking of modifying/replacing them to be easier to use. I like my MicroFreak so much, I bought a second one :-) Thanks again, for doing this stuff, and sharing on RU-vid. Have a wonderful day!

thanks for letting me know! Glad you liked it. Ya if my theory is correct then adding additional thickness to the compression stack won't improve the feel. It really puzzles me why they shipped it with this feel. Part of the joy of percussion instruments is heard the response from a light tap!

@@TheNormalUniverse I made some 3d printed shims I found on thingiverse and it did improve the feel. I'd give something similar a shot, I was happy with the results.

I'm glad you enjoyed my ranting! Thanks for letting me know

Ya I think it's great! My main gripe is I wish they laid out the steps in two rows of 8 like the digitone so you could have a simple keyboard layout. Entering pitch on this machine is a little clunky.

@@TheNormalUniverse Attaching a midi keyboard helps a lot.

Ya everyone is saying the same thing about the pads! I checked the Elektron forums it's similar. I don't mean to spread negative vibes because the device is otherwise quite fun to use and sounds beautiful. A few people made suggestions about how to fix it I might try to do them in a followup video.

@@TheNormalUniverse I will look forward to that. It would be a great contribution to the Model:Cycles/Samples community.

Thanks Calzar!

Thanks Maksim! I'll try it. Did you do this on a model:cycles or model:sampels?

@@TheNormalUniverse I'm using this mod for different devices all my life. And now - on model cycles. By the way, the sensitivity of model cycles is really surprising. Can't understand why this procedure is not done on factory for all kind of such devices. Give it a try and Im sure you come back to thank me)

Interesting. Velostat definitely looks identical to what Elektron used. I wouldn't be sure until I could check what material vendor Electron used. A thicker sheet of velostat would hopefully help.

Hey Esser! Glad you're liking my videos. Mechanical Design is such a broad mixture of skills I haven't found a good resource for it. Here are the components though CAD: Download Fusion 360 and watch tutorials on RU-vid Fundamentals of Materials and Statics: RU-vid channels "Structure Free" and "The Efficient Engineer" Product Teardowns: "EEV Blog" Teardown Tuesday videos Other than that all I can say is make make make things. Try to think though your design, how to assemble it, how the loads travel through the system, how things might break. I think the best way to get better at mechanical design is just to make things. Thanks for watching!

Thanks Gus! More videos to come in the future, just swamped with my day job right now.

Please, see my last comment on how to gain the sensitivity...

Hi Strahlemann, glad you liked it! The knobs are held on with friction only. If you can find a stiff object that fits underneath the knob you can wiggle it up and down until the knob starts sliding off the shaft. A flathead screwdriver would work but that will scratch up your case. Better to find something plastic. There's a tool called a spudger made specifically for this purpose, taking things apart while minimizing scratching. Search spudger on amazon, they're nice to have around.

Thanks for letting me know! I got a recommendation on reddit to add a parallel resistor with a few kOhm of resistance, same thing you're suggesting except a copper strip would basically be a short circuit. I think it makes sense. I might try it and make a video about it sometime. Currently at my family home for the holidays so I'm away from the lab.

@@TheNormalUniverse I will search for that reddit post, as I am also an electronics tech, and wish to increase the sensitivity of the T1-T6 pads. Please respond with link, if you have one. Came here, hoping to learn something, I could use for that purpose, and you made that happen. Thanks very much for this teardown/upload. Just subscribed. Best wishes for your continued success.

wow you really got deep! So you're saying you did a swap test and when you place the conductive sheet for pad 5 on other pads the other pads start working again? That would be a strong indication that the problem is with the sheet. I would inspect the sheet for dirt or corrosion. You could also try using a bit of wire to short circuit the pad traces on the PCB to see if that triggers the channel, which can help confirm that the channel is still able to trigger. Sounds like a tough problem though.

@@TheNormalUniverse yeah, my guess is that dirt from other places of the device ended up there when I applied some contact cleaner (is that the name for it in english? lol, not my first language) to the trig buttons to loosen up their stickiness >:@. What would you do in order to clean the sheet? I think the black squares are "velostat", but not really sure. Thank you for answering!! Loving your channel, bro.

Update!! I tried putting buttons from the other "mat" over the pad's circuitry on the board and confirmed they are OK, the issue is definitely the black stuff on the transparent sheet (seems to be just carbon at last). The pressure-level is sensed directly onboard. Will try some conductive ink and come with results!! :) Thank you again, you really inspired me to go this far (I also enjoy repairing stuff, despite my limited electronics knowledge).

Ok so I finally bought some conductive ink/paint (I wanted a carbon based one but ended up getting silver) and applied just a little over each one of the squares on that transparent sheet and VOILÁ!!!!! fixed, I even got better sensitivity. Just don't apply too much (metal based ink is way more conductive than carbon). Just be careful! Thanks again.

I don't think that would be easy to do, beyond me EE skills

Yup, it came so close to the finish line. One of the main reasons I wanted this over a digitakt or digitone is for finger drummer

I don't have a model:samples to tear down. I imagine the hardware is very similar, but I would be surprised if they managed to make the hardware so perfectly identical that you could change from one to the other with a firmware update.

Hi Cybe, I believe I used some phillip's drivers of unkown brand. I recommend getting the screw driver kit from iFixit for all your teardown needs though. It's a nice kit and the lid doubles as a screw organizer

Low on cash, would you say the 32 bit kit would have the right bit in it?

sorry I don't have a model samples, I assume it's very similar inside

Hmm it’s been so long I’m not sure

@@TheNormalUniverse Thanks for getting back to me, but I realized it doesn't have a song mode anyway, so meh.

Great I'm glad to know I had some useful perspective. Electronics aren't my strong suit so I'll probably be focusing more on traditional products than eurorack modules. I'll definitely get into the electronics when I understand what's going on.

@@TheNormalUniverse I think eurorack is a pretty easy way to build your own synth. It's expensive though, so if you are on a budget DIY kits are popular and are made to be easy to solder as long as you follow the instructions. But doing it by the numbers, you don't really see the big picture. I just liked the way you broke down the buttons with the oscilloscope on model cycles. DSP stuff is fun also, I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

@@robertsyrett1992 ooh I see what you're saying. Ya I'm more interested in making a product to sell so I'm trying to make a digital synth from scratch. Analog stuff is too complicated for me I'm more interested in the play surface so I'm going to program a digital synth.

@@TheNormalUniverse Very cool, what kind of synthesis engine do you envision?

Robert Syrett in order to keep it flexible, I want to have swappable “synth engines,” a screen, and multifunction knobs like the OP-1. I think the first engines I would tackle would be a subtractive synth and a sampler synth to cover a lot of bases quickly, then work from there

yup I actually sold mine, the sort of dead feeling pads took away the fun

Hi Wuhan! Thanks for the input, I already maxed out the sensitivity in the elektron menu and still find it note sensitive enough. Readying the Elektron forum I think this is pretty common feedback. I don't think there's an easy way to make the pads harder without molding your own pads.

@@TheNormalUniverse you think to complex In the old days people use korg or other stuff to make the mpc pads more sensitive and stiffer. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ck1nk1xBTfU.html

@@meinemudda3095 Hey that's cool! I dig it

@@TheNormalUniverse this is better Its like the same pads You nee electrical tape Its really that easy ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qd90x1Gcf6Y.html

Sorry Patrick! Go busy with life. Hard to keep up the habit. Thank you for the encouragement!

glad you liked it

yeah I agree. As far as grooveboxes go, this one is pretty drum machine inspired.