My AR has a damaged step button, should I open the box?

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
#1

Hey everyone,

My AR has a damaged step button, something happened during transportation and one step is like halfway pressed. Every time I touch this step then it’s locked as if I was constantly pressing it so, I can’t disable any trig from this step + every other button turn into a shortcut / combo, for instance if I hit record it does “copy trig” or if I hit stop it does “paste trig”. Which means I can’t disable this step, can’t stop the machine running, cannot do much actually, until I turn the power off.
I’m pretty sure I just need to open the box and manually replace the step. I have zero experience in electronics though, so I wanted to know if there was anything I should be careful about. Sending it for repair is not an option as I really need it with me for forthcoming shows and recordings.

I hope someone can help me with this. Thank you

#2

…hhmm…sounds like you have to open it!

would you please post some nice pics from inside the RYTM?

i think there are no existing pictures from an open unit.

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#3

in the meantime you could remove the button cap, it may be the button cap which is getting stuck on the chassis? - you’d then need to replace with a smaller button cap (i dunno, maybe sacrifice the Tempo cap) i believe the switches are the same, but the larger caps are for trigs - i may be wrong, but the small circles and medium lozenges caps are mounted on identical switches

if you look through this a4 teardown you’ll see the switches share the same mechanism, it’s just the caps which are different

#4

and fwiw, regardless of how foolish it might feel, I recommend in investing into the plastic cover. Used to lug my rytm into my backback before without the cover, and almost broke one step trig button in one year. Oddly enough, that trig button now seems to work ok. Hoping you will sort yours out too!

#5

OP: if you do go down that route - these would be nice :thup: - but you do not need to take the lid off to remove the button caps - please research all of this before acting yhbw - it’s possible to take those off carefully with pliers protected with tape to prevent scratching -please do the research, this has been discussed a handful of times on here e.g. here

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How do you remove the global button? In my ar mk1
#6

Hi,
I don’t know why your step button got blocked half way, is because some dust or stuff dropped inside your AR? In my case (refer to avantronica’s link on previous post) some kind of liquid felt into my AR and the rec button action was impacted.
Before opening the unit try to pull off the button cap and take a look inside, then try to help the button to recover its action by moving the “naked” cap with your fingers or some tool without forcing too much, maybe a little objet is blocking it.
If you got some results (hope so), then clean with a tiny bit of isoprop alcohol; avoid excess to drop down into the board. Good luck there.

#7

I removed the step button with pliers and without the button it’s all working fine. I put it back upside down (there is a top and bottom) and now it gets less stuck, that’s an acceptable yet temporary fix. I think the kind of spring underneath is a bit displaced so that’s why the button go up sideways and gets stuck. Don’t know if Elektron sell that kind of parts if I need to replace it?

#8

I’m sure they do, but certain repairs may be for more than a hobbyist - so if it’s related to the button scuffing the case, you could get by with a temporary smaller button cap whilst you investigate ways to fix it through support