So, today I managed to mess up my A4 mki by attempting to replace one of the encoders myself.
Encoder A was skippy, i replaced it and now encoder A and F are not responding anymore. I guess I damaged the PCB with my lousy soldering skills 
. Does anyone know of it is possible to somehow control the function of encoder A and F with an external midi controller?
Post pics !
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No, an external midi controller will control the parameters but not replace the encoder, as far as I can tell.
Try finding a good repair shop. Or contact Elektron to get an estimate.
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Maybe best to contact elektron. But if the pcb is damaged wouldnt that be beyond repair?
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Depend on the damage. Probably not.
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as suggested above, send pictures. depending how bad the damage is (if there’s any damage) and assuming it is a local one you can solder wires from encoder pins directly to ic or nearest undamaged junction. obviously it would require a closer look at the traces on pcb. but this is how i would crudely approach the issue.
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It’s possible you lost the solder pad when removing the old encoder, it’s unlikely you damaged the traces but hard to say without visual confirmation.
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Echoing what everyone else has said:
- Post pix
- Consider hiring a tech to fix it
The two most likely problems are that you damaged a trace or you bridged traces with a solder blob. Both are fixable, how easy that is depends on your dexterity and patience.
Two ways to gain more experience without risking your expensive instruments are:
- Make some simple kits, like an Atari Punk Console
- Buy old electronics at a thrift store and desolder components, do conductivity tests, etc.
once you have the skills it’s easy to solve problems. Cleaning up solder blobs can be done with a clean iron and flux. Appropriate braid for the solder, a piston solder sucker or a desoldering gun all make the job easier at increasing cost. Broken traces can be bridged with fine wire.
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Thanks for the tips! I will post pix this weekend when i have time to open up my a4 again😁
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this is important. although hard to remind yourself of “in the moment.”
if it’s any reassurance: there are plenty of posts on here by people who have attempted a repair and further damaged something, but who ultimately got the machine working again. usually with Elektron’s or a third party’s involvement at that point… but don’t go thinking your machine may be dead forever or anything. it’ll get worked out.
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Elektron sent me a new A4 MK1 PCB for a £100 or so. That was a couple of years back.
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Is it possible (for an amateur solderer) to fix a lifted pad? I tried to do the snare mod on a volca beats and effed that up
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I’ve read you need to do the volca snare mod with a 15 watt soldering iron, or as low of a setting as you can. I’m not aware of any way (as an amateur myself) to fix a lifted pad, your best bet would be to identify what’s damaged and use super thin wire to do a point to point repair between the components on either side.
fwiw if you only damaged that empty spot (c23?) where you are supposed to put the cap, I don’t think it should hurt the rest of the volcas functionality. If you still want to give it another shot, there’s a spot which was idenfified for the snare mod before people determined that the empty pad was for the missing capacitor.
I might have the link to the mod in the other spot but it looked tricky to me.
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We will help you. But we need pics. If you broke a trace, you can bridge the contacts with a wire. If you removed the pad by accident, I’m sure you can repad it (never done it myself, so not 100% sure). You will need to desolder the point with a sucker. But first post pics.
Also get a broken PCB to practise soldering and desoldering. If F suddenly isnt working anymore, it is likely you broke a trace.
You can buy proper solderstations for about 20€. It needs a pointy pin and the ability to regulate heat.
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It seems the soldering pad on the pin marked with the red arrow tot damaged.
I tried connecting the pins as marked in the pic with a piece of wire but this had no effect.
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Get some high proof rubbing alcohol (ideally 90% or better) and carefully clean the goo (flux) so you can get a better view of what’s going on.
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instead of trying to get it to work by bridging the spot with the missing pad, get a long set of alligator clips and hook one end to the top of the board on the third leg of the A encoder where the pad is missing, bring the other end around the bottom and touch or clip it to the where you’re currently trying to junction with the F encoder, see if that brings it back online.
If you dont have alligator clips you could use a long piece of wire but I’d at least tape it to the encoder leg to keep it isolated from the middle post.
This will at least confirm the diagnosis.
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this is just a standard encoder pinout but we can probably assume this is accurate for what you’re dealing with
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where are you from? i am from northern germany and would offer my soldering/help.
have done some repairs along the years…
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