Just got it in the mail and the second trig wont light nor will it record a trig. Every other trig works fine though. Can this be repaired and do i need to ship it somewhere I assume? Super bummed.
Wow that sucks, sorry you got taken for a ride like that. This is going to be kind of a long answer because rather than just saying “contact elektron” I’m going to tell you what you should do before contacting elektron so bear with me. One would assume that it can be repaired but it’s impossible to know for sure because it’s a unique problem which looks to be hardware related so it’s hard to diagnose beyond assuming it needs a physical repair. I’m also assuming that rather than a sticky key which won’t press down fully, you’re getting the positive click when you press it and that it’s just unresponsive.
First thing that I would do is from an off state, go into test mode by holding func and powering on the RYTM, then when the test mode screen comes up, release func and then run the self-diagnostic test. If it’s a physical problem, it will probably say zero errors detected and then you can engage the keys test by pressing trigs and other buttons or moving encoders. If the button is physically bad then it will not respond to being pressed, usually the screen displays a change status but the first couple of trigs are tricky because they don’t say trig 1 or trig 2 like the others do (press trig 4 or 5 first and you’ll see what I’m talking about). For elektron stuff, the first 2 trigs in the keys test usually act as a pixel test for the OLED screen and one will cause the screen to light up completely and the other will cause it to go dark and I think trig 2 is usually the one that makes the screen go dark so that won’t help, however pressing trigs like 3 through 5 should cause the LED lights under the buttons to come on, all in a single color at a time, performing an RGB lighting check to make sure none of the LED’s is burnt out. Since you can’t record a trig, I’m assuming that it’s not just the light which is the problem, but you should be able to confirm that the light is dead and not just unresponsive to button presses when you hit trigs 3-5 because the 2 trig will probably stay dim while all the other change color. If it does light up, then something else weird is going on and it’s probably still a physical problem.
After you 100% confirm the behavior, check with the seller and see what they intend to do for you, because there’s really no way you could say this was damage incurred during transport. If for some reason there is absolutely no way to return it, the seller won’t pay for repair and you have a no return policy clause, I would still contact ebay and complain, tell them that you were taken advantage of and ask them what they’re going to do about it.
If ebay forsakes your claim, then you’re basically screwed. You need to start by checking the build date on the sticker on the bottom of the unit and if the build date is within the last 3 years, I would contact elektron support to ask about a warranty service as that would probably be the lowest cost which you can incurr for a repair.
If there is no warranty remaining and you’re stuck handling the cost and logistics of the repair yourself, unless you have experience repairing electronics and have some skill with a soldering iron, then I would look towards the lowest cost of repair. If you are in the US or EU and can ship the rytm to elektron, they can diagnose and repair it from one of their tech facilities. If it is costly or inconvenient for some reason to send to elektron directly, you’ll need to find a local electronics tech who is skilled enough to diagnose and repair the problem.
The physical replacement button can be ordered directly from elektron at a relatively low cost, but unless there’s something weird going on that you aren’t mentioning then I think you’re pretty much guaranteed to require a physical repair of some kind.
After you get it straight as far as your options on the ebay side with the seller or ebay themselves and if there are none, then on your end you’ll need to contact elektron via a support ticket on the elektron.se site account you previously created and tell them the situation. They’ll probably offer to have you send the rytm in for diagnosis and repair which if there is some warranty remaining shouldn’t cost you anything other than shipping and if there is no warranty then it will be the cost of shipping and then the cost of repair will be determined and ultimately an estimate should be provided.
It’s a really bad situation, ebay sucks for stuff like this so I would start by communicating with the seller and treat it like it’s an honest mistake so hopefully they won’t clench up and be abrasive. Giving the seller the benefit of the doubt may get you farther than being angry, but you should be able to tell pretty quickly if this person intends to throw you to the wolves, it’s certainly not the first time that there would have been a shady ebay seller.
Anyways good luck, I don’t know if I have any other specific advice but if you have a synth tech or even a television repair or computer repair place locally, make sure you check with them for a general estimate (like finding out their hourly rate for diagnosis and repair and ask if the diagnosis cost will be applied to the repair cost if you pursue repair with them) just to make sure it is not less expensive to order the part from elektron and have them perform the repair.
I can’t really think of anything else, but it’s pretty safe to say that you need to ship it somewhere or take it to someone or you’re going to be without a second trig.
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In my experience ebay very readily side with the buyer in cases like this so if the seller is unhelpful/unresponsive i thhink you would still be ok to pursue a return and refund. Even with a no-returns stipulation on the item, that doesnt cover the seller’s arse if theres a genuine default that wasnt in the listing, or if a buyer decides that they have found an issue that wasnt mentioned in the description. I know this because as a seller i had a buyer raise a (totally fictional) issue with something that id sold them, i even asked them to go through various trouble shooting steps and also asked them to prove the fault, which they couldnt, and even then ebay insisted that i had to accept the return and issue a refund- despite there being no evidence of a fault and despite me stipulating no returns. (the item was returned and lo and behold it was fully functional, as i knew it would be). So basically, i think you should be fine if you have to go down that route, particularly as your issue is genuine.
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I’d definitely pursue a return and then just buy another one.
I had a similar experience with buying a “mint” A4mk2 on Reverb that came with a few dents and some rubbed-out text.
Ended up sending it back and getting a different one from another seller within a week. Definitely not ideal having to do a return but much better than trying to live with an undisclosed defect.
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wow, you guys are awesome. So thankful for all this feedback. Best communitay on the interwebs for sure. I’m going to try these tests, thank you so much!
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I’d echo what others have said, start a return, eBay’s money back guarantee has you covered, buy another fully working unit… just not worth the headache and really you should be expected to find a solution to a problem you didn’t create…
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So i did the tests, that was very interesting and it all made sense when I started the test. It turns out the light does work, just the physical button does not. I’m going to have to issue a return. I learned a lot from you SHigginpit however and I couldn’t have asked for information on how to handle this! This thing is going to have to go back cause it wasnt a cheap purchase. I’ll stick to stores from now on! TY Elektronauts!
Ok good luck. Thanks for updating. Also, no problem, glad to try and help.
I had a similar experience buying a used OT MKII
One of the encoders wouldn’t click in correctly and kept deleting/undeleting p-Locks on it’s own
I sent it back and got one that worked perfectly