Perhaps this was tested just long enough to be be put in the rework pile, the tester could have found either problem, or another you haven’t found yet ! When you’re selling stuff like this you think, “Why do the rework, as long as you still have good units to sell”, right ? And then at the end this unit just got moved accidentally to the fixed pile, and shipped. I generally would have attached some sort of tag to remind others but maybe this was just put in a pile.
You’re pretty good with fixing/improving these, i’d wonder if Isla has anymore left in a junk pile ? Maybe they’d sell them off as salvage ? Hell they may even have parts left over, though you can skip the encoders.
Then again why bother, I’m sure you’ve got better things to do with your time.
Hey! Been awhile since you posted this but I’m thinking of doing the same mod to my Kordbot. However, I’m having trouble actually getting the thing open. Even when the screws are out, it looks like something is holding the board in place at the top and bottom sides. Did you have any similar difficulties when opening it?
I bought a 2nd hand kordbot off reverb about a half a year ago & it’s always been pretty rough. Encoders sticking, unaligned, one button on the rubber keyboard sinking a little deep/angled. I’m thinking of replacing the encoders, not sure what I can do about the rubber keybed sitting low, but I accidentally plugged in 18v charger into the 9-12v slot. Looks like there is no amp (from what I read, I haven’t opened it, yet) & now I can only go back & forth on the main menu. I tried reflashing the firmware, etc. however, I read on Isla forum unanswered ticket that I may need to replace an ic7? (Is that an integrated circuit?)
Any chance you know what this all means &, if so, any way you can please help point me in the right direction ?? Bummed I spent $400 and got a shetty, broken KB. I have 0 soldering experience & no programming savvy. Guess this will be my soldering jumpstart to Dinsync RE909, 808 & 101.
Yes, it’s probably a voltage regulator (it’s been a long time since I worked on the Kordbot).
It’s going to be a little black box with legs (most likely a surface mount chip).
Actually I think IC7 is this one which wasn’t soldered down on mine (from earlier in the thread).
If IC7 was the issue then you’d still be able to have it function over USB power like normal.
I think something else may have fried or you have a bad solder joint on the Main STM32F4 MCU.
Best bet would be to open it up and look for obvious issues. If you had an SMD reflow station and some flux you could put flux on various IC’s and “reflow” them with heat to try and fix the issue. Definitely some pretty crappy soldering during assembly on these. Just go back through the thread and check my posts with all the things I had to reflow and re-solder.
Much appreciated ! Got it open, but everything looks ok. Honestly, I’m not even sure where to start. Luckily Isla said they would send me some ic7 chips, but that was just a guess from the forum & the way you’re saying ~ sounds like that might not be the route.
Posted some pictures for if anyone might have some idea on what I should request from Isla before they mail. I’m going to see what else I can find. I’m starting from the power input just north of c12
Interesting, but probably the nastiest feeling piece of gear i’ve ever owned, so Brad could be flogging a dead horse so to speak if it’s a refresh of the software of the old piece of gear. It didn’t help that it needed to install script to update firmware until maybe the last couple of firmwares and then still wouldn’t work with OS X, forcing me to buy a cheap Windows laptop.
I wish him well if he’s putting more time and effort into this project, but lots of us have bad feelings about his first mainstream product release, when he lost interest to concentrate on his next project(s) and there are plenty of decent chord machines around these days.
He’s probably seen that there’s be loads of interest in the Telepathic Instruments Orchid and wanting a piece of the action.
Someone else might. I sold mine after a few years.
Truth be told though, I wasn’t particularly bothered about the sequencer being abandoned. It might have been nice to have. I just found myself rarely using the Kordbot.
I suspect the updates are a pretext to a forthcoming machine with better quality parts tbh though. Makes sense given the quality of the newer gear Isla produces. It’s like Toraiz in reverse.
