Hi,
I just ordered a PCB for my SPS 1 MIKII.
I went to my local repair shop and the guy said he would need 2 hours to replace it.
At 89 euros an hour, does he really need 2 hours to do that? I don’t know anything about electronics but maybe it’s not that hard to do and I was wondering if some of you have done it already?
Thanks!
I’ve never had a MD in bits so I can’t comment on the specifics but I’ve had enough other gear in pieces to be able to say some gear is a lot easier to work on than others. I’m assuming the minimum the tech will charge will be one hour and they’ve prob factored into that some wiggle room. I’m sure other ‘nauts should be able to better estimate the time taken to carry out a job like that tho
Modern assemblies can be harder to work on than older gear with fiddly ribbon cables and sub assemblies so I wouldn’t recommend doing it yourself I’ve you’ve not got some prior repair/disassembly experience
That guy does.
Have you ever built a PC, or replaced a broken screen or battery in a modern smartphone?
If so, then dig through the threads here and the googles and you should be able to find pictures of what the inside of the MD looks like as well as disassembly and reassembly instructions.
My own comfort level extends to replacing through-hole and SMD parts that aren’t too tiny. I’ve built dozens of PCs over the years as well as a moderate amount of synth repair. I would be comfortable replacing a PCB in any of my Elektrons based on the photos I’ve seen so far.
OTOH, I paid nearly $1000 to let Toyota replace the headlights on my old Corolla before a cross-country move. Could I have done it myself? Probably, but I might have ordered the wrong parts and I might have been missing a critical tool or two. I had a month to pack and prep the car, so I paid money so I could focus on ensuring that my office and synth gear was safely packed. I don’t regret the decision at all - I had a pleasant drive and car, synths and self all arrived safely at my destination.
Given that the MD has a value in the 1-3K range, USD/EUR 200 doesn’t seem like an unreasonable price to pay for a tech with experience with these devices. If the person in question isn’t familiar with modern (that is, SMD-era) gear then I would lean towards doing it myself, based on the experience listed above.
Edit: I’m pretty sure that “replacing a PCB” in an Elektron device is a fairly simple matter of removing knobs, unscrewing screws, unplugging ribbon cables, unplugging the old board, plugging the new board back in and reversing the initial steps. Should be doable with an anti-static strap, a good toolset and your smartphone’s camera. My main areas of concern would be (1) static discharge (2) fragile old ribbon cables.
TL;DR: I’d estimate 4 hours of my time for a first opening, disassembly and reassembly of a synth/groovebox. Perhaps one hour is possible if I’ve worked on that machine recently. Two hours seems like a reasonable middle of the road estimate to me.
Thanks for your input. I agree, I’ll let the guy do it. It’s just that I don’t know this shop and am a bit worried but it’ll be fine!
I did same thing on Octatrack, that was 20 minutes job, fitting new screen to my Octa was a bit longer. I spent about 60 minutes on it.
Thanks a lot for your reply. I totally agree. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t just an unscrew, rescrew type of work. I had to have him open the MD anyway because there seems to be a part that is loose, so it’s a good thing if he does everything. Thanks for the details regarding the hours needed, it’s great insight.
I don’t want to get cheap about the MD, I just bought it and want to make sure that it’s in great condition when I play it, so I’ll go with the tech, good call.
Cheers!
At some level, I think that is exactly what is going on. There may be a lot of screws and ribbon cables involved, which is why I’d budget up to 4 hours for going slowly and taking a lot of photos. There are photos out there, so seek them out to get a better idea of what is involved.
I might even be more comfortable with the estimate being 2 hours than if he was like “yeah, I’ll bang that out in 5 minutes” 
True that!
I don’t think it will take two hours. but doing it with care will take more than one. and usually labor is billed in whole numbers. I’m guessing/hoping he’ll take any extra time to make sure all the buttons and pots respond well, it passes the self-test, any dust inside is cleaned up, etc…
be happy you found a PCB board and someone to install it at all. there are others with dead DSP’s that basically have bricked machines, and can’t find anyone willing to work on them.
What pcb did you order? Im guessing its the psu one as i ordered one of those not too long ago as a back up. If its that one it really is just like unscrewing screws and unplugging 3 or 4 cables. 180$ is pricey as its probably just a 30 minute job but if you dont know how to do it yourself its worth it.
To my recollection there are 4 pcbs in the machinedrum, the ui board (with the buttons and screen), the cpu board (which someones has the +drive), the power psu pcb and io board with all the jacks.
Was ur md not powering on at all or was it crashing/glitching after powering on?
Thanks for your reply. It’s the UI board. Because my encoders were loose and one of the tracks leds was a bit bad. So I’ll probably let the technician do it!
Definitely happy about that.
What’s even better is the guy is very happy to work on a Machinedrum. He even called me later yesterday to tell me he couldn’t resist and opened it up before I bring him the UI board just to see how it was. As I told him it would be an easy task he told me that it didn’t seem too complicated, and that as I brought him the components, if it was onbly taking him half an hour he wouldn’t charge me more than that (which seems obvious but is very nice to hear).
An enthusiastic repair guy is always nice to find I think!
