I made an account just to thank you for the suggestion.
I spent nearly 2h on this process:
I removed all the buttons and heated some water until it was ALMOST (but not) boiling, then mixed some neutral detergent (no scent, no alcohol, etc).
I poured this solution over the keys and it instantly made all the sticky coating infinitely easier to scrape. It’s like it “surfaces” and becomes a slime above a certain temperature. I used the blunt side of a butter knife. It was a super boring and detailed work (since the keys have straight edges where the “glue” gets stuck).
Just make sure to change the detergent+water if it gets cold. I noticed the glue starts to solidify again as the temperature decreases. Just be careful to avoid getting burned lol
PS: Can’t post pictures because my account is new, but I can say it was worth it. At least 70% better, I suppose. Good enough until I buy a new set of keys.
Great fix! Yes, the water, soap, scraping and microfiber works very well. But takes some time. The buttons feel like the ones on the Machinedrum afterwards.
I started using the cotton t-shirt method, and it’s working well for me! But I’ve only worked on buttons 1 – 16. I’m quite tired to do the remaining buttons, especially the tiny ones. And I have a small blister on my finger tip now.
I’ll need to do this for both my Octatrack MK 2 and Digitone.
DT 1, year 4, barely used in almost always in protective case: the func button suddenly went full sticky mode Other buttons are strangely fine.
Will try the cotton tshirt method, that’s sad then even when being very careful with your gear this stupid coating goes off. Even more infuriating, when my gear with 15+ years is perfectly fine.
This isn’t even a new issue, Elektron needs to do something about this really.
Yep, My Digitone 1 has just turned into a gunky mess too. Already had to spend £50 on a new set of caps for my Digitakt.
Absolute garbage that machines that were as expensive as these just turn to sticky mess and there isn’t a thing that Elektron will do about it (short of charging you a premium price for replacements).
My Digitakt buttons are disgusting: they look like I ate a slice of bread and Nutella and then started finger-drumming with dirty hands. I tried to solve the issue with isopropyl alcohol, but now it’s even worse. I’ll try hot water and soap.
I’d suggest we all file a class action lawsuit against Elektron.
If you send Elektron a stern email they will usually send you the keycaps for free. This is a design flaw that they’ve known about for years, consumers need to put pressure on them.
Other buttons are strangely fine.
