It’s alright you can shit all you want. Yes I have some affiliation with TE, but I give criticism where criticism is due and the release of the OP-Z was delayed by a whole year (not confirmed by TE themselves) so im assuming that they had some real issues they needed to sort out before release.
Battery life was greatly reduced for instance. The hardware obviously has room for improvement, but I have three OP-Z from different batches, the first one is double trigging like crazy and the other two I have had for almost two years without any sort of problem. I have all three modules which I rotate between devices and I have no issues with connections between module and devices, no popping encoders etc.
Look I understand you’re frustration and I truly feel sorry for you. But the problem (as far as I know m) isn’t as wide spread (or severe) to warrant an apology and a recall.
It’s not like it’s a battery handle that can blow up looking at you Elektron
When it comes to plastics of this size the tolerance chains are in 0.1 mm range. Plastic is actually considered a living material much like wood and these materials react to its environment, so it could be everything from how much moisture it is in the air to aging from UV.
Amorphous Plastics (like I mentioned in an earlier post) wants to go back to its original shape, which is an entangled molecular shape. When we manufacture plastics we straighten out the molecular shape and freeze it in place… whenever the material is exposed to outside forces such as heat, moisture, UV, chemicals. They react (differently depending of material type) by trying to go back to its original molecular shape I.e it bends/warps.
Straigh lines (like the OP-Z) I usually not recommended when designing for plastics as the plastic is free to warp in any direction it seems fit. So naturally when your dealing with a part which has really small tolerances an incremental change in the part from aging is gonna have an effect. And due to the design ( straight lines) you see it happen seemingly random.
Living in the north of Sweden is perfect for the OP-Z, dark and dry
I say this as a mechanical engineer, the OP-Z really is an engineering feat. It has room for improvement to be sure, but what TE has pulled off is nothing short of amazing!
It’s an incredibly complex device mechanically due to its tiny stature.
Thanks for the reply as that explains it perfectly
With these known risks I’m surprised they chose that material and process
I love my opz though. It’s bent and popping out encoders. I fixed the double trigs and sticky buttons. I’d love it even more if it didn’t have those issues but I can live with them
The material choice is OK to use. It’s just that the initial introduction will be more prone to have defects…
Environmental warping is also extremely hard to catch in the manufacturing process since it bends over time… it could be that they were straight when they were boxed and then they warped while in the box… which would be impossible for TE or the supplier to catch… I know TE has actively worked behind the scenes to fix these issues and just by my anecdotal evidence it seems like the OP-Z has gotten better.
There could be an underlying issue here that a lot of small companies face (TE especially due to how bold their designs are) and that is in the companies design process. Working as an engineer for a very large multi national company I really am grateful for our design process and how it catches potential risks. Having material experts, calculation teams, tolerance analysts, ergonomical experts, process experts etc. which can aide the design process is a huge help.
A small company won’t have those resources at hand so they rely on individuals. Maybe TE didn’t have someone with plastics experience in the company so they relied on a contractor to handle the hardware bits, so if they don’t have a design process which includes risk analysis, canban, concept decision boards, Pugh matrix etc. then it is extremely hard to catch any risks a type of concept might have. They solely rely on that contractors experience.
I’m at not aware of TE’s design process, or how the design process of OP-Z actually was, I’m just speaking from my own experience in how something so unseemly can have a huge effect on the end result of a product.
And I’m not ripping on any engineer here, I for instance made a whole plant in France halt to a stop for a day due to my bad design decision. And that was a straight effect of that particular company’s bad design process.
I find it a bit odd that if an owner of an OP-Z mentions or complains about the bad design choices and the issues caused they are branded a “hater”.
It is a cool device, but it is badly designed from a construction perspective, there is no getting around that.
I don’t see many/any people complaining about the actual features, and it is true that it does have some really excellent features and performance.
To my mind there are 4 areas where TE made poor physical design decisions:
Material used for the body.
Design of the encoders.
The ultra cheap, non replaceable dome switches.
Being intent on making it so small - though to be fair to them they did say it would be annoying, it is.
I have 2, and 2 Oplabs, and lots of other TE gear, but I have grown to dislike their practices as they have got larger, so I won’t buy any more of their products.
I honestly see the size as one of its positives! Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have seen an OP-Z XL (possibly with a small screen) but viewed as a travelling companion of a device that’s like a few pocket operators chucked into one case it’s fantastic.
If only I could trust the build quality as I’d be jumping back on board the OP-Z train with how the second hand market is pricing them right now.
Maybe because a new module comes out and within a couple post someone says that all opz’s are basically messed up… plus after all that ranting from the past few post about encoders… yes it sucks… but it can be fixed easily, very easily, a number of ways… as well as double trig’s.
So none of these are really that big a issue though… We all agree it is messed up… TE should be flogged in the street…
but they are rich and don’t care…
Can we get on with it now? It is very easy to fix these issues… It is like one big circle with some, and to me that is just being a hater.
In principle TE could design a new enclosure for their customers and let them exchange it (or give away the 3D design files of it, so they can take care of the rest). Not sure though what could be the issue coming with it. In any case metal likely won‘t be a proper solution due to attenuation on the bluetooth reception.
I was thinking even a slightly thicker, firmer backplate as that only needs put on with the 4 turning yellow feet type screws. Would put some pressure on the body to unbend. And have 6 feet, not four so there’s no dip in the middle
I think it is just as well talked of, and there are far less in circulation.
I get it that people who like a bit of gear get defensive about it, but personally I can like something without ignoring its flaws.
I like the OP-Z, OP-1, Polyend Tracker, Octatrack, MPC One, Deluge, MC-707, MC-101, Electribes - but all of them have flaws in their design, some hardware based, some firmware based, nothing is perfect so why is there any need to not mention the flaws? I think it is just as valid as mentioning their good points.
Of course the flaws needs to be mentioned so that a prospective buyer can wager the pros and cons… but personally I feel it’s a bit extreme with the OP-Z… maybe I’m biased! I honestly don’t know. All though I try to be unbiased in my assessment.
I think it gets mentioned often on the OP-Z because it is such a popular unit, and quite a widespread set of issues. It was the same with the OP-1 some years back.
Unfortunately today with youtubers doing “reviews” a lot of this type of stuff does not get mentioned, often because they got sent a free unit - don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
I paid over £500 for both my OP-Z, feature wise totally worth it, construction wise totally not worth it, however since it is a device to be used rather than just looked at both have to be taken into account, in a somewhat balanced way. IMHO.
I don’t think anybody ignores the issues… we have all tried hard to find fixes… it’s just that at this point it had been beat to the ground… we all know it so why keep only talking about that? None of the issues are really show stoppers, so can’t we talk about actually using it? Has anyone been sampling allot with it since they got the module?
FYI it was me that posted the Deoxit fix on here and the OP forum. Mis trigging keys can be a show stopper if you value precision when performing/jamming.
Also as I said before I looked into getting bits re-engineered, like the switch PCB so that it is serviceable rather than replacing the whole PCB, which I find pretty crazy and not environmentally good. I also thought about getting a cast aluminium case made, and how to avoid losing bluetooth functionality by doing so. Problem is it would be far too expensive in small batches, and then I also thought it was not worth the effort vs the benefit.
I made a line in sampling box for mine, I don’t find the sampling very useful though, sounds nice enough but the editing is a pain compared to OP-1. TBH I prefer to import samples.
I have the Oplab ZM-1 module but I mostly use USB midi using one of the cheap adapters on Amazon - no fiddling with 3.5mm adapters, and it is not affected by movement like the ZM-1 module is, I only use the ZM-1 for CV/trig and clamp it down when doing so.
This is the midi adapter I use, works great with the OP-Z.
only disagreement is my personal feeling about the price…from the moment it was announced till now (when almost daily i stop myself from buying a 2nd unit) i can’t understand why it’s so costly
i bought mine secondhand and after two years just started experiencing encoder problems…it’s unfortunate you and many others have had to deal with issues from day one, but not all opz’s are defective
also, frankly, it sounds like their choice was to proceed (as they did) or completely scrap the project
i’m glad they chose to release it despite known flaws and have been way more annoyed by the lack of i/o ports than bending or loose encoders…to each their own tho
