Hi, that’s what I wrote…worked like a charm
Wow… So basically all along is been staying is in the face… The obvious answer nobody thought of…
The encoder wheel has a magnet in the center. Do you mean that needs to be re-magnetized? The magnet has no function in holding down the wheel, it is used to induce a magnetic flow into the encoder IC right underneath. The encoder wheel is glued to the ball bearing. I truly don’t understand your suggestion.
Maybe it is supposed to also hold it down? If he remagnetize it and it is still functioning well then maybe that IS the problem? Maybe it is supposed to do both… Did if people were saying they were popping out allittle at first?
Hi, the blunt answer is: why not try it out and see if it works for you? Now more politely: I actually took out the encoders and yes, the magnet / core inside somehow translates movement into data. However, this doesn’t have to have anything to do with magnetism. I could imagine capacitive encoders. Because yes, IMO the magnet holds down the encoder, it pulls it toward the inner ring of the ball bearing. So, remagnetizing the encoder increases the magnetic pull, ensuring a tight fit. And no, the encoder is not glued to the ball bearing, it’s not physically attached at all 'cos you can easily pull it out. All I can say is that it works for me. Hope this clarifies things for you.
This is the datasheet of the encoder IC used in the OP-Z. It is based on magnetic field changes:
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Well the magnetic field in magnets are always changing, so it must read the changes from movement not a known constant, that would be rediculous.
Anyway if the man did it and it worked… and all the knobs are working correctly… Doesn’t that pretty much answer the question?
Cool! As I said, it works for me and it’s a simple “non invasive” solution because the encoders are not glued to anything, they’re magnetically held down & they rotate above the IC you mentioned. You might wanna try if before you start gluing - it’s of course only a suggestion. It worked on my OP-Z and the only thing I’m positively sure of is that the encoders were not glued to their ball bearings, but held there by magnets.
From what other users have reported, that may not be the case for every unit, since some definitely have some sort of glue residue in there.
What I find strange is that the encoder magnets may get stronger by just being in contact with a neodymium magnet for a few hours. Are the encoder magnets that weak?
Well I’m thinking maybe some got weak from storage if there all bring held together before opz is put together, that would explain why only some have them popping out, like they weakened. If they were too strong it might need up the opz so there not like rare Earth magnets or something. They probably put a little drop of model epoxy that’s not too strong just so it wont come up but his probably came loose. If mine came out I would remagnetize them and put a drop off model epoxy in just in case…
How do you remagnetize the encoder? One of mine started to pop out.
“Take them out (that’s easy if they pop out anyways…) and stick 'em to a neodymium magnet (cheap & small will do). Leave alone for a day or two and voila, your encoder magnets will plop in and stay there.”
You need to go buy a cheap magnet.
Sigh … I have a loose green encoder on my new OP-Z, too.
Atleast it seems pretty easy to fix, and as the magnets loose their strength we will beable to keep them strong.
Shout out to kybernaughty for coming up with the fix!!
I can happily report that the magnet trick worked for me, too.
Since I was impatient, I only let it re-magnetize for three hours. My green encoder is now back in place and working fine.
Thanks for posting this! @Kybernaughty
Great to hear that! On close inspection there does indeed seem to be some glossy residue on the encoder, which might be glue, but the encoders are held in place at least mostly by magnetic force, so re-magentizing them is an easy & clean way to get the encoders in place again.
Someone on the OP-Z sub-reddit reported losing two of the encoder wheels on a trip… I think I would feel safer applying some kind of glue to avoid that.
Also, magnets are polarized and have specific strengths. I would feel very worried about messing up with that using a neodymium magnet to re-magnetize it and cause some malfunction in the encoder IC.
I agree on putting allittle hobby epoxy in just to be sure… But I think if the remagnetism was gonna hurt it then it would have been now… Two people have done this and if it messed anything up it would show up immediately. If mine come out I won’t think twice to do this, it seems like the best answer to me and I believe there is no such thing as perfect magnetism parameters in mass production.