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.
You said that you had stick the encoder to a neodymium magnet. How were they positioned relatively each other? Could you please post a scheme?
Hey!
I’m having problems understanding your question, which totally might be my fault.
What do you want to do?
I had the exact same problem and fixed it pretty easily. It drove me crazy for months and after a lot of forum diving I found this solution. Plumbers tape. Just take the encoder out, you can use a lego or the little phone stand plastic piece that comes inside of the opz. Wrap a little bit of the plumbers tape around the post of the encoder and slide it back into the bering on the opz it should be snug enough and not pop up or fall out anymore. This is the best solution I found, requires no glue and it really has no way or harming your unit at all. And it only costs a few bucks 
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I would like to remagnetize my encoders, but I’m afraid I don’t know how to do it.
Could you please explain me in detail how did you implemented yours magnetization process.
I just took my magnet and let it snap to the magnet of the encoder (bottom side). Since my magnet is a very small one (cube shaped), it was easy to see which side made the magnet snap into the center of the encoder.
If you don’t feel good about doing it, just drop TE support a message and they will fix the encoders for you (not only checking the magnets, but also properly glueing the encoders back onto the ball bearings).
Thanks for answering so fast. I believe I will try it first before send it back. This is my second OP-Z, this is the replacement unit that also came already with 3 encoders loose…
Stay with a normal strength magnet, don’t use a rare Earth magnet you might make it too strong.