Modulation Wheel

[mineral]

Hello,

I tried to get support but did not really work out till now.

I've noticed that my microbrute (and probably others too) only uses the half of the range of the modulation wheel.
If you watch carefully a lot of videos on the internet show the same behavior of the microbrute.

It does only change values in the lower half of the movement range of the modwheel, from the middle to the top it has one single maximum value.

I noticed this while assigned to the filter cutoff but than I measured the amplitude of the LFO and it's the same.
Even the MIDI CC which it transmits is already 127 when you reach the middle position of the modwheel and does not change in the upper range.

Can I set it somehow without soldering?
It seems to me that I will not be fixed with a firmware update but more like a wrong value resistor soldered on the circuit board.

Many thanks.

Best regards,
Vic

[11011011]

Same here. It's easy to work around, but I'm hoping it's something that can be fixed in a firmware update... Is the mod wheel range one of the digital bits? Even better, it'd be awesome to be able to set a curve for it: linear, curvy, etc.

[Bruno@arturia]

I just replied to one of your support ticket. I guess it's just a bad calibration at the factory. Please let me know if you have the same behavior on Midi.

If so I will upload the calibration software plus procedure explanations, as soon as possible.

[Bruno@arturia]

Please give a try to the enclosed Calibration TechNote. As it's supposed to be a production tool, it's only available on Windows...
(you need to be registered to see and download it)

[mineral]

Hello Bruno,

I tried it and the software tool confirmed a successful calibration but the behavior of the modwheel did not change.
I've checked it with midi-ox and in the middle position it already reaches cc1 and cc33 (hex 21) 127 (hex 7F).

I've performed also the firmware update and tried to calibrate it again, switched off and back on again but it all didn't help.

Do you have any further suggestion?

Many thanks!

Best regards,
Vic

[Bruno@arturia]

Hummm.
Ok so first I need to be sure the calibration is properly applied by the machine.
Can you do a second test:
1/ set both wheel in center position.
2/ Do a calibration process, but when asked to move the wheels, do not. I mean during all the process the two wheels should stay in center position.
3/ Now you two wheels should basically have only two values, you change between them by crossing center position. If they still behave as before the calibration is not taken into account.
4/ If calibration has modified the behavior, do it again but by following on screen instructions.

Please let me know your results at step 3 and 4.

Thanks

[mineral]

Hello,

The calibration succeeded. See calibration_middle.png
With proper calibration afterwards see recalibration.png

The modwheel does not transmit any data on the upper range it is already 7F from the middle.

Thank you!

[Bruno@arturia]

Ok for the center calibration.
But for recalibration, what are the wheels movements you did on Midi-Ox recording?
Not sure I understood, because, even your pitch bend is not functioning properly(range is very narrow).
mod wheel does not go full range either.

Can you do the following midiOx recording:

1/ pitch bend: start from center position, go to 0, go to max, and release to back to center.
2/ modwheel. start from 0 go to max

please send me theses two capture so I can have a clear understanding.

Thanks for the time you spend on this.
bruno

[mineral]

No problem.

As you requested the pitch- and modwheel movement.
Note that the modwheel value does not change from the middle position to the top. It just stops at the middle with 7F value.

[Bruno@arturia]

Thanks!
ok so unfortunately it does not seems to be a firmware or calibration. So it could the modwheel itself.
Do you have a voltmeter and do you know how to use it?
I would need to get voltage on each of the three modwheel pins.

If you don't have or don't want to use a voltmeter on a opened machine, we will do it another way, no worries

let me know

[mineral]

Problem solved.

I measured first the voltages on the potentiometers.
Pitchwheel goes from 0 V to 3,277 V.
Modwheel went from 0 V to 1,986 V or to the other pin from 1,295 V to 3,277V.

I've concluded that the shaft might be twisted and does not have the required resistance so I checked it and indeed.
The wheel was force onto the shaft in the wrong position.

After rectifying it I calibrated it again. (now I understand that because not using the full scale of the potentiometer can have a small deviation and therefore you need to calibrate the position)
And it all works fine now.

I would propose some kind of poka-yoke tooling which prevents the wheel from being pressed onto the shaft in the wrong position or to point this failure out on the final inspection plan.

Thank you very much for your support.

Best regards,
Vic

[Bruno@arturia]

Hi Vic,
thanks for you valuable feedback. It was a complex issue, and it's been nice from you to take the time to investigate it.

I reported your pictures to our factory.
They will setup an additional step in the quality check process, to ensure this kind of miss-mounting won't happen again. And an additional step on the final test, to ensure the modwheel is fully functional after calibration
On my side I'll add the fix description to the mod wheel issue Technote. Do you mind if I use the photos you uploaded on the forum? 

Thanks again to raise and solve it.
Bruno

[mineral]

It's fine. Thank you very much for your support! 

Best regards,
Vic

[11011011]

Awesome! Thanks for posting this, I'll give it a try. Just as soon as I dig up a Windows machine... has to be one in there somewhere.

[kikendo]

If we get this problem, should we send the unit back?