Check your voyager ribbon cable!

Tips and techniques for Minimoog Analog Synthesizers
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Doddos
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2021 3:31 pm

Check your voyager ribbon cable!

Post by Doddos » Sun Apr 03, 2022 6:00 pm

Some month ago my voyager OS went wierd during a rehearsal. The modulation wheel increased osc pitch and the LFO tracked the oscillator pitch no matter what I choosed as source, destination or controller on the mod section.

After some head scratching I found out what was wrong; the (flat) 14 pin ribbon cable that connects the wheel section to the potentiometer board inside the voyager was partly broke, due to wear.

My voyager is 12 years old, don't know how many times i've tilted the panel up and down, and the ribbon cable will probably move a bit every time.....on my voyager, this cable was bent back and forth at one particular point about 2 cm from the connection on the potentiometer board. Finally this movement made 2 or 3 wires on the ribbon cable to wear off, which in turn made strange things happen.

I fixed this by getting a new (slightly longer)ribbon cable, reused the contacts and put everything back in place. Works fine now :)

I'd just like to inform other happy voyager owners to check this ribbon cable if the instrument suddenly goes wierd or to prevent future problems. Sooner or later, it will probably happen on another voyager as well.

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ummagumma
Posts: 828
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2016 8:37 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Check your voyager ribbon cable!

Post by ummagumma » Thu Apr 07, 2022 2:27 am

Good tip, thanks!

I don't move the panel around much, but that's good to be aware of

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