Moog Voyager Oscillator Octave Issues

[JLal]

Hello All,

I'd like to know if any Voyager owners out there have ever experienced twitchy Octave settings on their Oscillators. In my case, when switching feets on the Octave Pots there are times when the screen will show a quick change to an incorrect position and go back to the correct setting. For example, when I change the Octave on Oscillator 3 from 8' to 16', the screen will briefly switch to 32' and immediately go to 16'. Sometimes it happens quickly and disappears, other times, it's more pronounced. On some rare instances, the incorrect setting will stay unless I slightly nudge the pot so that the correct setting appears. The results are reflected in the tone as well - when switching the tone shifts with the change in setting, so the sounds of the Oscillator are jumpy when changing. It happens intermittently with me, and at the end of the day, the Octave settings end up in the correct position.

I am considering sending the analog board to Moog for repair (if it's EVEN that - an associate of mine said it could be) as Oscillator 3 and 2 are showing this behavior, but wanted to run the scenario here and get some input.

My questions are:

1) based on what I shared, could this be a calibration/tuning issue? If not, what could be the culprit?
2) is this something I can fix on my own? - to add context on my skillset: I have no soldering experience, but I am a bit handy with repairs (depending on what it is).

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[VCO]

I have a voyager . It doesn’t have any of the problems with the octave settings like you were mentioning. I usually have my settings at 32, 16, 1. I do have drifting issues with my voyager. I can get it in tune and it stays in tune once I tune it
upon turning it on. Although if I change the preset to another preset that preset will be out of tune . As long as I don’t change to another preset it will stay in tune with the current preset that I have already tuned. I have OS 3.5. I purchased my voyager used in 2015.

[till]

The display only shows what the panel sends to the digital board. there is no information going from the analog board to the digital board or the display.

If the digital board get bad information due to bad switch contacts or connecting cables, it will pass the unwanted data as CV to the analog board.
So the analog board is not the cause of this problem. It will just react according to this problem.

Check the switch for a good contact. Check the panel to digital board cables and connectors. Also move them while checking them. Check the panel board traces. Check the multiplexer diode matrix or what ever they used in the A/D section. Finally check the PSU in Voltage and use an oscilloscope to find maybe voltage peaks and alike, if the other points did not discover a problem.

As you have to check these things while the Voyager is connected to mains, this is nothing to do yourself, unless you know what you do and your precautions needed. Do at your own risk. Better find some electronic technician to check this for you. A person able to repair radios should be helpful, even if they are not specialist on synths. But this is nothing synth specific to check.

[JLal]

Thank you both for your responses. Issues with the digital board seems more plausible given the circumstances. I definitely don't want to send the main PCB board in if that is not the primary area of concern. I will look at local synth repair shops for review of the digital board and see if, hopefully, there are no significant issues with it. Thanks again!

[Acid Mitch]

I had a similar issue with my Voyager RME. It turned out to be the psu. The psu still wasn’t working correctly after having some parts replaced and all soldering redone so it got completely replaced with a new one. Took Moog repair centre several months to diagnose and fix..