Just got my Little Phatty and it's DOA!

junebughunter · Post by **junebughunter** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:54 pm

Hey guys, my brand new Little Phatty arrived at my office 10 minutes ago.

After playing with it for a minute or two I realize 4 of the keyboard keys are dead. Is there anything I can quickly test to try and get them working before I send it back? I am bummed

T7 · Post by T7 » Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:30 pm

I feel your pain. My Eventide H8000FW arrived last week with a bent front panel.

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:05 pm

Have you contacted Amos at Moog Music? He can give you guidance on what to do. I imagine a ribbon cable was loosened during shipping, as the two main boards are connected by 3 ribbon cables. As long as it's not the bottom ribbon cable, it should reseat pretty easily. And the best part? You only need to remove 2 screws!

junebughunter · Post by **junebughunter** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:34 pm

I'll give the ribbon cable a shot real quick. What's the process to check the ribbon cables, before I try figuring it out blindly?

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:41 pm

They are just like CD ROM cables, they are either in or they are loose. If they are loose just pop it back in, unless you have to go and remove a bunch of stuff to do it.

You might can try a factory reset thats in the software somehow. I don't own a phatty so I can't say exactly how.

WHen I got my voyager, the entire Bank E was just gibberish, after downloading the bank and installing it everything is fine now.

Something else that you might can try is to see if you can transpose the keyboard down a few octaves, maybe that will wake up the keys.

Considering that my knowledge of electronics isn't worth squat, then the only thing that I can possibly think is that maybe those keys aren't making any contact with the elements that send the trigger.

Have you tried to see what happens at loud volumes?

Which 4 keys are they? You can set a slow glide and go from the highest to the lowest to see if the circuits are registering the voltages they are supposed to register.

Maybe this will help, if not I like to at least say I tried lol.

EricK

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:09 pm

junebughunter wrote:I'll give the ribbon cable a shot real quick. What's the process to check the ribbon cables, before I try figuring it out blindly?

Start by removing the two screws that hold the front panel. They are located diagonal to the screws that are at the very top of the side panel.

Flipping the front panel down, you will notice 3 small ribbon cables running across the two main boards. Being VERY careful(can't stress the CAREFUL enough) loosen the tabs on the sides of the connectors of the top two cables and reseat them.

Work on one side of each cable at a time, and be very careful with the tabs. When one side of one cable is reseated, both tabs must be pushed into place at the same time. I used two pairs of tweezers to do this. Toothpicks, small flathead screwdrivers, or chopsticks would work just as well. If you're still having problems, take two Tylenol and call Amos in the morning!

Amos · Post by **Amos** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 7:08 pm

STOP!

Don't mess with the board-to-board connectors (the ribbon cables Voltor describes). Voltor, please do not advise people to open their LPs and *&%# around inside them. That's my job!

Plus it's a good way to void your warranty...

In all seriousness, the reason it's my job is because I have a pretty good idea how these critters work, and what actions may be helpful or not given a particular problem. In this case, those board-to-board connectors are not associated with the stated problem, and so nothing good would come of messing with them.

It is possible, though not probable, that the cable from the keyboard to the digital board is slightly loose and could cause this problem.

First thing I would test to diagnose this problem further is what happens when you hit the octave up/down buttons on the keyboard. This shifts which octave the keys are playing. If the problem is with the physical keys, then you can transpose the keyboard octaves up and down and the same physical keys will continue not to play, even though if they were playing they'd be playing notes an octave up or down...

If it's four keys all in a row that are not working, then the likeliest cause is a broken diode or similar hardware fault on the keybed assembly itself (keys are scanned in groups of four). If the four keys aren't all in a row, then something stranger is happening.

If you got this synth from an official Moog dealer, my advice would be for you to contact the dealer and see if they have a unit in stock they could swap with yours... then we can repair the fault without inconveniencing you further. If they don't have a unit to exchange, then contact me directly and we can decide on the next best course of action. I can repair the unit here or I can send you a replacement keybed to install yourself, if we determine that this is definitely the source of the problem.

I'm very sorry for the trouble!

Kind regards,

Amos Gaynes

junebughunter · Post by **junebughunter** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 7:39 pm

Thanks for your response amos! It was 4 random non-working keys, that didn't work at any octave. (2 F#'s, 1 D, 1 Bb)

I ordered it from MusiciansFriend new. This is actually the 3rd time in the row they have sent me badly packaged/defective products of pretty high value.

They sent the LP in the retail packaging with no extra packaging! So a $1,300 20lb+ fragile analog synth, got sent half-way across the country with no more than some flimsy retail cardboard and 2 pieces of styrofoam to comfort it.

I spoke with a customer service rep, and after giving him an earful, he emailed me a return shipping label, and hooked me up with free over night shipping to get a replacement back here. He also "left a note" for the packing guys to make sure the replacement is well packed.

I decided against trying to fix it and took the patient route. No moog gut blood on my hands...

If they don't pack it right maybe I'll be on the phone with you soon Amos!

Thanks for the responses guys

Amos · Post by **Amos** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:30 pm

yeah, sounds like MF just banged it up in shipping. Darn shame about that; they should really ship them in an outer cardboard shipping carton... we never intended the printed inner box to be shipped "naked" through the world!

I'll have a chat with our MF contact; sounds like they are not showing our gear enough respect.

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:53 pm

That and its nobody's business whats inside the box.

My first Voyager had a giant footptint on it!

I abhor shipping companies!

jon_kull · Post by **jon_kull** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:25 pm

Amos wrote:yeah, sounds like MF just banged it up in shipping. Darn shame about that; they should really ship them in an outer cardboard shipping carton...

MF tends to do this with almost everything they sell. That's why I don't buy from them anymore.

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:13 am

Amos wrote:STOP!

Don't mess with the board-to-board connectors (the ribbon cables Voltor describes). Voltor, please do not advise people to open their LPs and *&%# around inside them. That's my job! Plus it's a good way to void your warranty...

Amos Gaynes

Sorry Amos...didn't mean no harm. I won't do that anymore. Any thing else you don't want me to advise?

I don't wanna step on your toes...again, very sorry.

T7 · Post by T7 » Wed Nov 19, 2008 12:24 pm

I returned an LP to MF about a month ago that was shipped in the retail box as well. My damaged H8000FW came from them and it wasn't double boxed either...How do they stay in business?

EricK · Post by **EricK** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:43 pm

Sweetwater is like Musicians Friends grandfather as far as quality goes.
Musicians friend stays in business catering to the entry level crowd in my opinion...that and getting people to get those platnium edition credit cards.

I ordered my Foogers from sweetwater and they all came double boxed, with adequate packing material and even candies. Then they called me a week later to make sure everything was okay. Ive had limited but 100% satisfaction with Sweetwater.

But id rather order from a NON corporate based music company because they need the business.

Ill be ordering all current Moog gear from NovaMusik from now on.

Sorry you had to go through that.

Eric