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#146731 - 11/17/17 06:11 PM Cleaning/servicing rotary pots on DA7
Phil Ward Offline
Member

Registered: 09/08/00
Posts: 101
Loc: Pittsburg, KS U.S.A.
I have a MK1 series DA7 - probably a good 15-17 years old now... Owned since new. Haven't used it as much in the last 5 years or so, but starting to again... Now to the problem. Several of the "rotary pots" such as the balance control - level for the aux send etc. don't operate/change levels very smoothly anymore - I can turn and turn and don't get much level adjustment out of them (at least very smoothly) like they used to... Before I tear the unit apart, has anyone experienced this issue and if so what is the best way to service/clean the pot? Compressed air maybe? I do have some Caig cleaner that I would used on Analog type pots, but didn't know if these pots are true analog pots (don't think so), or some sort of digital pot with a photo eye or hall effect type encoder (my guess). Anyone?

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#146734 - 11/27/17 03:51 PM Re: Cleaning/servicing rotary pots on DA7 [Re: Phil Ward]
ShaneC Offline
New Member

Registered: 07/10/17
Posts: 16
Hey Phil,
I just used some canned air to clean the pan pot.

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#146739 - 12/10/17 03:07 PM Re: Cleaning/servicing rotary pots on DA7 [Re: ShaneC]
Phil Ward Offline
Member

Registered: 09/08/00
Posts: 101
Loc: Pittsburg, KS U.S.A.
Thanks ShaneC,
Will give that a try when I have a bit of time to tear into it!
Phil.

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#146869 - 11/15/20 03:21 PM Re: Cleaning/servicing rotary pots on DA7 [Re: Phil Ward]
Phil Ward Offline
Member

Registered: 09/08/00
Posts: 101
Loc: Pittsburg, KS U.S.A.
Well, I replaced a couple of the rotary pots/encoders on my DA7 this weekend. These are the rotary controls for the Pan, EQ and Compression/gate adjustments. It is a bit of work, but doable if you are good with a small point soldering iron, solder sucker and solder wick. You'll need all of these tools to be able to do the repair.

Once the desk is open, you have to remove the entire motorized fader bank and several ribbon cables so that a long metal support bracket right above the fader bank can also be removed. The support bracket must be removed before the PC board which holds all the small rotary pots (for the Pan, EQ and Compression sections) is accessible to be removed. As mentioned elsewhere in a post by member "clegs", keep all the different mounting screws segregated as they have different threads depend on whether they screw into plastic or are tapped machine threads. Take a lot of pictures before disassembly to refer to as you put it back together. There are literally 50+ screws you will have to remove and there is no way you will remember which screws go where - just do it - take the pictures, you'll be glad you did.

As many of you probably know, Panasonic quit supporting these mixers years ago, so the rotary pots/encoders are not available anymore from the factory. I did a bit of looking on the internet and found some on Ebay cheap enough - I paid about $6 for two of the including the shipping. You will have to do a bit of searching, but if you enter these words in the search box, you will find them: "EC11 Rotary Encoder Digital Potentiometer 20mm D Shaft with Switch EC-11".
Just be sure to purchase a pot with a long enough SHAFT which is 20mm and is also a "D" shaft so it will fit the existing knob. You won't be using the nut or washer that come with these on the threaded shaft - just toss those items as the encoder is soldered directly to the PC board for physical support.

One thing that is different about these rotary encoders I found on Ebay is that the directional orientation for adjustment is BACKWARDS from the original Panasonic encoder. I didn't discover this of course until AFTER I had put everything back together so I could test it. So... when you turn the PAN knob counterclockwise, it pans to the Right instead of the Left. The PAN encoder was one of the encoders I replaced. Likewise I replaced the one that adjusts the level of the Aux Send (for effects sends) and you have to turn the knob counterclockwise to "increase" the send level. That is backwards of standard and was a bit disappointing, but I can deal with it. I only say this as if you want to maintain the factory and normal action of the knob, then you would have to modify the circuit on the side of the encoder where the three legs are by snipping the outer two legs off and cris-crossing those two legs with some small insulated wires to where they solder onto the circuit board to reverse the action of the encoder. To me that was going to be too much work to tear it all apart again, I'll deal with those two knobs just working backwards.

Hope this helps someone. In all it takes about 3 hours to do this and I'm a pretty decent and experienced repair tech. Just be VERY CAREFUL because if you ruin something in the process, the board is going to be toast and you're going to be out looking for another one... I love my DA7 and to me it was worth the risk.



Edited by Phil Ward (11/15/20 03:46 PM)

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#146871 - 11/17/20 10:38 AM Re: Cleaning/servicing rotary pots on DA7 [Re: Phil Ward]
Tardo Offline
Veteran Member

Registered: 01/20/00
Posts: 1117
Loc: New Jersey
Thanks for the info.

Much appreciated

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#146885 - 03/19/21 04:35 PM Re: Cleaning/servicing rotary pots on DA7 [Re: Phil Ward]
jal Offline
Member

Registered: 01/05/01
Posts: 113
Loc: mesa
Will these pots work for the gain knobs? If not what keywords should i use for that. Thanks!

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#146889 - 04/03/21 08:24 PM Re: Cleaning/servicing rotary pots on DA7 [Re: Phil Ward]
jal Offline
Member

Registered: 01/05/01
Posts: 113
Loc: mesa
I need to replace my gain knob pots. Any idea where i could get a replacement?
Thanks!

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