Nektar Panorama P4: a new coat of paint!

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Proboscis
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22 Jan 2021

Your Nektar mod is very Devo......

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EnochLight
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22 Jan 2021

Proboscis wrote:
22 Jan 2021
Is that 'Devo' ?
I'm officially taking away your cool card. :lol:

That's Kraftwerk. :puf_bigsmile:
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Proboscis
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22 Jan 2021

EnochLight wrote:
22 Jan 2021
Proboscis wrote:
22 Jan 2021
Is that 'Devo' ?
I'm officially taking away your cool card. :lol:

That's Kraftwerk. :puf_bigsmile:
Whoopsies. I always assumed they wore blue shirts. But what do I know, in that era I was enjoying British metal bands with long hair, tight pants and bullet shell encrusted belts. Way more Alpha-Male than those Krautvurx chaps

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EnochLight
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22 Jan 2021

Proboscis wrote:
22 Jan 2021
Way more Alpha-Male than those Krautvurx chaps

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image_2021-01-23_015919.png (317.66 KiB) Viewed 1930 times

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Indeed. It's the tight pants, rhinestones, sparklies, and long hair that screams it loud and clear. :puf_bigsmile:
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EnochLight
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24 Jan 2021

Soooooooooooo... I decided to disassemble my P4 and switch out the busted motorized fader potentiometer that Nektar tech support had sent me as a replacement. As mentioned on the first page of this thread, the one they sent me had a crappy wire solder point that broke.

IRRITATING. :roll:

So I picked up a cheap solder kit from Home Depot and decided to give soldering electronics a try. :cool: Easy peasy! Well, not terribly easy, but not terribly difficult either. I used silver solder as the 70/30 (tin/lead) gives off noxious lead fumes, and I already have a bad enough time remembering shit, so I figured I'd avoid the lead fumes. :lol:

So I disassembled things (again):


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This is what the potentiometer *SHOULD* look like:


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And this is what it ended up doing when I barely touched the wire:


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This is the barely-on-there solder job that some lacky on the manufacturing line tried to pass off as acceptable:


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...more below...
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EnochLight
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24 Jan 2021

So I picked this up from Home Depot:


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As well as a solder sucker thingy, as I didn't want to mess with a solder wick. Cleaned off the old contact and dressed it up with some flux.


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That tiny-ass wire is about .8 mm in diameter! I wear glasses, and really wish I had a giant magnifying glass in addition. :lol: Anyway, I used a wire stripper and cut a clean end, and twisted the little-ass wires around. Then I soldered the wire back on to the potentiometer solenoid. It's not my best work for sure (the wire insulation melted/burned a little - oops!) but it worked!


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And now I have a 100% functional mechanical fader back on my Panorama P4, as well as a new key bed (on top of that fancy ass red pots/fader paint job I did earlier). :puf_bigsmile: I will say that I don't notice a difference between the original key bed and this replacement that I was sent a year and 1/2 ago, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But at least everything works and I'm done with my Nektar Panorama P4 "refresh" project. Should hopefully be good for another 5-8 years. Woohoo!



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Despondo
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15 Feb 2021

Nice to see your project all done! My new keybed arrived last week, so I went to my storage locker to retrieve my long, skinny phillip's head screwdriver (forgot how deep and narrow some of those holes are to get to the screws!) and swapped it out today. Keybed feels a little better than the previous two (original and 2016 replacement) and had a ferrite ring around the connector cable. Not sure why the older ones didn't have one, but maybe the 2nd gen ones do? Anyway, I will probably tackle the knobs next.

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EnochLight
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15 Feb 2021

Despondo wrote:
15 Feb 2021
Anyway, I will probably tackle the knobs next.
If you clean/strip them and end up painting them, I highly recommend this (color choice YMMV). It bonded really well with the plastic and there was no need for a separate clear coat:

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Despondo
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16 Feb 2021

EnochLight wrote:
15 Feb 2021

If you clean/strip them and end up painting them, I highly recommend this (color choice YMMV). It bonded really well with the plastic and there was no need for a separate clear coat:

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Duly noted. Thanks!

Proboscis
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Joined: 28 Aug 2019

24 Mar 2021

EnochLight wrote:
22 Jan 2021
Indeed. It's the tight pants, rhinestones, sparklies, and long hair that screams it loud and clear. :puf_bigsmile:
Maybe the saying "Don't get a boy to do a man's job" is apt here.

The circumstances surrounding that keyboard stand failure is tragic.

Your soldering skills are also tragic.

I wonder how long that red paint is going to last on you Nektar knobs.

At a guess, Ima say they're going to peel.

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EnochLight
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24 Mar 2021

Proboscis wrote:
24 Mar 2021
Your soldering skills are also tragic.
LOL!!! Yeah, I never claimed to be even half-way decent at soldering. :lol: That said, the repair worked and at the end of the day, that's all I care about. :clap:
Proboscis wrote:
24 Mar 2021
I wonder how long that red paint is going to last on you Nektar knobs.

At a guess, Ima say they're going to peel.
Actually, that's not been my experience with this paint at all. The surface was properly prepared, and it's being kept in a climate controlled studio space out of the elements. This paint was literally designed to sit in the sun, bake in the elements, the rain, snow, etc. I've used it on plastic patio furniture before that have the weight of adults pressing down on it, as well as the plastic furniture flexing, and it usually holds up for several years. Outside.

I'll likely get far more life out of my pots/faders paint job then that. They're only gently pressed on when they're touched, and there's no exposure to elements or plastic flexing. :thumbup:
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Proboscis
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01 Apr 2021

EnochLight wrote:
24 Mar 2021
Actually, that's not been my experience with this paint at all. The surface was properly prepared, and it's being kept in a climate controlled studio space out of the elements. This paint was literally designed to sit in the sun, bake in the elements, the rain, snow, etc. I've used it on plastic patio furniture before that have the weight of adults pressing down on it, as well as the plastic furniture flexing, and it usually holds up for several years. Outside.
Hey bud, no qualms.. I didn't know you were a pro with the science of paints. Although you don't mention friction, or bodily oils and other junk on the operator's hands, I'm sure 'adults sitting on spray-painted furniture' and 'outside curing' must be a good enough indicator of the long term efficacy.

Did you think to perhaps just go to Radio Shack and buy some new knobs ?

The cynic in me still says "Come talk it up after 100 hours of usage", and we'll see how those pretty red knobs of yours are faring :mrgreen:

Proboscis
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01 Apr 2021

Can you speak more of the bonding between the knobs and the paint ? In a scientific nature ? Is there some 'plastic welding' happening, due to solvents ?

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EnochLight
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01 Apr 2021

Proboscis wrote:
01 Apr 2021
Hey bud, no qualms.. I didn't know you were a pro with the science of paints. Although you don't mention friction, or bodily oils and other junk on the operator's hands, I'm sure 'adults sitting on spray-painted furniture' and 'outside curing' must be a good enough indicator of the long term efficacy.
Proboscis wrote:
01 Apr 2021
Can you speak more of the bonding between the knobs and the paint ? In a scientific nature ? Is there some 'plastic welding' happening, due to solvents ?
Not sure if I'd consider myself a materials scientist in the area of paints :lol: but I've been painting various stuff around the house for 25+ years, and can make a general assumption from past experience.
Proboscis wrote:
01 Apr 2021
Did you think to perhaps just go to Radio Shack and buy some new knobs ?
Nah, not only have all the Radio Shacks closed up and went out of business around here, I couldn't find anything that "popped" online or anywhere else. I wanted the color you see in the photos, and I wanted the exact factory fader/knobs design.
Proboscis wrote:
01 Apr 2021
The cynic in me still says "Come talk it up after 100 hours of usage", and we'll see how those pretty red knobs of yours are faring :mrgreen:
Not worried - it took all of 5 minutes to paint, and I can always paint it again. I'll never need to spend the time stripping that soft gooey plasticizer off ever again, which was really the time consuming part.

These painted faders and knobs will likely outlive my Panorama - I'm sure a fancy new controller will come along at some point that catches my eye. :thumbup:
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altron
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10 Apr 2021

I like that you painted it black! Never could stand the white case paint! But I still can't stand the glossy look of the Panorama! Looks like cheapo consumer audio devices for me and every friggin fingerprint looks terrible on it.
Trap is where music goes to die.

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EnochLight
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10 Apr 2021

altron wrote:
10 Apr 2021
I like that you painted it black! Never could stand the white case paint! But I still can't stand the glossy look of the Panorama! Looks like cheapo consumer audio devices for me and every friggin fingerprint looks terrible on it.
I didn’t paint anything black - I only painted the old black faders and knobs red.
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dezma
Posts: 268
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28 Apr 2021

With a little less effort than your project, my buttons replacement kit has arrived :-) . Good there's still companies out there that are honest enough to admit there's a quality issue and provide a proper solution.

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EnochLight
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28 Apr 2021

dezma wrote:
28 Apr 2021
With a little less effort than your project, my buttons replacement kit has arrived :-) . Good there's still companies out there that are honest enough to admit there's a quality issue and provide a proper solution.
That's good to hear, but I wasn't interested in removing and replacing them with the plain old boring factory black buttons/sliders. ;) I wanted the colors to "pop", and I really like how the red looks. :thumbup:
Win 10 | Ableton Live 11 Suite |  Reason 12 | i7 3770k @ 3.5 Ghz | 16 GB RAM | RME Babyface Pro | Akai MPC Live 2 & Akai Force | Roland System 8, MX1, TB3 | Dreadbox Typhon | Korg Minilogue XD

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