A really bizarre question (apologies in advance)

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Has anyone ever managed to actually break a LinnStrument? As in physically break it? If so, how?

I am curious because it is becoming obvious to me that this is probably going to be one of my Forever Controllers, and while I tend to be very careful with my gear, I do travel a lot and I can't guarantee that my backpack will be handled like Waterford crystal all the time.

With no moving parts, no protruding bits, and a sturdy chassis, it seems to me like the only failure point would be catching the playing surface on something and tearing it. Since getting it, I've had to be a bit more careful about carrying around my supply of knives, loose razor blades, and broken glass, but that's probably a good thing. Anything else I should be worried about, or can I actually breathe a sigh of relief and just enjoy having my LS128 with me wherever I go?

mike
Mike Metlay, PhD (nuclear physics -- no, seriously!) :D
listen to me: Mr. Spiral | join the fam: RadioSpiral | my gig: Atomic Words LLC (coming soon)

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I would think the most likely failure would be if you dropped it/something on it and that cracked a PCB track in the sensor panel, but that seems like it would require quite a big fall/weight. Maybe the connectors would be next, but again, you'd ahve to provide a lot of abuse!

Another great thing about the Linnstrument is that it is very serviceable, so fixing those would be fairly straightforward and inexpensive too.

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Hi spiral,

It would very difficult to damage your 128. The circuit board is extra thick and most of the traces are on the back, so the board is pretty much indestructible. And the silicone touch surface is also pretty much indestructible and nearly impossible to tear. If you were able to damage it, you can buy a replacement on my site for $45 and install it yourself by following a video.

The weakest point are the jacks, especially the USB jack. If you trip over the USB cable and it pulls sideways, that could damage the USB jack, which requires swapping out the main circuit board. I currently do this for a fixed $100 exchange fee. To avoid such damage, I recommend on the Hooking It Up page that you tie the USB cable around the nearest guitar strap pin as a strain relief.

If you were to hit the playing surface hard with a sharp object, you could damage the touch sensor, but I could sell you a replacement sensor and you could install it yourself by following a video. By the way, everything in the unit can be replaced in this way.

If you fear that something sharp in your backpack might press against the 128’s playing surface with high force, I’d suggest placing a hard sheet of plastic or cardboard or similar over the playing surface inside the carrying case.

Other than the above, your 128 should last pretty much forever.

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If it's any indication, I've put my LinnStrument in the hands of Air Canada several times now... Their baggage "handlers" could break a bowling ball and lose the pieces in a rubber room with no exits... Still in working order (wink).

Cheers!

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Thank you so much, everyone! This is an amazing relief. :D

mike
Mike Metlay, PhD (nuclear physics -- no, seriously!) :D
listen to me: Mr. Spiral | join the fam: RadioSpiral | my gig: Atomic Words LLC (coming soon)

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Has anyone made a connector saver module? Basically just a short metal box that could screw into the strap screw holes with male to female adapters inside. That way if one of those get damaged all you would have to do is open the connector saver box and put a new adapter in.

Of course, that box might end up more expensive than the $100 to replace the circuit board, but it'd be a much quicker turnaround if someone was gigging hard and couldn't risk it getting damaged.

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Another option is to tie the USB cable around the nearest strap button to act as a strain relief. It’s described and pictured on the Hooking It Up page. This is a trick guitarists often use for the same reason.

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Roger_Linn wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 2:13 pm Another option is to tie the USB cable around the nearest strap button to act as a strain relief. It’s described and pictured on the Hooking It Up page. This is a trick guitarists often use for the same reason.
First thing I did when I got mine yesterday! This morning I ordered a short right angled USB-B cable to use with a boring old USB extension cable, that way if the cable gets yanked somehow the USB jack will be safe and the Linnstrument won't go flying off my desk :p

Just wanted to say this thing is incredible. It hits such a perfect sweet spot of things I love -electrical/software engineering, music, guitar, and piano. And I love that the software is open source, if I can ever stop playing it I may try out some coding someday!

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Thanks for the kind words, thandle.

The problem with a right-angle USB plug is that a hard straight pull could cause more damage than a regular USB plug. The strain relief is best because it protects against pills from all directions.

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I'm kinda curious about that question, too. Being quite a tinkerer I tend to disassemble whatever I get in my hands, resulting usually in some casual damage here and there. Trying to avoid that with my Linnstrument. Damn was I nervous when I disassembled it the first time. :D

The only degradation that happened are some scratches on top of the sensor shield when removing the silicone cover. Considering that it consists of a high gloss plastic sheet this probably can't be avoided (maybe It was already like that in the first place). The only thing that is bugging me is whether you could damage the sensor shield when little crumbs of dirt get under silicone through ESD during maintenance and you would compress the sensor through playing after assembling the Linnstrument again. The again, I hardly doubt that the sensors are calibrated with such an absolute precision that some tiny dirt crumbs would deform them permanently.

Regarding the USB socket I've found a solution that suits me quite well. Bought some fancy security strap connectors (2 pairs) that had enough clearance to screw a little USB cable onto them. Took a cable tie for extra security and used it to attach the USB cable to the strap connectors. Whenever I want to practice playing while standing I just attach this little fella to the next free strap button in combination with a USB extension.

While no one wants a stripped USB jack in the first place, I personally would give it a shot and replace it if there are no ripped traces to be found on the PCB. Those jacks are cheap und quite easy to replace with simple tools. Then again, don't know if you could cause some major damage on the sensor/LED shield if something else in the circuit has been wrecked through a ripped out USB jack, so I imagine Roger wouldn't recommend any DIY repairs, especially if you want to keep your warranty. I'm still glad it's one of the big USB jacks, couldn't replace any of those tiny USB-C connectors myself.
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I don’t recommend disassembling your LinnStrument, but I did design it for simple subassembly replacement by the owner by following a video. If you do disassemble LinnStrument, it’s important to not over- or under-tighten the panel screws when reassembling, because these screws also press the touch sensor’s contacts against the circuit board below it, so loose screws can result in reduced sensitivity or Y-axis not working on the nearby columns. (This design choice allowed me to avoid connectors that would have made the margins around the playing surface much wider.) When tightening the screws, use this guideline:

While pressing with one hand on the top panel near the screw, turn the screwdriver clockwise with your other hand until the screw head is level with the top panel and you start to feel the increased resistance of the screw being at the end of its travel. Then tighten an additional 1/4 turn only and no more. Note that the panel screws can be tightened within a very wide range and still work fine.

Regarding accidentally leaving dirt particles between the touch sensor and the flexible white touch surface during disassembly, that would be a bad thing. A particle under a note pad will make that note pad press harder on the sensor, making it play louder than other pads regardless of striking force.

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Thanks for the hint!

There's one pad in the center that's a little bit more sensitive than the others, I took a look and made sure everything is dirt and dust-free. Still no change, I might just tweak the value in the prescale-matrix someday.

BTW, thank you very much for releasing the firmware as open-source. For me that's the biggest helper for small inconveniences, for every other MIDI controller with pads I had to put tape onto it's FSR sensor sheets and run their data through MIDI remapping tools to make them live up to their full potential.

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Thanks, fleeesch. Regarding the one more sensitive note pad, email me at the support email. Maybe there’s something I can do.

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