Nord User Forum

Hi, could anybody kindly point me to a technical manual on how to disassemble a Nord Lead A1?

Is there a guide somewhere? or a technical manual I can get hold of?

I'm considering opening it up to take a look at two buttons that might give intermittent input, if not too difficult.
Unit being out of warranty, this would be preferable to sending out for repairs.

thanks!

I opened many synths, remove obvious screws and open it up.
Look inside and see if you are confident to remove the PCB and resolder the buttons.

When I received my NS3 compact, the MWheel did not function.
Despite the warranty I opened the NS3 and fixed the Internal broken connector (common issue).

Good luck!

I just opened up my Wave for fixing the mod wheel and a general cleaning (
nord-wave-forum-f11/wave-mod-wheel-problem-halp-t4963.html). It's extremely easy. Start from the bottom panel, you should see two parallel rows of screws which hold the keybed assembly: you can leave them in place and only remove the two other screws which hold the chassis (one in the left-hand controller area, the other in the power supply area). Then remove all the back screws and finally the side panels.
With the old Leads you can leave on the two back screws on the sides and open the chassis like a car hood, but that doesn't seem to be possible on the new models (4, A1 and Wave2). Anyway, everything else should be more or less the same, just take care when you open the chassis, not to pull-tear-disconnect the ribbon cables!

I'm experiencing the exact same behaviour: from time to time, the dedicated button will skip one of the effects. Strangely enough, it's always either the Phaser or, seldom, the Chorus or the Drive (the other three are unaffected). Couldn't this actually be indicative of a software bug? A faulty contact usually doesn't carry the electric signal through: that is, I would expect the Lead to not change effect at all, not to skip the next one altogether. I'll try writing Clavia about it. Nonetheless, in case it was indeed a hardware issue, do you believe the selector will keep working in the years to come? I can't repair it myself as I don't know the first thing about soldering, nor do I want to spend a fortune by sending it to a repair centre (I bought it used, it's now got about four years).

Buttons bounce, which means they have multiple contact-disconnect events for a single press or release. The buttons Nord uses can bounce badly when they wear or get oxidized. The open nature of the contact surface means oxidation potential is high - these are not sealed buttons. If you live in an environment where the air quality can promote oxidation of that material faster, your buttons will wear faster - using them frequently can help prevent this, but if you let them go too long they get a thick-enough layer of the oxidation that they begin to function more intermittently. Double-events then can occur, since the bounce frequency drops below the rate at which bounces are filtered out by the system. It's not a software problem, it's a hardware one.

Replacing the buttons is very easy if you're not a total klutz with a soldering iron. Be careful of damaging other areas of the board, but they're simple through-hole components and come out easily with a desoldering pump and braid/wick. I use a small screwdriver tip with good success (I replaced all 50+ buttons on my NL3 by hand).

Thanks for your thoughts.

Could it be a motherboard fault rather than buttons?

Asking because I bought my nla1 used, but it was in mint conditions, and I only use it indoors and cover it with a sheet when not in use, and probably only used it 50 times since. I suppose the unit can't be more than 5 years old total.

And I figure it's three buttons in the same area, left side, and it's so rare and random, but it seems to happen more frequently when first turning the keyboard on rather than after long use.

But it's great to hear it could just be the buttons.
I actually received four new buttons, have them in a drawer.
I just don't have the courage to buy a soldering kit and attempt the repair yet.

The fact that it happens more frequently when you first turn it on is good evidence that it's just the buttons (aside from the fact that the way the buttons are scanned means you would not likely have only *some* buttons not working, but that's more a technical deep dive). As I mentioned, the buttons develop a layer of oxidation. Using them wears this down a bit. If the layer is very thin, using the buttons will remove a few atoms of the oxidation, permitting the button to function again. But oxidation tends to support further oxidation, so they re-oxidize when not in use. This is why frequent use can often prevent it, but infrequent use cannot undo it - once the oxidation has started on a button it can only be retarded, not prevented. But if you keep it from taking root in the metal, so to speak, then you can hold it off indefinitely.

Ignore

23skidoo wrote:The fact that it happens more frequently when you first turn it on is good evidence that it's just the buttons (aside from the fact that the way the buttons are scanned means you would not likely have only *some* buttons not working, but that's more a technical deep dive). As I mentioned, the buttons develop a layer of oxidation. Using them wears this down a bit. If the layer is very thin, using the buttons will remove a few atoms of the oxidation, permitting the button to function again. But oxidation tends to support further oxidation, so they re-oxidize when not in use. This is why frequent use can often prevent it, but infrequent use cannot undo it - once the oxidation has started on a button it can only be retarded, not prevented. But if you keep it from taking root in the metal, so to speak, then you can hold it off indefinitely.

would you recommend isopropyl alcohol or wd40 contacts cleaner to clean and remove oxidation inside buttons?

I fixed the issues I had before. However I have a couple of buttons on my nord lead a1, incidentally the ones I virtually never press (for toggling fx type and for toggling filter type) that have been detected today as double presses.
I didn't use the keyboard for 6 months, and after having pressed them a lot today, they are now working fine.
But i'm worried this double press might come back.

Thanks

Just use them frequently. There isn't a good way to re-coat the wear surfaces on these buttons to the degree you'd need to. Deoxit might help but you'll have to disassemble the entire button mechanism and coat all the copper wear surfaces with it. Its tedious and will need to be repeated from time to time (no way to say how frequently, could be weeks, months, or years depending on cause, wear and corrosion depth, and your environmental situation and frequency of use).

So just use them every so often and it'll keep them in good order.