Strange level and drawbar behavior on NE6

[Funkademic]

I have an Electro 6D that I recently turned on after several months of not playing it. (It had been sitting undisturbed in a clean office). As soon as it powered on, I noticed that the screen was showing a very rapidly changing "Level" indicator, as though someone were twisting the master volume knob back and forth very rapidly. And the sound coming out of my headphones confirmed this. It was extremely choppy.

When I tried to adjust the drawbars, they also appeared to be changing on their own in a very fast and jittery way, and could not really be pulled out beyond 4 or 5. They would get "stuck" there on the screen.

The screen would also show the "FX Level 1" or "FX Level 2" or "Attack" parameters also changing rapidly, interspersed with the general "Level" changes.

I've updated to the latest firmware and I also did a full factory reset, with no change in behavior. I thought this might be a dirty master level pot but given that several parts of the board (master level, FX 1, FX2, Attack, and the drawbars) are registering change information, maybe it's something more serious. Any insight?

See attached for a video that shows some of this behavior. And thanks!

[cphollis]

I've never seen that specific behavior before, but there have been many similar problems cured by opening up the unit and making sure all the ribbon cables are securely fastened.

[Funkademic]

I've never seen that specific behavior before, but there have been many similar problems cured by opening up the unit and making sure all the ribbon cables are securely fastened.

I was afraid you might say that. Alright, I'll take a peep!

[HalfSwede]

Just one other thought. On my 6HP had issue of randomnly changing settings/non response little as you describe. Maybe linked to periods of inactivity. There was issue of some of the grey buttons needing cleaning by using pliers to pull off caps, and cotton bud/contact cleaner. Been fine since. I expect our Nords prefer regular use?

[Funkademic]

Just one other thought. On my 6HP had issue of randomnly changing settings/non response little as you describe. Maybe linked to periods of inactivity. There was issue of some of the grey buttons needing cleaning by using pliers to pull off caps, and cotton bud/contact cleaner. Been fine since. I expect our Nords prefer regular use?

Interesting. I'll give that a try if the ribbon connector is seated fine.

[Funkademic]

Update: All of the ribbon connectors seem to be seated fine, so I'm guessing that it could be a board failure.

Has anyone had their main board or panel board crap out on them like this? Any idea what this part would cost to replace? I've heard that Clavia has refurbished boards but I haven't been able to track down more information about that.

[Adrian Hale]

Sounds like classic “ghost parameter changes,” which usually point to a hardware issue rather than firmware or dust. When multiple knobs and drawbars are all jittering at once, it often means:

a failing control board

a bad ribbon cable connection

or a short somewhere in the panel electronics

It’s unlikely that all those pots went bad at the same time, so the shared circuitry is the main suspect.

Unfortunately, a factory reset won’t fix this kind of problem. The safest move is to have a qualified Nord technician open it up, check the panel board, and reseat or replace the affected components. Should be repairable-but it does need hands-on service.

[maxpiano]

Update: All of the ribbon connectors seem to be seated fine, so I'm guessing that it could be a board failure.

Has anyone had their main board or panel board crap out on them like this? Any idea what this part would cost to replace? I've heard that Clavia has refurbished boards but I haven't been able to track down more information about that.

Did you just look at the connectors or did you unplug and replug all of them, on both sides? Because the second thing is what you need to do.

[Funkademic]

Thanks for the help, everyone! I've made a CRAZY discovery. Check this out:

When I turn the nine knobs of the Effects section (the four EQ knobs plus FX1, FX2, Spkr/Comp, Delay, and Reverb), they each control a different organ drawbar. Weird, I know! And if all nine knobs are fully 100% open, the keyboard works perfectly! As long as they are wide open, I can change the drawbar settings normally with the physical drawbars, and I also don't get any "Level" changes or other random changes (Attack, Release, etc.) But as soon as I change one of those knobs so that it's not 100% open, all of the weird behaviors start acting up again.

This is true whether or not any of the effects are actually on. And it's also true when I switch patches. Even if the virtual position of a knob is not 100% open, as long as the physical position of that knob is wide open, then the keyboard works fine. What this means is that I can play the keyboard on a gig as long as my patches are perfectly dialed in and I don't make any changes on the fly. But why would I playing a Nord if that were true?

I have double-checked that the ribbon connectors are fully seated (unplugging and replugging them in). I noticed that one of them (the narrower one, not the one that is connected to the panel board) seems to have a tiny scratch on it, caused by the metal bar that screws to the base of the board. But I don't know if that could be causing this issue.

See below for a video that demonstrates the issue.

knobs_control_drawbars.mp4

(38.26 MiB) Downloaded 43 times

And here's a picture of the ribbon connector with a microscopic scratch on it from the metal bar. Grateful for any advice!

ribbon scratch.jpg (1.85 MiB) Viewed 1318 times