Nord User Forum

I bought my NS3 88 almost exactly 11 months ago and I've been extremely careful with it. I have been keeping it in the most dust-free room I have available in my house...

Today, out of the blue, the "Program" knob has started behaving like it's occasionally misfiring -- that is, you rotate it and you hear the "click", but it doesn't trigger what it should in terms of software's feedback.

So far I noticed the following:

1) it happens on average once every 100 "clicks";
2) it only happens when rotating clockwise;
3) it doesn't depend on the function that the knob is actually performing -- it happens both when browsing Programs and when naming a Program before storing it;
4) the knob doesn't feel that it's "worn out" by overuse, in fact the clicks feel almost as crisp as the other knobs'.

I tried cleaning its surroundings with a brush, but if it's dust that's causing this behaviour, I suspect I'd have to take the whole thing apart for the cleaning to be effective. Another possibility is that some kind of metal pins that's inside got slightly bent and don't touch occasionally.

Is there any of you who has either a picture of these knobs on the inside, or can explain to me their exact mechanical behaviour, so that I can at least picture in my mind what could possibly be going on?

Also, can the black rubber caps that's on it be removed just leveraging with a screwdriver or something to make it pop out? Perhaps my cleaning would be slightly more effective then...

Thank you

Hi, behind that "knob" there is an encoder, which may have some faulty step (with its contact broken or malfunctioning because of dirt inside, regardless you hear the mechanical click; unfortunately usually the firs case is the one).

To try and clean it you need to open the NS3 to access the encoder (which depending on the type may be sealed or not btw), but if you are still under warranty I suggest you ask official Nord service (via Algam Eko) for a fix/replacement (if covered, they may say it has been misused hence broken, but... try.)

Thanks max. I actually got the Stage 3 from Thomann though, and it's still under warranty. I shall contact their support first perhaps.

In the meantime, I must say the knob has worked right since. Probably an intermittent problem, which kind of makes me (wishfully?) think that the component isn't actually broken...

This sounds almost a bit like my NS3 that sporadically changes patches unexpectedly. Almost as if there is something under the surface (whether software or hardware) causing some kind of random glitches in how program changes are working. I sometimes wonder if the complexity of Programs and Songs (which point to Programs) plus the Seamless Transition may all be conspiring to offer up random bugs that are hard to reproduce.

ericL wrote:This sounds almost a bit like my NS3 that sporadically changes patches unexpectedly. Almost as if there is something under the surface (whether software or hardware) causing some kind of random glitches in how program changes are working. I sometimes wonder if the complexity of Programs and Songs (which point to Programs) plus the Seamless Transition may all be conspiring to offer up random bugs that are hard to reproduce.

Well I guess that's possible, but in my specific case I'm afraid it's pretty much hardware-related...

A bit disappointing anyway, considering that's not even 1 year old...

Incidentally, does anyone know if this is the exact part?

https://www.syntaur.com/Items.php?Item=5004

There are a few posts in here about the encoder, but none that specifically addresses the Stage 3, as far as I could see.

Why start with soldering on your own?

Hello, I am wondering about the reliability of northern keyboards, for some time now I have read that many people seem to have various problems with their instrument, defective buttons, clics of various keys, LEDs, is this a view of the spirit or is real?
For keyboards that are relatively expensive it poses a problem in term of value for money.
In the middle of the music scene one swears by the red keyboards on of phenomen fashion?
I'm worried

FZiegler wrote:Why start with soldering on your own?

Well I am not sure which level of solder ability I would need to do this job, but I can solder indeed, at least in a basic way.

Not that I plan to solder a new encoder any time soon though. I just wanted to make sure that the part was the right one, because I might need it at some point in the future. Now it's 1 out of 100 times, but I am pretty sure it's going to become more in the future years...

I am a bit puzzled right now about what I should do. Shipping the NS3 to Thomann for service would pose a higher risk of damage than the annoyance of the encoder itself, which is still so low that it doesn't bother me. They're not going to send me a brand new NS3 for that, so I don't know what to think.

Gus1+ wrote:Hello, I am wondering about the reliability of northern keyboards, for some time now I have read that many people seem to have various problems with their instrument, defective buttons, clics of various keys, LEDs, is this a view of the spirit or is real?
For keyboards that are relatively expensive it poses a problem in term of value for money.
In the middle of the music scene one swears by the red keyboards on of phenomen fashion?
I'm worried

I was, and still am, wondering the same to be honest. I am of the opinion that any (or at least *expensive*) electronic equipment should be made durable enough that the reason for me to change it is obsolescence, not breakage.

Although nothing lasts forever, there IS a difference between my 2 and a half octaves toy keyboard that I had when I was a toddler, which still works perfectly after 40 years of abuse, and a 3,500 euro keyboard that after 11 months starts showing the signs of time. OK, maybe the encoder problem of mine was a fluke of yesterday, but as you rightly say it's not the first time we hear about a hardware problem concerning a Nord keyboard.

Some could say that precisely only the people who have problems are the ones who write in forums like this one, so there is a disproportion of data. This may be true so some extent, but at the end of the day what people are sayins IS the basis for a statistical idea of how likely something is to break along the way.

Don't really know what else to say myself...