Replacing The Crappy Rube Goldberg Foot Switches On My M9...

[es336td]

I love my M9... the small footprint is perfect for my pedal board.  One thing that has plagued me with the unit is the damn foot switches.  Springs and plungers to hit a circuit board mounted touch switches is a fine idea, but not practical for something meant to be used for live performance and actually toured with.   My 2 4-space SKB/Gator racks fell on my pedal board and caused all kinds of problems.  I'm sure it knocked the circuit board loose from the plastic standoffs.   I had to take it to service and he fixed it.  Now, the switches are acting up again.  More than likely the plunger/spring has moved and doesn't always make contact with the touch switch.   I also have an X3 Live mounted on a PedalTrain pedalboard that has its own padded briefcase.  Recently, the X3 was on top of other cases on a cart.  I was loading out, and the case fell about 2 feet to a concrete walk.  The top row of switches stopped working.  Opening it up, the circuit board had come loose from the standoffs; the goop they used to hold it on there, had flaked off.  Not knowing what to use as the goop, I mounted it on the standoffs and used electrical tape to ensure it stayed.   noticed the plastic bottom cover had little risers under the foot switches to give that circuit board some support; nothing similar for the top row.  I had some firm foam I purchased to insulate a speaker cabinet.  Sliced off a section to fit under the top board to do like the risers.  It worked.

 

Now, after all that crap back story... my main question is...  I saw, somewhere out there, where someone had replaced this system with actual Carling foot switches like most stomp boxes have.  It's a big PITA, but seems like it would be worth the effort.   Has anyone seen this procedure out there?   I can't find the site.  I'm seriously thinking of doing this to the M9 and the X3 as soon as I can afford it.  Really tired of the quirky nature of these two fine units.   If they could fix that and actually have an editor for the M9, I'd be in heaven.   Alas, I doubt that would happen.

 

Thanx!

 

L

[TheRealZap]

this place will mod it. http://r3fx.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=57

[es336td]

this place will mod it. http://r3fx.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=57

Thanx!   Anyone on here dealt with this place?

[TheRealZap]

they've been around for a while, and have changed the website a few times... sure they're legit... saw some youtube vids as well if i recall.

no personal experience though.

[es336td]

I found two places and wondered if anyone had experience.  R3FX is one, and JHV3 (http://www.jhv3.com/m-series-mods/).  Wondered about quality of mod, turnaround,  etc., I'm sure I probably could do it myself with all the tutorials, but don't have a bunch of experience working on circuit boards and do not have the patience.  I'd much rather spend the $75-$100 for the mod.  I could also continue to realign/adjust the current switches when they fail because of a jar or such, but would really rather be done with the plunger system.   Thanx!

[es336td]

I have found a local tech, that I trust, to do this mod.  I need to get the switches.   Any idea as to which kind I need?  Momentary?  SPDT?  DPDT?  Carling?  Thanx.

[bgmww]

I think that everything you need to know is here -> http://www.guitargeek.com/line-6-m13-foot-switch-replacement-guide/

[bassman59]

Hi there,

 

I have the M13 version of this unit and suffer from the same issue. I did see the Carling replacement repair  online years ago but its a major job indeed.  I parked the unit and got a different system but knew it needed repairing at some stage so today I opened it to see what I could do.

 

The tiny plungers that make contact with the tactile switches on the boards are not 'making' the swithces (on the ones that are probematic) and even the ones that are working look like theres a sizeable gap when the footswitch is at rest. If this gap was shortened then the switch would make  properly when pressed.  

My solution was to use a hole punch to cut out a tiny circular plastic pad approx 4mm wide and 0.75mm thick. I removed the footswitch from the top (hex key 7/64) and took out the plunger. This is a bit tricky but manageable and you have to remove the back panel to access the nuts at the back of the hex bolts. From here the  tactile switch is visible and just pressing it with a screwdriver shows that the actual switches themselves were working fine.  Superglued the pad to the plunger  and  reassembled and the footswitches make each time now. I made sure to check that closing this gap  puts no undue pressure on the tactile switch and i cant see any distortion of the board when the footswitch is pressed all the way to the limit of its travel. 

 

If I was doing it again (and I suspect I may have to ) I'd remove the switch PCBs one at a time. This would mean that the footswitches can be left in place and the plungers can be removed once the board is off and you can do all of the switches (of one board) in one go.

 

Time will tell how successful it is I suppose but if Line6 had made a plunger 0.5mm or so thicker these units might not be failing so soon . I had mine a year before it started givig bother.

 

I hope this helps

Ed

[oldjim]

Hey Ed (bassman59), your technique looks promising.  Do you have step-by-step instructions for getting the back off of your M13 to get access to the inside of the unit?

 

Cheers,

Bob

[bassman59]

Hi Bob,

I don't use the unit much any more after I got an Axe8 but when I do it still works fine.

I'm really out the door at work these days and I won't find time to do a step by step any time soon. What I can tell you is that if your confident in your abilities in the tinkering and repairs department you will not find this difficult. There are 8 screws on the  rubber foot pads.  Remove these first. There are then 2 more in the middle of the base. I'm not sure you need to remove these as they might be just to stop flexing when pressing foot switches so leave them until last. There are a further two on the two ends of the jack socket panel. Remove these too. The two halves should separate then. If not remove the two screws in the middle of the base.  I have to say that I recall the design lacked some finesse insofar as some of the screws are in fact bolts and the nuts are not 'captive' in the chassis. So loosening a bolt can mean the nut falls into the enclosure. The hex bolts on the foot switches themselves are of this type so you have to keep an eye on both ends to see what's happening and when re-assembling. Look through the side of the unit to see the action of pressing a foot switch and the contact point with the surface mounted switch. I tested the surface mounted switches at this point but the power must be connected There is no mains connected directly to the board and the transformer supplies only about 20V so its safe. Using the flat side of a small screwdriver to press on the surface mounted switch will tell you if the switch is in fact working by viewing the display. The plunger that makes contact with the switch is what you must modify by lengthening it (0.75 mm I used and just cut from a plastic box ). A hole punch ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHxPauiCg-0) like the one in the link is what I have and 4mm width is about right. I superglued the 4mm pad to the end of the plunger shaft which is also ~ 4mm in diameter. I will caution here that adding too thick a piece of plastic to the end of the plunger will damage the surface mounted switch by putting too much pressure on it. 0.75 was a judgement on my behalf and was what I had to hand. You need to make sure once the pad is added, that the pcb with the surface mounted switch is not flexing and the switch is not deforming. Might be a good idea to use a less permanent glue than superglue to test the operation of different pad thicknesses to optimise before finally fixing. You'd expect that all the switches should use the same thickness pad but that may not be the case. The foot switch removal from the top panel is fiddly as I remember and there are a number of parts sandwiched together, the jewel for the led is plastic and separate if I recall correctly and there is a spring inside the foot switch. You may need a miniature socket set to hold the nuts in place when reassembling the foot switches.

 

I think in hindsight I did this to see if the process would work and it does but it might be easier to actually remove the entire pcb for the row of five switches  for easier access to the  foot switch plungers. I'm not sure but I think this way you don't need to remove the foot switches from the top panel as the plungers are accessible and you get to do five at a time and its simpler to test the actual surface mounted switches too.

 

The usual caveats apply here Bob. I take no responsibility for anything you do in relation to the above information and its hard not to sound patronising here but if you have good hands and a bit of savvy you'll have no problem otherwise get a techie to do it for you.

If you''re doing it yourself I'll be glad to help out further. You can send me a photo of the inside if you need any further info.  I like this unit a lot and the repair is definitely worth it.

Best regards

Ed