Play+ main encoder suddenly switching settings at random? (video link here )
It suddenly started doing this while prepping for my Jamuary entry for the day.
I tried switching out the power source (official wall-wart versus plugged into various battery banks), tried restarting the unit, tried removing and reinserting the SD card, etc, and nothing has corrected the situation.
The unit’s firmware is v1.0.1 b1405
The proposed solution on the forums was to bend the sample encoder.
While this has worked, I do consider this both a temporary solution and a product flaw as this unit is only a couple weeks old and has only ever been kept in an official Polyend case for the Play/Tracker models.
I’m opening this ticket so that there’s awareness and so that future customers won’t have to deal with the issue (it really sucks to fall in love with a piece of gear, make some awesome stuff with it, only to have it suddenly stop working… It’s kinda icky to be told to bend a piece of said expensive gear in order to resolve an obviously production-based flaw that is demonstrably not an isolated issue).
Hi @pianomanzero , thanks for reporting this bug, but I’m afraid both you and others have already reported it…
Here:
And here:
If you’d like to keep an open thread about this problem, I will move it from Bug (as we already have two duplicates) into Play category, although all the tickets I shared above are also available for anyone to search and find information about. They are archived but not hidden.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts on this issue. We will answer your question and continue further discussion your original bug report (shared above).
I’m hoping I’ll be forgiven for being a little confused. In my original post I was told to open this bug. I’m not sure what ticketing solution Polyend uses internally to track, but having a software development background myself I know the value of making sure that a child/reoccurrence issue does have a documented link to the main parent issue for tracking, gauging heat of a particular problem and the severity which it should be assigned, etc. I’m taking a guess that hardware development would follow similar procedures to track multiple occurrences of the same/peripheral/dependent issues; this is why i reported the ticket when asked to do so.
Additionally, I would personally not consider the issue resolved until the root of the matter has been addressed for both existing and future hardware revisions. This will require a twofold solution (fix at the source, fix of existing units in the field).
Being asked to bend a piece of physical hardware weakens said hardware with repetition and should not be considered a permanent or long-term fix. If the issue reoccurs, and I wiggle or bend the encoder again, that further weakens the component. Over time this will compound into a permanent break: it’s only a matter of when, not if. A break of this nature will likely permanently disable the unit.
While I can’t speak for everyone who owns a play+, for myself, I would be extremely upset should this happen outside the unit’s warranty period.
I don’t believe you should have to bend the hardware more than one time. If it breaks we will replace it at no cost to you. And if it breaks out of warranty we will certainly help you out then too, I would replace the unit if we told you to bend it even if it is out of warranty, maybe not in 7 years but within reason. That being said these are not your average plastic encoders, they are made of metal for touch sensitivity and are very, very hard to break compared to your average plastic encoder. We’re not really concerned about bending them weakening the unit.