The One Nub Club

[GizmoTheGreen]

hmm, my left nub, which i think was the faulty one, is now officially broken :/
i can't go down/left-down diagonally. right, left and up works though

and when i touch the part thats now working, something is kinda scraping, like a plastic thing or maybe a spring.
Hope i can order a spare-nub-part soon and try to replace it, heck id buy a new pandora motherboard if i had to.

edit: when first batch is over ofcourse...

 

[MDave]

Bah, mouse is still not working right, although the nub centers itself now. Its like its a digital stick now, except some directions either don't register properly, or not at all. Similar to when I first got it actually, but it doesn't seem to be improving. I think something is still not quite right inside the nub.

 

[xweb]

Just now while I read here and phantasize a bit about those nubs, I had an idea. I try to imagine how it looks inside. A spiral spring with the movable nub in the middle and the outer ring in the nub case. What could happen if the nubs are soldered inside an oven instead by hand? The spring could heat up and melt into the nub case a little bit. The consequences could be that the spiral gets stuck and breaks under the stress after a while, because it can't use the whole length anymore. Or it gets unstuck and causes this roughness some are experiencing.

Damn, someone open one up, now! I'm a hardware guy and this makes me nuts. I would have already torn it apart on the second day

Another way "baking" could potentially damage a spring is loss of tempering due to heat exposure.

 

[mojo_ninja]

I must buy one spare to look inside. Mali is right

Agreed, Mali is right. But first, couldn't we just ask someone who knows? I mean, since OPT had something to do with the nub design, couldn't they give us a basic idea of what the nubs are like internally?

Of course, eventually someone will take one apart. I just know it's only a matter of time. Knowing more about the nubs beforehand could save a lot of time though.

Yeah would be interesting to know.I have a one nubber on its way to me.

You should have a road map before going anywhere with just one nub... Wait, what were we talking about?

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

nubs driving to ireland, as singles

 

[Claude]

After being disappointed how the nubs behave in Q3NanoGL ,I have decided to rip them apart and take a look if I can fix them.
So after disassembling and cleaning the nubs it works way better than before

Here are the pics of my nub surgery (Uhh offending Pandora nude pics with nubs!!)
NUBS!!

I used some SMD shim blade (Edsyn RB641) to remove the nubs, afterwards I disassembled and cleaned the nubs with alcohol.
In one nub there was some dirt , in the other was a tiny piece of metal (like a cut pin from an electronic component).

 

[mali]

^ You are a hero!

 

[MDave]

After being disappointed how the nubs behave in Q3NanoGL ,I have decided to rip them apart and take a look if I can fix them.
So after disassembling and cleaning the nubs it works way better than before

Here are the pics of my nub surgery (Uhh offending Pandora nude pics with nubs!!)
NUBS!!

I used some SMD shim blade (Edsyn RB641) to remove the nubs, afterwards I disassembled and cleaned the nubs with alcohol.
In one nub there was some dirt , in the other was a tiny piece of metal (like a cut pin from an electronic component).

Awesome! Can you show us pics of the inside of the nub? Does it use springs, and if so does it look like they can come loose and put back in?

 

[Monk]

Cool! How/where could bits of metal possibly get INSIDE a nub though???

 

[fusion_power]

I used some SMD shim blade (Edsyn RB641) to remove the nubs, afterwards I disassembled and cleaned the nubs with alcohol.
In one nub there was some dirt , in the other was a tiny piece of metal (like a cut pin from an electronic component).

Sounds like the Quality Control in the Nub Factory is very low, such things shouldn't happen. But good that it is something that can be fixed, even if this would be to complicated for the average user.

 

[mali]

Thinking about it, maybe the piece looking like a cut pin from an electronic component was a broken part from the spring? At least it's possible to disassemble the nubs to remove dirt properly. I can't see from the pics if it's possible to disassemble further without breaking anything.

 

[Vitel]

Cool! How/where could bits of metal possibly get INSIDE a nub though???

++

I used some SMD shim blade (Edsyn RB641) to remove the nubs, afterwards I disassembled and cleaned the nubs with alcohol.
In one nub there was some dirt , in the other was a tiny piece of metal (like a cut pin from an electronic component).

Sounds like the Quality Control in the Nub Factory is very low, such things shouldn't happen. But good that it is something that can be fixed, even if this would be to complicated for the average user.

Thanks a lot Clause for the pics.
I don't think it's easy for 'average user'. BTW, you loose your warranty when you do such tweaks.

 

[tds48]

Well Done Claude

Can I just ask

1) Why not just heat the solder and remove?

2) Did you manually solder the nubs back in place? Seems the connections points are on the outside?

Thanks

 

[Claude]

After being disappointed how the nubs behave in Q3NanoGL ,I have decided to rip them apart and take a look if I can fix them.
So after disassembling and cleaning the nubs it works way better than before

Here are the pics of my nub surgery (Uhh offending Pandora nude pics with nubs!!)
NUBS!!

I used some SMD shim blade (Edsyn RB641) to remove the nubs, afterwards I disassembled and cleaned the nubs with alcohol.
In one nub there was some dirt , in the other was a tiny piece of metal (like a cut pin from an electronic component).

Awesome! Can you show us pics of the inside of the nub? Does it use springs, and if so does it look like they can come loose and put back in?

There is no spring inside , only the rubber thingy in the center of the plate. When you move the nub the rubber gets deformed and conducts to the gold plated pads on the nub-pcb. Tbh I was hoping to find at some hall effect sensor inside , the resistance rubber method looks kind of errhmm cheapish to me

 

[Claude]

Well Done Claude

Can I just ask

1) Why not just heat the solder and remove?

2) Did you manually solder the nubs back in place? Seems the connections points are on the outside?

Thanks

I tried to remove the solder with solder wick , but can't get the pads clean enough. So the nub wont come off the pcb.
The shim blade gets between the pad and the nub when the solder melts.
And yes I soldered the nubs manually back in place , like you said the connection are on the outside. On the pandora pcb are some holes for
the alignment of the nubs.

 

[Monk]

There is no spring inside , only the rubber thingy in the center of the plate. When you move the nub the rubber gets deformed and conducts to the gold plated pads on the nub-pcb. Tbh I was hoping to find at some hall effect sensor inside , the resistance rubber method looks kind of errhmm cheapish to me

Two thoughts come to mind - the first is that often the "cheaper looking" or simpler solution to a problem can be the better one - if it's reliable then there is less to go wrong!

The second is - "where's the rest of the nub?". It looks like we're missing part of the picture here. Maybe a piece left on the main PCB? Because I too thought this was an all-singing all-dancing clever thing, with its own firmware and some kind of processing unit. Maybe there's something clever in the "cap" somehow, or sandwiched somewhere else? It's like a treasure hunt! It CAN'T be as simple as it looks from the photos though, or we wouldn't have had all the bug fix malarky and hoo-ha about having to recalibrate them every time you boot. Fascinating!

 

[tds48]

Well Done Claude

Can I just ask

1) Why not just heat the solder and remove?

2) Did you manually solder the nubs back in place? Seems the connections points are on the outside?

Thanks

I tried to remove the solder with solder wick , but can't get the pads clean enough. So the nub wont come off the pcb.
The shim blade gets between the pad and the nub when the solder melts.
And yes I soldered the nubs manually back in place , like you said the connection are on the outside. On the pandora pcb are some holes for
the alignment of the nubs.

Thanks Claude ...

 

[mali]

@Monk
The controller is on the main PCB, not on the nubs
I agree, the simpler the better. No spring is good news, too.

 

[MDave]

Alright, the picture is getting clearer ... So the stick part of the nub pushes the rubber contact around inside? I guess the stick in mine is misaligned or possibly broken or something then, because it acts like a digital stick (on or off motion, no inbetween) and random speeds and sometimes wrong directions.

 

[Claude]

There is no spring inside , only the rubber thingy in the center of the plate. When you move the nub the rubber gets deformed and conducts to the gold plated pads on the nub-pcb. Tbh I was hoping to find at some hall effect sensor inside , the resistance rubber method looks kind of errhmm cheapish to me

Two thoughts come to mind - the first is that often the "cheaper looking" or simpler solution to a problem can be the better one - if it's reliable then there is less to go wrong!

The second is - "where's the rest of the nub?". It looks like we're missing part of the picture here. Maybe a piece left on the main PCB? Because I too thought this was an all-singing all-dancing clever thing, with its own firmware and some kind of processing unit. Maybe there's something clever in the "cap" somehow, or sandwiched somewhere else? It's like a treasure hunt! It CAN'T be as simple as it looks from the photos though, or we wouldn't have had all the bug fix malarky and hoo-ha about having to recalibrate them every time you boot. Fascinating!

:rolleyes: Personally I prefer the hall effect based nubs , they don't wear off . The "resistance rubber" does .... Thats the same stuff like on the TV remote keys , where you have to hammer the key to work after a couple of years of usage.

And the nub only consists of 8.5 pieces : 4 screws , 1 pcb , the resistance rubber thingy, cap/cover , the stick and some software