Beetronics Royal Jelly saved from the depths

beansell

beansell

Member
This is the third Beetronics pedal I've repaired in the last 12 months. Their PCB design is incredibly unique and beautiful, but golly gosh they gotta stop putting set screw knobs on knurled shafts. Those poor things just crumble like a fine powder. Case in point, this Royal Jelly.
Royal Jelly 9.jpg
Royal Jelly 7.jpg

Lucky for me, it was covered in layers of crud. Cleaning that shit is always my favourite part of repairs. Nylon brush, anti-bac wipes, and a little kiss of isopropyl on cotton tips for the extra crusty bits.

Royal Jelly 10.jpg
Royal Jelly 4.jpg
Royal Jelly 5.jpg
Royal Jelly 3.JPG
Royal Jelly 2.JPG
Royal Jelly 1.JPG

I got the go ahead from the customer to replace all 7 pots with 1/4" smooth shaft long leg PCB pots - what these knobs were designed for. Smallbear (Synthcube) sent them at the start of June, and they showed up at my door in Australia a cheeky 9 weeks later. I knew USPS was slowly turning to a farce since the orange gremlin took office, but I underestimated how it'd affect me on the other side of the world.

Out of all pots in the middle row, only one of the original knobs fit. Frustrating to hit that roadblock right at the end of the repair. I had exactly 2 black Davies/Klon style knobs on hand, which were luckily a perfect fit.

Have any of you had similar encounters with Beetronics pedals? It gives off "built like a tank" until I pull it apart, then it's a precariously designed work of art that sounds really good.
 
GizzWizzKing said:
Are all those dot matrices just for fun?
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I've noticed all the boards have only 90 degree traces. Straight lines, no bends or curves. So if you gotta go up, usually you go sideways, use a via to jump a trace, and then go up. Lots of extra work to get to the same place. In answer to your question, many of those vias are indeed functional.
 
bluedmc777 said:
Jeez where’s the owner been gigging…a cotton field?!

I’m surrounded by cotton fields if that sounded random lol.
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It's a pedal from a friend of a friend, otherwise I'd have teased him for letting it get so grubby. I get the impression it'd been sitting about for a while before coming to me. I live next to a train line that frequently has freights and big inland lines that kick up the fine dust, so I can understand how quickly a fancy new pedal can get nasty if left to the elements.
 
johnk_10 said:
i have one. i didn't realize that they use knurled shaft pots with set screw knobs (not a good idea, but you can use availabe brass sleeves for that (but they aren't cheap at a buck a piece: ( https://www.amazon.com/Create-idea-...60f-bc09-12cbfbcf7179&pd_rd_i=B0DK2QK7C7&psc=)
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That's not quite the solution here. The brass sleeves can be had from Tayda at a reasonable price, but the problem actually comes from the pressure that the set screw applies to the shaft. The split shaft allows for the two halves to bend in towards each other and ultimately snap off, sleeve or not.
 
Erik S said:
A square of 1/16” sheet metal stuffed in the gap should keep it from bending.

Still feels weird to tighten a set screw on a knurled shaft though.

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I have done this on pedals I have purchased and also fitted Brass sleeves if the knob was for 1/4'' (6.35) shafts.
Their not cheap for what they are asking now, I purchased mine 15 years ago when they were one of the few available for about $2.50:
www.wdmusic.com

WD Brass Potentiometer Shaft Conversion Sleeve

WD® Brass Potentiometer Shaft Conversion SleeveThese small brass sleeves can covert a split shaft potentiometer to a solid shaft. Most commonly used to attach solid shaft knobs onto a split shaft potentiometer.
www.wdmusic.com
 
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It's a small company, why not just email the Brazilian dude himself?

The name is Filipe Pampuri, I believe. Also I didn't intentionally post a French thing, they subtitle in English eventually.

 
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beansell said:
That's not quite the solution here. The brass sleeves can be had from Tayda at a reasonable price, but the problem actually comes from the pressure that the set screw applies to the shaft. The split shaft allows for the two halves to bend in towards each other and ultimately snap off, sleeve or not.
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they work well for me.
 
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