Author Topic: CH Pro USB Peddals (Read 439 times)

bustr · « **on:** April 06, 2007, 07:12:43 PM »

My "Z" axis 100k pot finally bit the dust in my CH Pro USB peddals. I have ordered a replacement from CH. Anyone have tips on getting the two base halves back together with all the parts lined up?

At the CH website on the spare parts page they have a misrepresentation of their potentiomiters for peddals and joysticks. The description says the 50k pot is for peddals and the 100k is for joysticks. I found a CH tech thread where they replied to a customer to use the 100k pot for USB peddals.

Hoarach · « **Reply #1 on:** April 06, 2007, 09:16:38 PM »

When my set of pedals went I sent the pedals to CH and paid $50 plus the money to ship there. They gave me a brand new set instead for $50.

bustr · « **Reply #2 on:** April 06, 2007, 11:10:30 PM »

Fortunatly the connectors to the pot are slip ons. No soldering. I suspect I could have gone to radio shack and gotten a 100k pot. But this time I wanted a CH replacement part.

It's obvious at the assembly plant the yoke and springs are set into the bottom half then the peddel shuttels are set down on the yoke along with the circuit board, 100k pot assembly and all wiring run. Then the top is set down, fastened and the peddel assemblies added last.

I just wanted to know someone else from this board has replaced one of this pots successfully and grown the third hand to put it all back together.

Kermit de frog · « **Reply #3 on:** April 07, 2007, 03:55:18 AM »

First day I had my CH pedals, I dropped a quarter that fell inside of the pedal base. I had fun opening my CH gear, but I never did fully take it apart because 1, i didn't need to, and 2, I felt as though it might be a pain to put it back together.
Good luck bustr.

Greebo · « **Reply #4 on:** April 07, 2007, 06:01:10 AM »

Best bet is to prop the unit upside down on some cardboard boxes. These need to rest on the base unit itself. You don't want anything touching the pedals.

Once you've swapped the pot over there's a few things to watch as you reassemble the unit. The pedals have rollers top and bottom which can fall out really easily. Make sure they are all in place.

The wires need careful routing or they might get caught between the two case halves or stretched by the mechanism. Check all the wires are in their retaining notches before reassembly. Also do a test when it is back together. Carefully move the pedals through their travel and depress each brakes at each end of the travel. You should be able to feel resistance if a wire is going tight because its hung up somehere inside.

IIRC I used a drop of superglue on the pot retaining bracket to hold it in place while putting the two halves back together.

Wilbus · « **Reply #5 on:** April 07, 2007, 06:29:41 AM »

I've had them open many many times (so many times that I no longer feel it's a pain to do so and I no longer have problem putting them back together).

As Greebo said, the important thing is to have the pedals in the "free". You just wanna turn the entire unit upside down, and rest the 4 corners on to something.

I use a upside down stool for this (4 legs perfectly spaced for the corners of the unit).

There are two springs in there which quite easily fall off (springs connected to the yaw axis of the pedals).

When turning it upside down, make sure you have something "behind" the unit so that you can put away the top half before disconnecting any wires, otherwise you really will need that third hand.

Most difficult thing when putting them back together again is getting the pot pin centered so that it actually responds again, hard to exlain what it looks like. If you run into trouble, PM me and let me know if you need pictures of it.

Good Luck!

airspro · « **Reply #6 on:** April 07, 2007, 12:46:53 PM »

When my brake wire got pinched I took mine apart and fixed it .

I am a "fix it" guy , it was a pain but doable .

Sounds like you have some good tips now to set u up .

gl
spro

bustr · « **Reply #7 on:** April 07, 2007, 03:17:38 PM »

Thank you everyone.

These tips are exactly what I need. The super glue tip I would never have thought of that. The stool and box tip, K.I.S.S. is a rule to survive by. I wondered how someone would come up with that third arm.

My UPS tracking says I will get my Pot. on 4/10. I will either be back here then with questions, or you will be getting that HOST: you just shot down bustr message........

Wilbus · « **Reply #8 on:** April 07, 2007, 06:09:44 PM »

Hope it works out for you!

Like I said, if you need to know anything I can easily send high res pictures of whatever you like.

bustr · « **Reply #9 on:** April 11, 2007, 04:20:07 PM »

Everyone,

It all turned out ok and thank you for your help. And yes I did balance the pot with the set screw and an Ohm meter before I closed up the clam shell.

Wilbus · « **Reply #10 on:** April 12, 2007, 08:54:12 AM »

Excellent!

Kermit de frog · « **Reply #11 on:** April 12, 2007, 12:41:33 PM »

Brooke · « **Reply #12 on:** April 13, 2007, 08:30:22 PM »

Glad to hear it.

I've taken my CH pedals apart a couple of times (once to fix a broken wire, a second time to rewire the whole thing to fix another broken wire and just to preclude this from happening again by using better, thicker wires).

It's a pain to get back together, but as others have pointed out, the key is assembling it with the pedal-side down (i.e., base up) with the pedals hanging free.