Dismantling, cleaning and reassembling Kontrol S4.
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Dismantling, cleaning and reassembling Kontrol S4. Posted on: 01.01.2013 by Roderick Gehr Hello everyone:I am relatively new to the DJ scene and the tools of its trade; I am no music professional (of any sort) but I do enjoy messing around with music in a number of ways. I have been spending a significant amount of time reading and learning in this community for about 6 months and I thank the community for their willingness to share their experience and their assistance. Recently I purchased a second-hand NI Kontrol S4 through EBay (sold | |
| Roderick Gehr 01.01.2013 | Once I had the entire unit disassembled, I then cleaned everything that I could: 1) All the plastic knobs, sliders, buttons and empty plastic frames were soaked in warm water and dish soap, washed by hand with a toothbrush and allowed to air dry. 2) All the screws, washers and nuts were soaked in 99% ethanol alcohol (although I believe that you could also use 91-95% Isopropyl as well, the higher concentration the better since it contains less water and evaporates faster without residue), rinsed with fresh ethanol one more time and allowed to air dry. 3) Every one of the six boards were directly sprayed with 99% ethanol and washed with 99% ethanol and a toothbrush. (NOTE: since I had labeled the cables and connectors previously with a sharpie, I had to be careful/mindful of where I sprayed/poured the alcohol since it can erase the markings). There was a fair amount of a sticky substance on some of the board |
| Roderick Gehr 01.01.2013 | Hello everyone: I am relatively new to the DJ scene and the tools of its trade; I am no music professional (of any sort) but I do enjoy messing around with music in a number of ways. I have been spending a significant amount of time reading and learning in this community for about 6 months and I thank the community for their willingness to share their experience and their assistance. Recently I purchased a second-hand NI Kontrol S4 through EBay (sold |
| Clarinda Griser 15.01.2014 | thanks for this- very informative of some of the things i will be facing if i try to open my S2. I'm considering doing so to spray some electrical cleaner under my cue/sample buttons, but am wondering if just shooting it through the cracks in the face would do the trick or if the buttons can be removed from above. any advice? |
| Alphonso Deitchman 06.01.2013 | Thanks for the pictures, will be keeping for future reference. Looks like the S4 uses the same pots as my hardware assignment so I'll know where to go for spares: IMG_3287a.jpg |
| Roderick Gehr 01.01.2013 | Once I had the entire unit disassembled, I then cleaned everything that I could: 1) All the plastic knobs, sliders, buttons and empty plastic frames were soaked in warm water and dish soap, washed by hand with a toothbrush and allowed to air dry. 2) All the screws, washers and nuts were soaked in 99% ethanol alcohol (although I believe that you could also use 91-95% Isopropyl as well, the higher concentration the better since it contains less water and evaporates faster without residue), rinsed with fresh ethanol one more time and allowed to air dry. 3) Every one of the six boards were directly sprayed with 99% ethanol and washed with 99% ethanol and a toothbrush. (NOTE: since I had labeled the cables and connectors previously with a sharpie, I had to be careful/mindful of where I sprayed/poured the alcohol since it can erase the markings). There was a fair amount of a sticky substance on some of the board |
| Roderick Gehr 01.01.2013 | Hello everyone: I am relatively new to the DJ scene and the tools of its trade; I am no music professional (of any sort) but I do enjoy messing around with music in a number of ways. I have been spending a significant amount of time reading and learning in this community for about 6 months and I thank the community for their willingness to share their experience and their assistance. Recently I purchased a second-hand NI Kontrol S4 through EBay (sold |
| Gaynell Rydberg 26.03.2013 | Ahh. Didn't realize they were different. Well, eBay decided it for me and I didn't win the auction unfortunately Gives me some time though to research this more. |
| Alphonso Deitchman 27.03.2013 | Well the loop/transport are entirely different as they are metal? shafts and are encoders rather than regular potentiometers. Could be one of these: http://www.alps.com/WebObjects/catal...tal_list1.html If you're believeing of replacing pots you should already have a multimeter capable of measuring resistances - I don't have an S4 anymore to test myself. |
| Gaynell Rydberg 26.03.2013 | It seems like the S4 has 3 pin and 4 pin pots though. 3 pins for the loop/transport knobs and then 4 pins for the EQ knobs. I saw your post over on NI, but that was in Greece :/ Thank you though, would you happen to know any of the other specs like turns, resistance, etc.? Or should I be able to identify that from the pot. |
| Alphonso Deitchman 26.03.2013 | I'm fairly sure the S4 uses ALPS pots if that helps. This looks like the one http://www.alps.com/WebObjects/catal...1K11_list.html |
| Gaynell Rydberg 26.03.2013 | Anyone know if you can get the potentiometers Stateside somewhere? Looking at a couple S4s but they have broken loop and/or size/set knobs. |
| Ryan Schlich 07.01.2013 | Wow. Cool post and good job. bookmarked for reference. I take apart computers to clean but I dont believe ill ever try this on my s4. And the circuit board looks pretty straight forward. They shouldve made it easier to access |
| Tatum Ansaldo 06.01.2013 | Merged the 2 halves. Nice write up, thanks for posting. |
| Gaylord Lomerson 06.01.2013 | thank you for this post! very interresting ! |
| Alphonso Deitchman 06.01.2013 | Thanks for the pictures, will be keeping for future reference. Looks like the S4 uses the same pots as my hardware assignment so I'll know where to go for spares: IMG_3287a.jpg |
| Roderick Gehr 02.01.2013 | Hello everyone: I apologize for having to post it via two separate threads (part I and part II) but when I tried to first post it as one single article it was way too big and it would not let me. There are a couple of things that I should add to the information previously posted: A) There are actually seven separate boards inside the S4, I left out the one that holds all the pots for the FX units and the deck gains/master level. It is located on the top-most section of the unit, just after the mixer board. It can be removed and reassembled just like the mixer board (i.e. removing the front face-plates, then the fasteners for each of the pots). I actually did not mess with it much since it looked clean and I believe there is plenty of truth to the old saying: "if it is not broken, don't fix it". So, I left it alone, just sprayed it with 99% Ethanol and left it to dry with the main plastic case. B) In order to remove the Phones/Cue board you first have to remove the plastic knobs from the controls (Cue Mix, Cue Vol and Mix Vol), then push-in the metal masts to lock them in their "recessed" state so that they do not interfere with the board removal and finally remove the nut around the phone's connector. The board should easily slide up and out (no screws holding that board down). Well, I believe that's all for now. IKU |
| Random X 02.01.2013 | Thanks for the excellent write up! |
| Oswaldo Appeldorn 02.01.2013 | It's awesome! |
| Claire Auyeung 02.01.2013 | This a very brief and handy report. I enjoyed reading it! |
| Roderick Gehr 01.01.2013 | Once I had the entire unit disassembled, I then cleaned everything that I could: 1) All the plastic knobs, sliders, buttons and empty plastic frames were soaked in warm water and dish soap, washed by hand with a toothbrush and allowed to air dry. 2) All the screws, washers and nuts were soaked in 99% ethanol alcohol (although I believe that you could also use 91-95% Isopropyl as well, the higher concentration the better since it contains less water and evaporates faster without residue), rinsed with fresh ethanol one more time and allowed to air dry. 3) Every one of the six boards were directly sprayed with 99% ethanol and washed with 99% ethanol and a toothbrush. (NOTE: since I had labeled the cables and connectors previously with a sharpie, I had to be careful/mindful of where I sprayed/poured the alcohol since it can erase the markings). There was a fair amount of a sticky substance on some of the board |
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