Fader replacement for the VCI-100

[sm00sh]

Many members on the forum have expressed interest in replacing the faders on the VCI-100, so here is a very brief re-cap on how I replaced mine.

What you need:

Soldering Iron and solder
Desoldering wick
Electric meter
two 60mm slide potentiometers (the ones used for this project can be found at www.mouser.com part #652-PTE60-151B-103B2. Also, thank you Anthony More for finding these!)


I will not go into the actual technique of soldering and desoldering. for more information on that see Ean Golden's in depth article: http://www.djtechtools.com/2009/04/2...asic-tutorial/

Step One

remove all case screws from the VCI-100 to expose the inner hardware.

Then locate and remove the two volume faders from the casing. Make sure to carefully remove the plastic wire connector you will need to re-connect it to the board once the new faders are soldered in.

Step Two

with the fader and connecting board unplugged from the VCI-100, you will need to locate the five metal pins that extend from the original alpha faders. You can see that the pins extending out from the casing of the fader itself are soldered into the electric board that contains the plastic wire terminal.

(we need to desolder those pins, freeing the fader from the board.)



With an Electric meter set to read impedance (ohms), you will see that only two of the five pins are actually active.

Step Three

Once the stock alpha faders are removed, you will need to solder in the Three pins extending out from the new Bournes faders. If you ordered the The Bournes slide potentiometers from mouser ( part #652-PTE60-151B-103B2) then it's a breeze because the three pins fit right into the connecting board.



If you look at the stock sliders you will see on one end three pins and the other end two. The Bournes fader on the other hand has two pins on one side and a single pin on the other side. If you orientate the faders so that the two pins on the Bournes sliders are on the same side as the three prongs of the alpha faders, then you should have no problem.

and again if you get confused about which way to insert the Bournes faders then pull out your trusty electric meter and read the impedance to see which way the faders should be orientated. It's also very helpful to check the integrity of the soldered joints before you put everything back together. You should see 0-10 Kohm reading as you move the slider from one end of the other. If you get no electronic resistance then something is wrong. Check the soldering of the three pins.

Step Four

Connect the white plastic wire connector to the wire terminal on the connecting board. Then your almost home, just secure the faders back into the casing and enjoy.

Note: I have not tried this with any other Faders except the Bournes faders mentioned above.

If you have a fader that doesn't quite fit then this tutorial might be of more use : http://www.djtechtools.com/2008/11/0...00-crossfader/

Also if you have any further questions feel free to PM me!

[Fatlimey]

Yay, excellent article. Good writeup.

[sm00sh]

thank you, I'm happy to help.

[BentoSan]

Excelent post indeed.

[monZy]

Can i solder just one of these?
cuz one of mine faders is only broken, so can i solder just one?

thanks.

[basspenetrator]

you can, yes. but the faders have a slightly different feeling than the original ones (thats what i heard, never tested it), so it might be better to replace both to keep the balance

[monZy]

Thanks, everything went/works better than expected.

If for someone only one of the faders get broken, you can order only one, cuz they both are the same

[Masurame]

Thank you! :d

[Glen]

sorry to bring this back from the dead, but does anyone know where i can find pitchfaders for the vci100?

[DjWindzOne]

@Glen
The link is in the opening post. . .

(the ones used for this project can be found at www.mouser.com part #652-PTE60-151B-103B2. Also, thank you Anthony More for finding these!)