Socket not a good idea
The K2 Z1 encoder apparently needs more clearance than the connector I was trying will allow. I was trying it because someone else had said he tried it, but when I checked back, it turns out it didn't fit in the chassis. I then bought a wire-wrap tool at Radio Shack but neglected to notice it said "specially modified for 30 gauge Kynar wire" so that didn't work either. Then I tried just soldering the stranded wire I originally had for the Molex connector onto the pins of Z1, but clipped the wire instead of the pigtail on one of the connectors, so I had to take off all the knobs and remove the encoder. It gets worse. When I was removing the stranded wire from one of the pins, the pin came off of Z1 itself! I took a minute to collect my thoughts and saw that I could, with some effort, solder the pin back onto Z1, as it is embedded in a small PC board. Z1 requires 5V power to work, so there's no easy way to test it with a meter; at least no way that's not just as likely to damage it through another mistake. So here's hoping it works!
- posted by Leigh @ 04:39 z