Opening a MachineDrum¶

If you want to adjust the contrast of the machinedrum, swap some encoders, or generally clean things out, here's how to open your machinedrum without harming it in the process.

Put your machinedrum on a clean empty desk. (yeah I know the desk is not that clean)

Take a flat-headed screwdriver, it has to be pretty thin.

Wrap it in some cloth so that it doesn't scratch the surface of the MD.

Push the screwdriver wrapper in cloth underneath the knob of the volume potentiometer.

Using the screwdriver as a lever, pull the knob upward. Be careful not to break the shaft of the potentiometer, which is made of plastic and pretty fragile.

Repeat the process for the encoder knobs.

All the knobs removed.

Put the knobs in a safe place, I have tons of little containers for that purpose.

Unscrew the torx screws around the frontplate of the MD using a torx 8 screwdriver.

Put the screws in another container in order not to lose them.

Remove the frontplate, et voila, the insides of the MD.

You can now pull of the big knob of the track select encoder by hand (careful!!). There is a little trimpot next to the display to adjust the display contrast. If you want to go further, and access the power board, the cpu board, and the IO board, unscrew the red marked screws. (who doesn't want to take something completely apart just to have a look!?)

Some screws are difficult to access, either use a magnetized screwdriver, or pull them up using pliers (careful not to rip open the PCB). You can also remove the button caps on the step sequencer buttons by gently pulling on them.

Disconnect the IO module connector by gently lifting up the button PCB (don't pull too much, it's attached by quite a few cables.

IO module disconnected.

Now, gently lift up the button PCB, and disconnect the rest of the cables (write down which goes where, in order to reconnect them correctly).

Et voila! To assemble the MD back again, just follow the steps in the reverse direction.