Burson Digital Volume Control Inaccuracy

[PointyFox]

About 35% of the time my volume control adjusts the volume the wrong way on my Burson Conductor 3 R.

e.g. I'll be trying to adjust the volume up and it will be like 20, 21, 22, 23, 22, 23, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 26, 27, 28, 27, 28...

Here are some videos showing it:

From what I can gather online is that this can be mostly eliminated with proper debounce and that if this is occurring there's either something wrong with the encoder or it's dirty.

I got a response from Burson and they said: "The volume knob is behaving normally and what you have described is consistent with all our products. The reason is that in the moment of disconnection from one level and connection to the next level, the program can sometimes make incorrect predictions about where it's going. Up or down. This is why it's not happening when using the remote."

Are rotary encoders just super inaccurate or is Burson just terrible at implementing them?

 

[Harmonie]

That happens and is not particular to Burson ...
But Burson's response is irresponsible and sad

My Problem With Inexpensive Electronics

Topping makes amps and DACS with SOTA measurements, no argument there. What I have issue with is that the engineering and reliability of the components seem suspect. And when you contact Topping their standard response is to send the unit back to China for repair. I own a D50 with burn in so...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[antcollinet]

that is a terrible implementation. It is trivially easy to decode the direction of a properly designed encoder.

 

[antcollinet]

Just for interest this link shows how it works (should work). The beauty is that even if there is switch bounce, the bounce simply causes the count to go up/down for each transition of the bounce - but once the bounce is finished the value will be correct.

It is easy to eliminate any flicker in value during the bounce by just waiting for the value to be stable for 10ms or so (or whatever the longest bounce time is) before accepting it. Alternatively you can put a simple RC filter on the output of the encoder to filter the bounce out before it goes to your (usually) microcontroller.

In-Depth: How Rotary Encoder Works and Interface It with Arduino

Learn to interface rotary encoder module with Arduino along with its working, pinout, wiring and code for precisely controlling servo motors.

lastminuteengineers.com

If arduino hobbyists can get this right - how is a supposedly professional organisation sellling actual products getting it wrong? I mean FFS just use the method you can find on the net if your software engineers are incapable.

 

[Dumdum]

I’ve had similar to this with very work rotary encoders in a car based system, it seems odd that car manufacturers can make stereos with rotary encoders and they last years and years, the one I encountered was less than a year old

 

[Lilith]

Have a similar issue with a brand new Sabaj A10h. Sometimes "only" a pulse is missing. However, practically that is not relevant.

 

[Pluto]

This is, almost certainly, a faulty rotary encoder.

It might be worth taking a look at the internals to see if a blob of dirt (or something similar) is preventing one of the 'chops' from being properly recognized.

 

[Lilith]

This is, almost certainly, a faulty rotary encoder.

It might be worth taking a look at the internals to see if a blob of dirt (or something similar) is preventing one of the 'chops' from being properly recognized.

I can still replace it via Amazon. When going one step back and forth it's working. Sometimes I also can turn it 360 degrees without loosing one step.

Would you replace it?

Would be great if anybody could check it with his/her unit.

 

[Pluto]

I would have a good look for a slightly blocked or malformed 'chop' first...

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I've written a fair bit of firmware which works with encoders. What you're seeing is probably sloppy coding, but if it has click stops, it could also be a defect in the encoder. Normally it only requires good programming to avoid these kind of glitches. The response from the manufacturer is bullshit.

 

[Lilith]

I would have a good look for a slightly blocked or malformed 'chop' first...

That would mean I have to open the encoder. I order another one and send the broken back (in case the second one behaves different)

 

[PointyFox]

Looks like even their latest flagship devices still have poorly implemented encoders:

"Use of the remote solves the issue entirely".