NI Maschine Mikro MK3 PADs contacts fix

[Jose EB5AGV]

I am getting into NI Maschine world, as a companion to my keyboards. I had already a Maschine MK3 (black), then got a bargain priced MK3 25th Anniversary edition, in ultraviolet color (quite nice looking!) and, finally, for my portable rig, a Maschine Mikro MK3. This last, even if looking basically unused, had a problem in one of the pads, which generated sometimes only the NOTE ON command but not the NOTE OFF one.

 

So I opened it and carefully cleaned the pads contacts. For the PCB side, which are metallic contacts, I used a cloth with some zero residue contact cleaner. For the plastic based sheet with the printed carbon contacts, I used only a clean cloth. The result is a perfectly working Maschine Mikro MK3 🤩

 

Here you have some pictures of the process.

 

All black screws should be removed:

 

 

Carefully remove that small ribbon cable:

 

 

HINT: a desksaver is great to support the unit and keep the rubber buttons in place:

 

 

 

 

This is what makes the magic of the ultra-sensitive PADs!

 

 

 

 

Notice there are two pin inline connectors which should match when assembling (I show just one):

 

 

 

And this is a hint: NI thought that 2017-2022 would be the years to produce the Mikro MK3... Of course, COVID probably changed their mind!