D-Control space bar

[Blake Eiseman]

Our studio has purchased a used D-Control, and it has been in operation for a couple of weeks. Overall, it's in pretty good shape, but we have noticed a problem with the space bar on the keyboard. I'm not sure if it's a design flaw, or if it is due to overuse/misuse by the previous owners, so I wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing the problem.

Basically, the problem occurs when you try to hit the space bar on the extreme left or right side, rather than right in the middle. The space bar eventually dislodges a little bit from its mount, and kind of acts a little like a see saw. I removed the space bar key itself, and I discovered that there are 3 little cross-shaped attachments on the bottom, which fit into 3 cross-shaped enclosures on the face of the D-Control. Only the middle one contains an actuator, the other two are apparently just to hold the key in place. So I think what's happening is, instead of depressing the entire thing down uniformly, it is creating a fulcrum in the center. Instead of depressing the actuator, it just pivots on that, shooting the other end of the space bar up.

I hope I'm explaining this right, it probably doesn't make any sense unless you see it, or unless you have also experienced this problem. But my question is... has anyone else had this problem? And if so, how did you fix it?

I have inspected the bottom of the space bar, as well as the place where it fits into the keyboard, and it doesn't look as if anything is broken or out of place... it just seems like it doesn't fit 100% perfectly, which might be causing it to come slightly loose and cause this problem.

As a final question, does Digi (or anyone else) sell replacement keys for this keyboard? That *might* solve my problem.

Thanks,
- Blake

[Ian Palmer]

Blake,

We've had our D-Control for over a year now, been using it more myself lately. Not had this problem myself. I have noticed a slight preference though to pressing it in the centre which can be annoying when you're off to one side on the faders but that's more ergonomics.

Good luck.