KORG Volca Sample Teardown

Geschrieben von: Christian
Veröffentlicht: 09/08/17
  • Kommentare: 26

KORG Volca Sample Teardown

Veröffentlicht: 09/08/17

Teardown

Einleitung

This guide will show how to open the KORG Volca Sample and explain how things work inside.

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    • Remove seven Screws.

    • Then turn the Volca around. You can now remove the two PCBs. Take care with the loudspeaker cable and the battery cable. In my picture the black cable is already loose.

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    • This is the main processor. It is an Cypress FM4-Series MB9BF164L.

    • 25Q03213

    • The DAC. AKM4384FT.

    • MV3241 / 49AG3 / P220

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    • This is how working buttons should look like.

    • If this isn't the case, clean these parts with a Q-Tip dipped in isopropanol.

    • Clean these parts as well.

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    • Here is a complete overview of the PCB containing the Step Touch Buttons and the FUNC and WRITE buttons

Tinte & Feder

Christian

Mitglied seit: 09/03/14

1381 Reputation

26 Kommentare

Hello, thanks for this post. I have an issue with my volca sample, only sound left is outputting. can you show me where the audio jack output circuit is ? Would be much appreciated. I think it’s a spike made by my soundcard while turnung it on that caused this issue.

Orphée Design -

Sorry, I can’t help you here. You may try www.korgforums.com. There are some discussions about broken Volcas.

Christian -

Hi,

My Volca Sample LCD is dimmed (knob lights are not working too, however button lights works) after accidentally liquid spill. Everything else is fine. Can you give me some tip about dimmed LCD? Tnx

Flick Simpson -

Hi, you can try open the Volca and rinse it thouroughly with distilled water. Remove the batteries before. Then dry it with a fan and keep it open and let it dry on air for 24 hours. The re-insert the batteries and hope for the best. What kind of liquid was it?

Christian -

Hello!! I have an issue with my VS. The Button 7 keeps triggering without no reason and is a pain in the ass. I opened the VS and cleaned all the pads ans circuits but doesn´t seem to do anything. :(

rodtop350z -

hey im having teh same issue. did you manage to solve it?

Fran Bernasconi -

Hi !!

The bass isolador knob stopped working

Could you give me any tios on how to fix this

angelodpcrosa -

Hello man, I have the same issue with the bass knob. Do you fixed already?

carloscastro.a -

The filter section is prone to breaking, the pots are very weak.

I wrote a guide on how to replace the pots, you can find it here: https://it.ifixit.com/Guida/Korg+Volca+S...

Bob M -

Hey. I've wanted to get into building synths but I've never taken one apart or looked into it till now but my volca samples length knob is broken and I was wondering how I might fix it?

Zzir JuKeZ -

I assume you are saying by “broken” that he is physically broken. First google hit on “volca sample potentiometer” delivers this: https://syntaur.com/korg_volca.html There you can buy a replacement potentiometer.

There are many ways to replace the potentiometer:

You could use a hot air gun to heat the whole potentiometer until you can remove it. This presupposes that you have a hot air gun. And there are many other potentiometers which might get damaged.

Another way to do this is to cut all pins connecting the potentiometer to the PCB. I think it are the 6 small ones and two big ones. Then remove the broken potentiometer. Then use a soldering iron and remove the pins which are still stuck in the PCB. Clean the holes with a soldering iron and desoldering braid (or a method of your choice).

Clean everything. Solder in the new potentiometer. I wish you best of luck.

Christian -

I'll try my best to make it work again thanks for the suggestions

Zzir JuKeZ -

Hi, the mute and play buttons of my vs don't work properly, is there any way I can repair them?

Mario Ganga -

Has your volca been heavy used? Or has it been lying around for a while?

In both cases you may first try to open the volca up and clean the bottom side of the MUTE and PLAY buttons with isopropanol. There should be a black dot on the bottom. This is intentional, don’t try to remove it. Clean it. If pressed on the PCB this dot makes contact and registers a keypress.

Christian -

hi, I want to upgrade my korg Volca sample with new case, bigger pots, LEDs and cherry buttons. Is this even possible because of the touch pcb?

Sibille Sigsen -

Hi, the only problem could be the touch-buttons. I have no idea what will happen if you replace them with cherry buttons. I would suggest to try it out by soldering wires to the touch buttons and connect cherrys there. Maybe report back here when it is working? Thanks.

Christian -

I soldered two cables to a touch pad and connected them to a push button via a breadboad. When I have skin contact with the metal surface, it works. Alone via pressing the button but not. Do you have a solution?

Thanks!

Sibille Sigsen -

I’ve managed it. On 1 the push button is connected to the touch button pcb and goes additionally to ground with a 10k resistor. 2 goes to Vd. That’s the solution.

Sibille Sigsen -

That’s great! If problems arise you could also try to short the touch pad with a capacitor (in the pF range) to ground. Maybe you could share your finished device here when it’s done? I’m curious.

Christian -

Hi, I would like to know if someone can help me: the bass potentiometer sound dirty when its used. How can I clean it?

Luciana Rizzo -

Hi Luciana, first guess would be to buy potentiometer cleaner, remove the cap of the bass poti, spray the cleaner into the poti and see if it gets better.

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/qu...

Christian -

The sync in on my v1 sample is not working, meaning I can't upload samples, update the firmware, or sync it with other devices. I took the VS apart but couldn't find anything obviously wrong, visually. Has anyone had this issue and managed to repair it? Thanks.

fort -

Hi, i lost one of the screws for the front side (Volca sample). Do you know where i can find one or the name of it?

yetkin -

the bass of my volca sampmes 2 stopped working

africisla -

can someone help me if it has repair thanks

africisla -

my volca has so much noise that it is unusable, volume at zero or max makes no difference. i think it started doing that after I mistakenly ran the sync in the phones jack. or phones in the sync in or out.

Adriansens Stefaan -