these look weird. P&G motorfaders should be PGFM3200.
And the motor should be top or bottom. Maybe a custom job for a manufacturer?
Do you have photos of the whole assembly?
Where do they come from? Which console?
It could be an older model, but it seems unlikely to me. I have a quite old P&G fader here, and it’s already named PGFM3200 and has the same color coding than the more recent ones.
Those motors look like 6v DC motors so you should be able to drive them with MB_MF_NG module
also need better photos please, all around the fader, showing it all in the shot not just close ups. top and bottom, also how the cable is mounted for the fader movement etc. Also what desk is it from etc. as asked.
Yes they’re probably older versions, but as I said, i have another old version of P&G motor fader here and the one I have here are already called PGFM3200 (not PGF3200). And they comply to the last datasheet even if they have a different mecanical arrangment:
Now the four others must be 100%V, 0%V, Wiper, and Touch sense. In that order IF P&G kept the same when changing design. (which they seem to be doing)
The other measurement don’t make much sense though, maybe an error when measuring? 800k is really high for any kind of fader.
measure between each pin and the lever. One should be a short and the others should be open. That would indentifiy the Touch Sense pin.
This should left you with the potentiometer pins. So measure with different fader positions and report us with what you found. We’re expecting a fixed 10k between two pins and a variation between 0-10k between 3rd pin and both others (one increasing while the other decrease).
6 wire to the motor…should be a step/rotary counter…
1 hour ago, totoRaymond said:
Now the four others must be 100%V, 0%V, Wiper, and Touch sense. In that order IF P&G kept the same when changing design.
The OP just say there is no resistive element in the fader, and you can see there is no wire going to the fader !
You won’t find any taper resistance here nor touch sens.
This is probably a rotary encoder/counter technology embeded in the motor
Stagetec do broadcast console, I suppose there is no automation on it but recall and fader flip function where the encoder is enough to send fader at visual position (this is a remote)
As there is probably a calibration routine at startup with such advanced digital desk, the drift or miss count of motor turn for precise fader position is not a issue.
As is it seem complicated to use this with midibox HW
What you can try maybe is wiring pin 3-4 and 5-6 (assuming 1-2 is motor…) to a DIN in encoder mode
and at least know how many count you have for a full travel, that data will give you fader accuracy and position.
Then find a solution to use this data in place of analog input (from a resistive passive element) to handle data that will tell the motor what to do.
The OP just say there is no resistive element in the fader, and you can see there is no wire going to the fader !
You won’t find any taper resistance here nor touch sens.
This is probably a rotary encoder/counter technology embeded in the motor
Stagetec do broadcast console, I suppose there is no automation on it but recall and fader flip function where the encoder is enough to send fader at visual position (this is a remote)
As there is probably a calibration routine at startup with such advanced digital desk, the drift or miss count of motor turn for precise fader position is not a issue.
As is it seem complicated to use this with midibox HW
What you can try maybe is wiring pin 3-4 and 5-6 (assuming 1-2 is motor…) to a DIN in encoder mode
and at least know how many count you have for a full travel, that data will give you fader accuracy and position.
Then find a solution to use this data in place of analog input (from a resistive passive element) to handle data that will tell the motor what to do.
Now that you mention it, the second ref on the motor might refer to this
Nice catch !
Whit this I think we can definitely say this is a digital encoder implementation around a P&G “blank” fader
The fader is just use as mechanical device to translate rotary to linear actuation
We have here a 256 steps/turn version. Can’t say how many steps it translate to the linear movement, this is defined by pulleys/axis diameter ratio, but we can expect more than one motor turn for a fader full travel.
According to datasheet, it’s rather a 512 steps/turn encoder. ref is IE2 512 250 (i read wrong in the previous post). Assuming the datasheet didn’t change in more than 20 years (which is possible with these kind of product).
Then you might be able to drive them with MidiBox NG, but you would need to modify the code i guess. My knowledge stops at this point though, I’m not comfortable enough with C / ASM…
The manufacturer of these motors also provides some control boards for them. Might be worth a look, but most of them use CAN or RS232 buses… so no direct compatibility with MidiBox.
A DIN is a module connected to a core module. It’s used to interact with pushbuttons / switches and encoders. Look at ucapps.de, evrything is explained there.
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that will be very quickly beyond my abilities, I understand a little in analogue audio electronics, digital signals and programming is new to me.
So, I’m afraid this is not a suitable beginner project,
Yes I’m afraid it would not be an easy setup. But… you would learn a LOT of things in the way !!!
To me at least, that’s where the fun is. I’m currently building my own DAW controller, and i know more things than before i started. And i intend to keep learning and improve. So don’t let anything stand in your way if you really want to build it.
And maybe you could contribute to the community this way. This way of driving faders looks very nice, without the resistive element, faders won’t tear like standard ones, feeling might be better, and less noisy. I’m tempted to try and mod a fader to use this tech (but not today).
