Teenage Engineering OP-1 DSP Board Replacement

Written By: Tobias Isakeit
  • Comments: 17
Teenage Engineering OP-1 DSP Board Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

7

Time Required

30 minutes

Introduction

The Digital Signal Processing board is basically the brains of this little brat. Fortunately we can replace this kind of brain if it should malfunction at some point.

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    • To get to the screws beneath the keyboard you need to take some keys off. You can use either an opening tool or an opening pick. The first picture shows how it should look like with all the necessary keys off (12 in total).

    • The four longer keys from the fingerboard are to be handled from the left side to get them off.

    • The eight smaller keys need to be levered from the bottom up.

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    • The scissor mechanism of the eight small keys are obstructing the underlying screws.

    • By using again an opening tool or opening pick these can be snapped off easily.

    • When reassembling be sure to place them in with the correct side facing upwards.

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    • Loosen those 12 screws with a Phillips #00 screwdriver.

    • Then just pull off the four rotary knobs and the volume knob.

    • Now it is possible to slightly lift the keyboard and set it back.

    Your missing the ribbon decoupling step, unless you skipped it because it’s such a tight squeeze to get back in.

    William “Zoe” FitzGerald -

    The concept of removing the square panels that the knobs sit on was skipped.

    Station 2Station -

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    • Unlock the flex cables by pushing the two black nibs on both sides of each connector.

    • Now you can pull the flex cables out and remove the keyboard completely.

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    • Open the display cable connector by using a plastic opening tool to flip the latch upwards.

    • The display is held in place with a mild adhesive. A spudger helps you to get it free.

    • Now you can unplug the cable and take out the whole display.

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    • Disconnect the battery connector from the DSP board.

    • Unscrew the two Phillips #00 screws holding the board down.

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    • Now you can carefully lift the DSP board to access the flex cable connector underneath.

    • Disconnect the flex cable by using a spudger and remove the DSP board.

    Where can I get the board

    jake wesley -

    Any luck getting a DSP board?

    Robert Herman -

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Author

Tobias Isakeit

Member since: 31/03/14

116775 Reputation

13 comments

Can you advise me where I can order DSP board?

Ju-seok Jang -

Hi Ju-seok Jang, unfortunately we don’t sell this spare part. You might be able to reach Teenage Engineering directly and get an answer from them where to purchase that part.

Tobias Isakeit -

I reached out to teenage engineering a month ago about ordering a replacement but they still haven’t responded. Pretty unacceptable seeing as they have a “do it yourself!” ethos for their $1,000 device…

Ben Fischer -

Hi! Did you find a solution? I have the same issue. Thanks!

Juan Rodríguez Berbín -

My OP-1 wouldn’t go into boot mode, and TE told me it was probably the DSP board, and they would look at it for a fee since it was out of warranty. Now I can’t find the DSP board anywhere to do this repair. I then found out this was a common problem, a manufacturing defect. I wonder if there are enough people with these problems the EU 2 year warranty rule can be invoked, or a class-action suit of some sort. TE has basically left those who have these problems without an option to repair the TE manufacturing defect.

Rob

Robert Herman -

I have the same problem! Did you find a solution? Thanks a lot!

Juan Rodríguez Berbín -

@Juan Berbin I just saw your reply, and I bumped my situation in the hopes TE will reach out and offer a DSP up for sale for my original OP-1, so I can try and repair it. It seems a lot of people have had this issue, and for the premium price of the unit, you would think they would somehow meet people half way given their success and wanting to keep their brand in good standing. Sort of how Google's "Don't Be Evil" motto went all wrong, and now TE is the same. Good luck to you. I haven't had any. And they are charging even more for the new one. I hope they don't strand their new customers.

Robert Herman -

Mine will boot most of the time, but after a very short use the knobs stop working. Naturally I attempt to restart it but once I shut it off it won’t turn back on. I also noticed that after a 20 hour charge, within one day (1 day sitting with power OFF, not in use) the battery will be dead again. Not sure how the battery can die with the device turned off. I’ve replaced the battery, the connector board, checked all connections inside, even downgraded back to the firmware it shipped with (237 I believe?). Nothing has worked. Only thing left is the DSP board. FURIOUS that a $1200 device only lasted me a year before basically becoming a paper weight. I babied it too…got an expensive case and everything…UNBELIEVABLE.

Lord Shongo -

Where can I buy the dsp board? I need to replace mine. TE won’t sell me one and sends me info to some repair shop in NJ.

Jeff Martin -

I have an OP1 since 2016 lying around and won't boot. Every now and again I hook it up to USB for a charge, otherwise, its the most expensive paperweight I have ever had. Last I heard, I should send it off to Sweden and have the Mainboard replaced for a few hundred euros. Absolute disgrace, as it seems just a mainboard bug. I can still run all the test (switch on & hold com) and it comes out ok on all test. But it won't boot and won't respond to software update. At first I had a few cool ideas and uses for this unit but now its just a reminder of how bad a modern startup company treats customers with trouble, especially since its obviously a product bug and not user induced. Piece of crap.....

antichicmusic -

Following up on my post from 2020 above, the OP-1 I bought in July 2012, works fine except I cannot get it into the boot menu. If I hold down the COM button and power up, the speaker clicks, but I get no boot screen. If I just power on, it works as expected. It can show up as a disk via USB, and I can copy the ROM file to the root directory, but I cannot effect an update without being able to enter the boot screen.
To this day I have not been able to get a DSP board as a spare part from TE or iFixit. They are never in stock. I am not going to pay $50 for a diagnosis, a part fee, and labor for something I should be able to buy and repair at my own risk. I am hesitant to sell it, since it seems it will be hard to get decent money for it given you cannot update the OS. I was so enamored with TE in 2012, but now I guess their success allows them to become the impersonal company they didn't set out to be I am guessing. So disappointed especially given the recent rise of Right To Repair in the world and climate.

Robert Herman -

My OP-1 has begun playing a single note in completely random rhythm after no incident that would cause malfunction. Would anyone here have an idea of what that would be caused by? It does whether or not its connected to midi and audio.

Keegan Kyle -

Hi, my OP-1 refuses to boot and the charging lights don´t lit while charging. I'm not even sure if it's charging at least partially.
I contacted them twice and they took me to the digonosis mode that OP-1 passed with OK on all items but still won't boot.
It´s incredible to find so many people with the same problem and what is even more incredible than TE don't take charge of this situation.

liantros retrospectiva -