My Kordbot just arrived.
Did your Kordbots come with rubber feet?
Mine seem to be missing.
I’m going to have to add some or it’ll be sliding everywhere.
I bought mine second hand but it had rubber feet and they seem like they’re factory installed and not put there by the previous owner.
It’s a pity that there’s omissions like this in brand new products. Hope you find suitable ones.
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Thanks! I could see the plastic was designed to have them. I searched the box it came in to no avail.
The foot opening measures right around 10mm.
I found some online and ordered them.
Unfortunate, but it could be worse.
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I had mine arrive yesterday. Has feet, but the quality of pots is terrible. One of them registers presses only occasionally.
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I plan to replace mine eventually, but mine are all working from what I can tell. I didn’t expect it to be of excellent quality from the price.
The hardware, excluding the display, is pretty low quality from the short time I’ve messed with it.
The plus side is it’s already a great chord progression scratch pad for me. So long as it works well enough for that I’ll be happy I bought it.
If you decide to keep it I can inform you when I change out to better encoders if you’re interested in upgrading yours.
Edit: I opened it up (because of course I did)
Cute 
First guess is 16mm non-detented 24 pulse push button encoders…
Fairly easy to swap surface mount LED’s for a custom color scheme.
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Thank you. I’m absolutely interested into swapping mine as well. Let me know which ones you’ll buy.
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Might be sooner than later. One of the encoders is finicky on mine too. Encoder 6 is twitchy and doesn’t want to move. I kind of expected a soon to be abandoned product, but this is a bit silly.
Luckily it’s just a “chord progression notes maker” for me. If this wasn’t being abandoned…
I will definitely will look at future ISLA instruments products through squinting distrustful eyes.
Thanks for taking the risk and trying it out! You definitely seem to have the electronics skills to make the most of it. I have been curious, and I really like the concept, but doesn’t seem like this quite hit the mark.
I don’t know if this idea would be more commercially viable, but I would be more interested in a smaller chord library midi controller without the keyboard. Would be less than half the size, wouldn’t need the screen or encoders, and could have just a few really good buttons, like a calculator… a variety of chords, a way to switch keys, and a few chord memory buttons. Basically, used for a little bit of noodling and eventually saving into a different sequencer/DAW.
I still like the KordBot concept over the Theoryboard… I don’t think any kickstarter item is ever going to be the “center of a studio”, so filling in niches seem to be better bets.
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I’m researching some Alps all metal encoders. I just need to match the pin spacing and make sure they will fit. Not sure if I’m too concerned with matching the resolution but I may go that far if I can find matching Alpine encoders.
~ $4 each FYI
I think what I like is the chord memory with quick chord library access.
I’m also not always wanting to use a chord library and just want to store chords that I play on a keyboard.
This is basically all of those things with cheap hardware and somewhat obtuse firmware. The features are there but I’d like to see something of higher quality all around.
It’s definitely useable for my purposes though once I make the hardware a little more reliable. If I make the Alps encoders work then it can double as a macro controller for Ableton Live.
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I ordered some new Alps encoders to test. If it goes well I’ll post the part number for you.
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Thank you! I really hope it works.
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I’m skeptical that it would happen, but with this product going defunct, i wonder if there is any chance Isla would open source the code. I realize that there may be parts of it that they may still view as proprietary, but this is exactly the time companies can think about releasing that sort of thing. I think it’s to big an ask to open source the electronics and mechanicals, but the firmware just might be a sensible release. I could even see some sort of crowd funding deal to buy out the source code.
Hell, there are enough companies that open source the code even while the product is actively sold — like Kilpatrick Audio, and the Roger Linn Linnstrument.
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The encoders work as expected.
Totally separate problem but I wanted to share the fix:
One of the original encoders was not working before I replaced them. It still wasn’t working after I replaced it. The value was jumping up 1 then down 1 no matter which direction I turned it.
I found that the encoders were directly connected to the STM32 IC which means debouncing is done in software vs hardware.
So this led to me thinking one of the pins on the STM32 had a bad solder connection. Fluxed it up and pulled out the SMD rework station to reflow all of the pins. The encoder is working now!
This is the IC that had the bad solder joints:
Now to the original topic.
The new encoders sit slightly higher than the old ones because the button push has a larger range of movement. It still fits and doesn’t bottom out when you press the button in the encoder.
The encoders have much more resistance than the old ones when you turn them. Feels much more solid.
The turn resolution for the Alps ones are 18 pulses per rotation and I’m guessing the originals are 24 pulses per rotation.
This means you have to turn the Alps ones a little more than the originals to move the same amount. I honestly like it better because the originals seem too fiddly and it’s hard to land on exact values.
Let me finish replacing all of them and I’ll take a picture to show the knob height. I plan to replace the knobs with some slim black chroma caps but don’t have them yet.
Here’s the encoders I bought if you’re interested:
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/688-EC11E1834403
Oh, and these are magnetic encoders so they should live longer than the Kordbot pads. You’d have to wear out the bearings and I don’t see that happening unless you turn all day and night for the rest of your life 
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Couple weeks ago you could buy one. Was able to add it to the cart.
Out of stock again now.
This is lovely! Now I have a weekend project. Thank you for all the info.
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I don’t know your soldering rework skills but I recommend just trimming the old encoders out and then cleaning out the holes after. That way you won’t run the risk of ripping up the pads.
Just use fine clippers and try not to tear up the PCB as much as possible.
Here’s the pictures with the Alps encoders and original knobs:
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That is super cool, well done mate! I’d love to replace the encoders on mine, not to mention those horrible hard plastic knobs… Speaking of which, how did you get those off in the first place? I have a bunch of Chroma Caps I’d like to try on it but can’t seem to get them off without damaging something.
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You can use a plastic spudger like this or any strong thin plastic to pry up on it.
Other things to try:
- Thick hard guitar pick.
- Handle of a plastic spork.
- Shaved down chopstick.
- Nothing metal.
Just work your way around the knob prying up little by little, then pull it off with your fingers once you get it to move a little.
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That’s wicked, thank you. I have a spudger from when I replaced my MacBook Pro battery so will use that. At one point i wondered if they were glued on!
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