[TenTec] Factory View of Orion Encoder Failure

[Robert Carroll]

My Orion Classic is headed back to TenTec after successfully working he BS7
yesterday, going to sleep in good health, and waking up to total insanity
after all manner of resets and clears, etc.  I'm taking advantage of the
trip back to have the RIT/XIT encoder fixed-or so I thought.  The encoder
(so I thought) went flaky a few months after  I bought the set, but
responded-and still does -to the mysterious rite of yanking on the RIT knob
and pulling.  Strange treatment-and according to the factory irrelevant to
the problem.  I spoke with Paul Clinton this morning about the repair visit
and said this would be a good time to change the encoder.  

 

Paul said something unexpected, but I had heard rumblings of a "computer
interference" issue with the encoder.  Paul told me they have never been
able to reproduce this problem at the factory and believe it only occurs in
Orions  connected to logging programs.  That must be 99.9% of them, I guess.
Paul said after this occurs a master reset will clear it. In my case if I
want RIT I would have to reset once every few days and sometimes twice a
day-not very pleasant.  I have to wonder if the rough ride back to the fact
has the same effect as yanking the knob, leading to the factory finding no
problem.

 

In my case, I notice that when the RIT knob does not work, I can still get
RIT from the remote pod or by computer command-more pleasant than a reset.
I am wondering if this throws light on either the yank the knob or evil
logging program idea?  I am also wondering if any of you who have replaced
the encoder found that to be a permanent fix or if the problem shortly
thereafter reappeared.  I used to think this was an Orion I early encoder
issue, but I have seen reports of it with Orion II.

 

Has anyone come up with a more solid explanation for what is going on?

 

Has anyone had the factory install the new headphone RF filter board on a
return trip?

 

Bob W2WG