FM9 Footswitches feel a little rough while pressing them

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Musikron said:
I've have used over 1000 different switches on gear over the last thirty years. I've had to lubricate exactly zero of them, and had exactly one switch fail on me previously after a guitar cab got dragged across my pedal board physically damaging it.
Now my basically brand new FM9 has 4 crunchy switches and one that has completely failed already. This thing has been babied the two months I've owned it, as it is by far the most expensive piece of gear I've ever sat on the floor. Fractals track record of building damn near military quality gear is the reason I had the confidence in the product to invest so much into such a crucial piece of gear that will spend it's life on the floor. No gigs, has only left the house once as I use my Ultra at practice still as I'm still creating patches for the fm9.
So it seems fractal got a batch of bad switches, and it's more then just the physical crunch and will lead to switch failure sooner or later. ( How can it not? It you feel these switches grinding, you're removing material like sanding or filing would, and that debris has to go somewhere, and eventually cause what I'm experiencing.
So I'm outside the return window, but really second guessing my purchase now. Not because it doesn't sound glorious and is easy to use, it's both those things. But if a $5 component takes down my $2000 rig after two months of light duty home use, what am I going to deal with in two years when my unit is out of warranty as well?
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Boo. They are clearly subpar switches. It’s definitely a concern.
 
sidsin said:
I bought the FM9 when it came out, and always used toppers. Recently I realized, the footswitches were a little rough while pressing down on them, not as smooth as my Fc-12. I thought the toppers were to be blamed, but the roughness remains even after removing the toppers.

Any tips? Or should I reach out to support?
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Same here.


Musikron said:
I've have used over 1000 different switches on gear over the last thirty years. I've had to lubricate exactly zero of them,
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Same here.
 
IMO, the FM9 has been a troublesome rollout. Reminds me of the Helix LT and I hope this isn't ominous for the future of FM9 owners, similar to LT owners. I've had two FM9's, one was replaced after the IEC insert came undone and then the fix was shoddy. Both have also had crunchy switches. Had and FM3 and FC6 before. Both had perfectly gliding switches. Something feels weird with the production of the FM9
 
Greg Ferguson said:
Have you contacted mailto:support@fractalaudio.com ? If you haven't, then, rather than take it to the forum, take it to the folks who can fix it.
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Yup, contacted support (with a fast initial response I may ad) and awaiting a verdict. But this is very pertinent to the conversation we're having in this thread, and the problem has escalated from crappy feeling switches to actual failure. Personally I think everyone should be aware that this is a possibility, we paid a lot of money for these units, I expect working high end switches that last more than two months. I'm confident fractal isn't going to leave me hanging here or anything, but this issue is more than cosmetics and or an annoying feel or mechanical sound.
I'm not a dissatisfied customer, just dissatisfied with the unit I received and the quality of the switches in my particular unit. The FM3 I've used before didn't feel this way, nor any of my other gear. But my FM9 has covid switches or something and it's not acceptable. I'm hoping fractal has some switches from the FM3 production they can replace them with for me.
 
Musikron said:
I'm hoping fractal has some switches from the FM3 production they can replace them with for me.
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There's a chance they'll have some laying around.

Cliff said…
"The entire product line was conceived years ago. The goal was to maximize the number of parts shared between products. The footswitch PC boards do three switches each. An FM3 has one board. An FC6 has two. An FM9 has three and an FC12 has four. All products use the same LCDs, encoders, side plates, etc., etc. This reduces cost and repair inventory. The FC6 and the FM3 are basically the same enclosure. The FC12 and FM9 are basically the same enclosure. This isn't a huge market. Margins are thin so you have to think of ways to minimize development and product costs. Parts bin methodology is the route we took on this generation." [3]
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dicXjonesify said:
That’s cool if you know that to be true first hand. I’m just saying Cliff did not say that in that quoted post. I’ve only seen this footswitch complaint specific to the FM9 so I have my doubts.
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Call me a cynic, but Covid and the related lockdowns and shortages have seen a drastic drop in both availability and in quality across the board in many industries, the chip shortage and backlog of FM9 orders are another symptom of this. The FM9 was manufactured during the height of all this mess, so them getting some less that what was spec'd switches instead of the well made ones they actually ordered is not outside the realm of possibility. While I don't fault fractal directly for that, there was a QC hangtag on one of my crunchy switches, so I will throw a little shade at that individual for sending such crunchy buttons out the door as PASSED.

I have a return RMA, gonna send it out next week sometime. I'm really hoping for 9 new, smooth switches, cause that's what it'll take for me to have confidence in this unit moving forward.
 
So it did it again this morning, booted up and bank -1 scene 6 button DOA.
Rebooted and it works again.
So I started troubleshooting a bit, rebooted three more times and all is well with the switch functioning.
On a whim I booted the FM9 while holding down the switch, and it acted exactly like what I've been experiencing, dead switch syndrome. I did this three times to hopefully confirm it was actually the case and it appears to be. So I can now recreate the symptoms on demand. I suspect what's happening is the crunchy sticky button winds up getting hung up in a "triggered/activated" state sometimes. Then when the unit is booted up, it deactivates that switch temporarily until it is in the position it expects it to be in, then restores that switch when it reboots. The first time it happened I don't recall if the button ever worked from that boot session or stopped after it had been running for a while.
Can anyone with more knowledge on how this thing works confirm my theory for me?


@FractalAudio @Admin M@
 
Musikron said:
So it did it again this morning, booted up and bank -1 scene 6 button DOA.
Rebooted and it works again.
So I started troubleshooting a bit, rebooted three more times and all is well with the switch functioning.
On a whim I booted the FM9 while holding down the switch, and it acted exactly like what I've been experiencing, dead switch syndrome. I did this three times to hopefully confirm it was actually the case and it appears to be. So I can now recreate the symptoms on demand. I suspect what's happening is the crunchy sticky button winds up getting hung up in a "triggered/activated" state sometimes. Then when the unit is booted up, it deactivates that switch temporarily until it is in the position it expects it to be in, then restores that switch when it reboots. The first time it happened I don't recall if the button ever worked from that boot session or stopped after it had been running for a while.
Can anyone with more knowledge on how this thing works confirm my theory for me?


@FractalAudio @Admin M@
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Just tried it (with my working unit)
If I boot up while holding it down, it does not function at all after boot up. So yeah, sounds like yours gets shorted out as if it were being pressed sometimes.

But, the color ring is still there, FYI
 
Musikron said:
So it did it again this morning, booted up and bank -1 scene 6 button DOA.
Rebooted and it works again.
So I started troubleshooting a bit, rebooted three more times and all is well with the switch functioning.
On a whim I booted the FM9 while holding down the switch, and it acted exactly like what I've been experiencing, dead switch syndrome. I did this three times to hopefully confirm it was actually the case and it appears to be. So I can now recreate the symptoms on demand. I suspect what's happening is the crunchy sticky button winds up getting hung up in a "triggered/activated" state sometimes. Then when the unit is booted up, it deactivates that switch temporarily until it is in the position it expects it to be in, then restores that switch when it reboots. The first time it happened I don't recall if the button ever worked from that boot session or stopped after it had been running for a while.
Can anyone with more knowledge on how this thing works confirm my theory for me?


@FractalAudio @Admin M@
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This happened to me within a week of owning my FM9. Support confirmed and I sent it in for repair. They had it back to me within 3 days. You are not crazy lol
 
etwinn said:
This happened to me within a week of owning my FM9. Support confirmed and I sent it in for repair. They had it back to me within 3 days. You are not crazy lol
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Hey I'm not alone!
So what was the fix? Did they replace all your switches, or just lube then up for you?
 
Musikron said:
Hey I'm not alone!
So what was the fix? Did they replace all your switches, or just lube then up for you?
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They replaced the PCB switch that controlled the set of 3 switches that weren’t working. No issues since. I had to use some DuPont Pro Grease to smooth out all of the switches. Easy fix!
 
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