[Solved] FM9 vs FM3 Plastic Buttons?

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omxz

New Member
This is the most neurotic pointless thing I've ever asked, there's no issue because all the buttons on the FM9 react the same, which makes me feel like its intentional, I was just curious if anyone else had noticed it on theirs. My FM9 turbo's home/exit/edit/etc buttons have a little more play than my FM3 non-turbo, if you place your finger on top of them, you can wiggle it around a bit. On my FM3, the buttons have a more firm press with no play. Am I the only one?
 
omxz said:
Am I the only one
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Very possibly.

Fractal uses a common 3-button sub-assembly across the FM and FC units.

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." [1]
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Possibly the FM3-Turbo uses a different assembly, since it uses the larger LCD displays, but your FM9-Turbo and FM3 use the same assemblies. You can tell because they’re the same size LCDs.

A much more remote possibility is that, somewhere between the advent of the FM9 and now, Fractal’s switch-board assembly supplier switched footswitch manufacturers and then they all got thrown into the same parts bin.

Or it’s a case of manufacturing tolerances.

I just know that the original boards switched between presets MUCH faster because they got better chrome plating… and that was just made up.
 
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This is interesting information but to be clear its not the metal footswitches, but rather the plastic buttons. The fm9 I just got has textured ones sort of like pbt keycaps when they are new, and my fm3 feel more smooth. There's nothing that different about the action of the click, but just the texture of the buttons, and the wiggle/play. On the fm3 I can't move the plastic button up/down/left/right at all. Manufacturing tolerance makes sense, but I would sort of expect it to be a subset of buttons different rather than each unit having all buttons adhering to the same characteristics as the others on that unit.
 
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Sorry, I misunderstood which you were talking about, but the answer is still the same. The encoders and knobs still follow the parts-bin methodology. They might have had a switch to a different encoder at some point, but it still meets their engineering requirements.

And, yes, you remain the only one who has ever mentioned it, at least that I’ve seen.
 
Rex said:
The buttons feel loose because they're pretty much floating between the front panel and the actual switches, which means less off-axis stress on the switches, which encourages long life.


A couple of items of note:

- I've had my Axe-Fx III for almost a year and a half. In that time, I've never had a button misfire.

- I've never seen a forum post reporting a switch failure.

Both of these things are very good signs. :)
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Seems like a good enough response to put here in case anyone finds this thread as well in the future.
 
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