[Elecraft] Earning Customer Loyalty

[Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ, Elecraft]

We test -all- of the various modules in the K3 prior to shipment (both 
kits and built K3s).

The VFO A/B encoder issue cropped up recently and was a problem at the 
Bourns factory that they have now corrected. (Fortunately the problem 
only showed up on a very small percentage of encoders.) But in my 
opinion, for an expensive encoder like this one, we never should have 
seen any failures, no matter how few. We pay a premium for these encoders.

We always 100% tested them here, but obviously a few slipped through, by 
passing here and then failing shortly afterwards. In general the 
encoder, if it is one of the small percentage that  is going to fail, 
fails in the first hour or so of use. Once we understood what was 
happening (after beating up Bourns asking for an answer for a number of 
weeks..) we built an encoder burn in fixture where we run 100% of the 
encoders for an extended time before testing them. That in turn catches 
the offenders. In general, if an encoder runs for an hour or two, it 
doesn't fail.

Bourns has also made changes to their automated assembly process to 
eliminate this as a possible issue. We want ZERO failures of encoders. 
I'm sure we'll see a few more for a little while, but I don't think many 
are getting by us now. :-)

73, Eric   WA6HHQ
----

Tom Wylie wrote:
> I had also to replace an encoder which was faulty at the outset, 
> however, the dis-assembly of the front panel
> was very easy and straightforward and only took a few minutes.   I 
> don't understand the "difficulty"
>
> de Tom
> GM4FDM
>