care
keypads
Avoid exposure to prolonged sunlight, oils, coffee/beer, weird chemicals, and cigarette smoke. Pads can be cleaned easily by disassembling the unit and washing only the pads with soap and water. Let them dry completely prior to reassembly. A light dusting a talc powder removes friction if the pads get stuck in the plate while playing.
enclosures
walnut
We’ve treated the wood with tung (2012 and newer) or teak (pre 2012) oil. You may want to reapply oil in the future. Disassemble your device and rub a thin coat all over with a clean rag - an old t-shirt is fine. Then rub again with a clean rag to remove any excess. Let dry for 48 hours.
Any chips or dents can be subdued with high-grit (300-400) sand paper. You’ll need to re-oil after sanding.
greyscale & 40h silicone
The enclosure is 100% high durometer silicone. The best way to clean it is by dampening a towel with isopropyl alcohol and wiping away. Don’t pour it on. Don’t use any towels that have that cottony lint that comes off.
40h silicone glue
Once you’ve removed the bottom screws you’ll have to “gently” pry/pull the aluminum top plate from the bottom enclosure. Between the two is a thin layer of 100% silicone glue for added seal. You do not need to reapply the glue but you may decide you want to. We only recommend using a 100% silicone glue in small amounts. We like to clamp the unit (you can use heavy books or such) and let it cure for about five hours.
keypad replacement
We’ve spent many years and iterations refining the keypad design which we think is very robust and resistant to wear. However we have seen some issues with conductivity in older pads, resulting in less touch sensitivity.
Over the years we’ve put a great amount of time into optimizing the manufacturing process to improve the sensitivity of these pads. We’ve decided to start offering the newest pads as replacements. However we don’t want to give the impression that this is a necessary replacement– most users do not need these.
Please read through the rest of this page before considering purchasing. Link at the bottom.
stickiness
If pads are physically sticking in the plate, this is not related to conductivity. This can typically be fixed by applying talcum powder (baby powder works fine.) sprinkle a bit around the affected area (I do the entire unit) and mash the pads, reducing the friction against the plate. I’d suggest taking the plate off the enclosure before doing this, so you don’t get talc all over the enclosure. Blow off the plate with compressed air, and a paint brush might help as well. The keypads shouldn’t get stuck at this point. If they still get stuck, something may have spilled on the pads. Take the unit apart, wash the pads with water, let them fully dry, rebuild and apply powder as described. Powdering rubber components is totally normal.
hard to press or flickering connection
Ensure this first isn’t a software issue. If you’re running monomeserial and serialosc at the same time your pads will not be working right. monomeserial is obsolete, delete it and read up on serialosc. We’ll help you migrate and figure it all out.
If that’s clear, then this is a conductivity issue. The way the keypads work is by making a connection between the circuit board pattern (a star of metal traces) and a conductive black rubber.
“junk” can build up on the rubber. One solution to attempt is to disassemble the unit and scour the black pills with fine-grit sand paper. Make sure to blow out any black rubber dust before reassembling. Isopropyl alcohol can be used as well to help cleanup.
The metal contacts can be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol, though I haven’t seen many cases where this is necessary (short of a big spill).
If you see no improvement, it’s probably worth getting new pads.
gross in general
Exposure to prolonged sunlight, oils, coffee/beer, weird chemicals, cigarette smoke, or thousands of hours of use may leave the pads looking orange and may even stiffen up. You can try taking the grid apart, washing the pads by themselves with soapy water.
In general avoid the things listed above. But ugly pads often work fine.
Our wood enclosures are oiled, so stacking many monome grids (wood against keypad) is generally not a good idea– the oils may absorb into the silicone and look discolored. We stack buttons-to-buttons when required.
bounciness
“Bounce” refers to a keypad connecting well (without a hard touch) but jitters on/off.
2011 solid-walnut editions sometimes exhibit this behavior, though we’ve generally seen improvement with new pads.
order
Email help@monome.org with your grid generation and a description of the replacement needed (photos are okay too).
Pricing:
- pre-2021 grids: $40 for each 4x4 pad
- 2021 and beyond: $60 for each 16x8 pad