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How to find out where to get parts?

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HandyMan

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Hi all,

I've got a horrible problem: my Creative Nomad Zen 20GB Mp3 player rotary dial/switch thing had become a bit dodgy and so I decided to try and fix it. It's now no good for anything.

Creative won't help, I know that much, but these parts must be made by someone and are perhaps available somewhere?

I'm not even sure what it would be known as. It's a jogger, when you spin it, it moves things up and down a list. Under the wheel were 3 little metal fingers which pressed against a few circles of metal on the wheel base, the metal circles were dashed, with only one being continuous.

But it's also a momentary switch. Push the dial in a bit and it presses down on a metal pop-button and clicks.

What might the whole contraption be known as? It's surface-mount, incidentally.

If someone here had this and wanted it working without buying a new one, how would they go about finding out if the part is available somewhere? It has no numbers or ID on it anywhere, unfortunately.

All help greatly appreciated... I am an unhappy bunny since it was my wife's and I have now ruined it.

Thank you,
James
 
It sounds like a rotary encoder with a built in pushbutton.

Mouser.com has a decent selection of rotary encoders. Digikey.com should have some too.
 
Sure sounds like a custom part made by Creative only. If so, you're out of luck trying to find it from anywhere by Creative, and good luck trying to get one from them.
 
You may find a borked one on EBay, and be able to scavenge it for parts. The odd "I sat on it" one comes up every now and then.
 
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