Rotation?

Thank you very much - how does this work with the stops on the potentiometers? Does the board get rotated within the housing somehow?

I'm not sure if I understood you question correctly, but the modular design allows for any kind of orientation on the table.
Why would you want to turn the board itself and not just the module?

When an encoder is at 12 o’clock (64) and can be turned equally counter clockwise (0) or clockwise (128), can the USB connector be located on the left or right sides of the unit, not the top?

No

Thanks - if this is the case, can the potentiometers then be rotated within the housing or are they permanently soldered to the board? I would love the 12 o’clock of the pots to be perpendicular to the connector

It feels like you're asking for a complete redesign of the hardware. It sounds like a lot of work.

Another route might be to just get a flat cable, or one with an angle?

Something like this perhaps?

Or use the EN16 Controller

But this is not my problem, you do whatever you want of course. Good luck!

Not asking for anything - I had thought that, as reconfigurability is a selling point of these units, that the usb port might be able to be on the sides. Thanks for your input.

The hardware is open source, so you can see all the components and schematics here: https://github.com/intechstudio/grid-hardware

I'm no electrical engineer but it looks like the position and orientation of the components on the board can't be changed without a redesign. I wonder if it's possible to get potentiometers that would fit while having their orientation rotated in terms of the range of motion 🤔

I have the EN16 and I find in the default orientation, the encoders block the view of the LEDs from certain angles. In the way I've been using it so far, I've been tempted to rotate the module but that's not without tradeoffs – in some configurations, it blocks the USB port.

Anyway, interesting question – I hope you find a solution somehow!

I might be missing something, but couldn't this be achieved by simply changing the orientation of the knob caps ? IE remove the caps, set the potentiometer to the midpoint, arrange the grid in an orientation of your choosing, with the usb port on the side. then replace the knob cap with the indicator line pointing directly up? You might need to get different knob caps if the ones on the grid can only be set in one particular orientation on the pot, but I feel like this would achieve what you are attempting here.

We have our own injection molded knobs on Grid nowadays, you can't rotate them. In the past we used knobs from Cliff, where you could change how the top indicator is aligned, but their inner height wasn't perfect, we had to 3d print small inserts to make sure there is enough gap between the front panel and the bottom of the knob body. On Grid potentiometers are D-shaft.

https://www.cliffuk.co.uk/products/knobs/rotary.htm