By the way, to respond to Tony's other point, this is easy to repair. Hugo posted the data sheet for the Panasonic rotary control to Riovolution - I believe they cost a few dollars. Seems like an opportunity for someone with basic SMT experience

Hmmm... i wonder if there would be an opportunity like that as you say - not that I particulary want to do it, but those encoders look like they'd be perfect for something I'm working on. The trouble is I can't for the life of my find anybody who will sell them... but maybe if I was really, really lucky I could get a distributer to sell me 100 or so - I only really need 20 or so but maybe the rest could go to people looking to fix there Karma's when they're out of warranty.