yeah I think it’s been discontinued for a while I’m afraid
as far as i know, for now at least, monome is not producing more arcs.
i think the cost and complexity of the product made it difficult to produce at any reasonable price. that said, the most recent grid was the result of a very thorough re-design that managed to lower some costs and manufacturing difficulties, so maybe @tehn has an eye towards on the same thing for the arc (i’m sure he wouldn’t confirm anything until it was ready).
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Maybe it is time to start another group buy for parts and DIY our own?
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There are also clones available, though I can’t vouch for them!
I have some bad experience with the ordering of that exact clone. I was at the first run and it was a little bit cheaper back then but the preorder date was way over and got zero communication back from them. Eventually i canceled the pre-order and only got a “sorry” back. I think they went out eventually but they where not like you see in that picture.
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I did the same thing. Ordered the clone then after about three months thought ‘I could probably use that money for something else’ so cancelled
for what it’s worth, we discontinued using the encoders in the original model (also used in the clone) because they’re both incredibly expensive and also unusually prone to failure, which means another expensive repair.
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Just on the remote possibility that there is some kind of invisible polling going on for interest in Arc:
+1
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I would also love to get an Arc if ever some solution to the encoders issue is figured out. I’ve been fascinated by it ever since I saw loscil using one in a live set many years ago.
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Unfortunately, I’ll second having a less than positive experience with that seller. I received the arc last June, but one of the ring’s LEDs weren’t functional. It took 3 months of back and forth messages and finally threatening to request a refund from Reverb to convince them to finally give me return shipment details for repair. Then it was another 6 weeks for shipping+repair.
It works fine now though. I’ve never used a legit arc so I can’t comment on how they compare.
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So, I built my own a few years ago. It was a fun build! Learned a TON! There is a GitHub that this seller specifically uses.
It ends up being an experience that is essentially the exact same as the first version of Norns.
As Brian stated, the encoders can have issues, but mine were fine. It’s bonkers that each encoder was $30 though. When I built mine, I loved it so much that I immediately listed it on the more defunct lines marketplace and put the cash towards the Monome built arc.
That was luckily a few months before it got discontinued.
One idea that seems plausible and cool would be a Hall effect arc, instead of the optical encoders. But that would probably still be insanely priced, as there are a ton of custom aluminum knobs and such to produce.
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I ran a group-buy for arc clone parts a while back. Originally, the plan was to just get panels machined+anodized, and light shapers laser cut, but I noticed that Newark had the encoders on sale for ~16$, so I just bought their entire stock and divided them up between the people in the group.
I’ve seen the encoders on sale a few times since then, although haven’t checked since the global part shortage. If you’re interested in building arc clones, it’s definitely worth checking them on newark (I think this is the right one, it was in my browser history) every now and then to see if one of these mysterious sales happens again.
The arc clone is a fiddly build, but should be doable by anyone who has experience with SMD soldering and flashing Atmel MCUs. Making a nice case is probably harder for most people. Basic plans for the wooden one I made are here in the repo if anyone wants to try to replicate it.
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hey, i got a clone from electrorama.
i think 3 years ago i suggested him to start building it, it took a lot of time to complete because he spent lot of time looking for professionally milled chassis aluminium and wood. its indeed slow to build, time to time he makes micro batches of 5.
for mine i had to wait LOT of time. but i was in love with the object and with stretta works so i really pushed him toward building it.
Monome arc clone - YouTube you can check this short. in the video the arc is running on a raspberry p4 filled with a patch i did myself with rnbo. we also compiled a js proxy to bring osc commands from serialosc to rnbo input params and viceversa. you can find it on github. i really wish the guys at monome could build it again i would buy another for sure.
the horrible noise is the incredible raspberry fan.
compared to the original one, the chassis is thicker. i am not into industrial design but imho clone encoders and rings are very good, and i also like the. the aluminium knobs, they are are solid.
i think the guy rushed in first time milling because the hole is some micron larger than the sprue and he had to fix it with copper foil. this was the first thing i noticed when i had it. once you remove the knob the copper jumps away. i was able to fix it with a bit of tape in place. so you are warned. dont remove the knobs 
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