the ds1052e is aged or obsolete by now? after about a year from this thread started, some of the knobs are playing again, but 1 or 2 are still in good condition (namely the seldomly used vertcal position and level knobs) but they are all still workable but slightly annoying slowly worsening until today. so today i changed both vertical and horizontal scale knobs. i got the replacement knobs from ITead few months back, (blue knobs in the picture) i think this is it
http://imall.iteadstudio.com/im120801015.html. they are like virgin again now, except rotation is inverted, nvm a good pilot can drive both way
fwiw.