how do the soft buttons on a TV remote work?

I have an AC remote that has one dodgy button - It is one of those soft rubbery buttons that press on the circuit board beneath. The button works when I "press" it's section on the board with another rubber button from another location on the remote but not with its own - As all the buttons are cast together I cant swap them around - My tests show that the rubbery part is at fault but I dont know how they work - is it just some form of conductance through the rubber? can I fix it? Thanks Wayne

Reply to
VV4yn0
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Yeah, WES sells a little pot of the paint you put on the bottom of the rubber button. Jaycar might be able to help, though nothing turned up on their website from what I searched for.

Reply to
Kym Kim (Noturyulo)

give it a firm wipe with a clean cloth to expose more conductive material.

Reply to
Mark Harriss

Do what Mark said first... Also, some people use a pencil rubber. I often find remote buttons have gunk on them (even if you can't see it) from the oil from people's skin. It works its way in/under there over time. I usually wipe the underside of the rubber buttons with alcohol/glass cleaner. As you can tell, it's all the same sort of thing.

Pressing the other button in, is completing a circuit by allowing the "disconnected" side of the circuit another path. Sometimes this is because the circuit tracks themselves corrode. This possibility, coupled with the fact that the paint-on repair coating costs quite a bit... If you find the general clean doesn't work, you might like to consider a replacement remote instead. You can get good cheap ones that do multiple devices. Aldi has one from time to time for about $14 I think was. Folks seem to be happy with it.

Allan

Reply to
Allan

paint the rubber part with rear window demister repair paint. for a source try repco, supercheap, or jaycar.

Bye. Jasen

Reply to
Jasen Betts

you could get a tiny piece of alfoil glued to the pad (tiny real flat bit

Reply to
Matt2 - Amstereo

nope: it forms a thin oxide coating. There's no need anyway as all you have to do is wipe the black pad and it's fixed, no paint or anything

Reply to
Mark Harriss

Just wipe it once across a piece of clean white printer/copier paper.

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Reply to
aussiblu

Back when I was doing repairs to try to make a living, I encountered a lot of remotes with intermittent buttons (always the ones which got pushed the most). No amount of wiping or cleaning would fix most of them, but the remote repair kit from WES Components did restore them to normal. I also had some success with bits of aluminium foil stuck to the pads, but they kept failing not because it wouldn't conduct, but because no adhesive would stick permanently to the silicone rubber and they kept falling off. Just my 2c worth...

Bob

Reply to
Bob Parker

Aw, get out the angle grinder...

Reply to
Allan

Forgot to mention too - if you buy one of those remotes, it can "learn" the codes from your old one, if it's not already contained in it's list.

Reply to
Allan

I must have been lucky as the dozen or so I've fixed just needed wiping hard enough to remove an obvious glaze and expose the fresh conductive rubber. I did wipe hard enough to leave black streaks on the cloth. My theory was that the little black block was conductive all the way through so abrading it with a cloth( or copier paper with it's kaolin ) would freshen up the contact. Tarzan's grip is good for alfoil or gelgrip thinned out a bit with acetone or MEK.

Reply to
Mark Harriss

Reply to
VV4yn0

If it is intermittent with other buttons then I would suggest looking at the pcb for cracks and dry solder joints.

Reply to
The Real Andy

Now that you mention it, I've encountered a few remotes in which the rubber was exuding a gooey kind of substance which was causing intermittent button operation. On the others, it's quite possible that I didn't clean the contact material vigorously enough to get through the non-conductive coating. It's a long time ago now, and gee I'm glad I gave up fixing consumer electronics! :)

Bob

Reply to
Bob Parker

When i was repairing cash registers, the most common problem was these contacts. The only sure way of fixing them, short of replacement was a rag and metho on both contact and pcb.

Reply to
two bob

I've just given up keeping a DSE portable phone alive for years past its land-fill date by opening it (eventually every couple of months) to clean this ooze off the PCB and pads with metho or propyl alc. Annoying job as it has about 20 small screws holding 4 PCBs in place.

Reply to
Clifford Heath

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