How does touch

That inner 'core' is a high carbon, conductive rubber. You'll find the same stuff in many remote controls.

So they work by closing the circuit then? What is the purpose of the the circuit pattern underneath the button?

Is it possible to get replacement buttons to get these to work?

Thanks

PeterD wrote:

First just try cleaning the underside of the rubber buttons and the circuit board pattern. All they do is connect to two interleaved patterns together.

There are all sorts of ways of restoring these. Some work better than others. But for 3 or 4 buttons on an exercise bike, replacing them with pushbutton switches may be most straightforward.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Repair | Main Table of Contents:

+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: | Mirror Sites:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

I tried cleaning the circuitboard and shorting the two interweaving patterns (using a metallic contact) of some of the buttons but it did not produce the effect of pushing the buttons. Does that mean the circuitboard is defective and so irreparable? I want to make sure that the circuitboard works fine before I try replacing the rubber buttons with pushbutton switches.

Thanks

MG Chemicals sells Rubber Button Repair Kits.

Look up the manufacture of your exercise bike. Most likely, if they still exist, they can sell you new parts. If not, then you may not be able to find replacement parts. In that case, call around to some of the service people who repair these exercise bikes, and maybe they can sell you a substitute part, or have a way to fix your problem.

--

Jerry G. ======

I have an old Schwinn stationary exercise bike which has rubber buttons on the console for timer, speed etc. The buttons stopped working and taking out the button, I found the buttons are basically made of rubber with hard plastic core which presses against the circuit board. There does not seem to be metal contacts on the buttons. The circuit board has small finger like' structures from two terminals which are interlaced where the button makes contact. How do these things work. Can I purchase replacement buttons

I am sure the manufacturer does not have replacement parts for this old bike and I would hate to throw the whole bike away because of the defective buttons.

TIA for any help.

Alternatively any auto parts shop would stock a window demister repair kit which works just as well (conductive two-pack paint).

James

R Kannan wrote in news:uH0Ci.48429$Um6.47663 @newssvr12.news.prodigy.net:

Yes.

To increase the contactarea, in a fashion.

Usually they are built as a keypad custom for the device. If they are individual elestomeric elements, I dno't think there are spares. If possible, replace with a tact button.(I have done that with at least one clock radio).

R Kannan wrote in news:cz1Ci.1448$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr17.news.prodigy.net:

Is this circuitboard separate from the control board, or all on one board? Does it seem you could tack on some wires to just try?

It is all in one board. I will clean the circuit board and try shorting some of the buttons to see if it works...

Thanks for your help.

For what it's worth, I came across a remote control with those horrible elastomer buttons a few years ago. Several buttons were getting very unreliable, you had to press very hard to make them work and then they just gave up completely.

Cleaning the contact area of the PCB made no difference; I discovered that the conductive part of the rubber was actually just a very thin layer (