Help! Button On Slot 1 Stopped Working On Lacrosse BC 9009

Just the other day I noticed the button on slot 1 stopped working. Won't do anything when I press it. My second charger of the exact same one is fine though.

Long story short, took the charger apart, even went as far as removing the metal plate that represents the clicking button did a bypass by direct contact what looks like the gold contacts (similar what you would find inside of a game controller) and nothing the display does not blink.

Put back the button (actually is nothing more than a piece of metal tin plate have to be careful of not breaking the tiny legs that holds it in place). After all that's been done, put the screws back together except leaving the back cover out. Put the battery in slot 1 pressed the button and nothing.

The only time when it semi worked pressing the button on slot 1 is when I had my fingers on the circuit board on a certain spot, but after that it stopped working.

This makes me to believe that this is not a contact issue with button, but rather a open circuit somewhere on the board leading to slot 1 button.

Overall the master 3 buttons works. As long as that's working I could careless lol.

Any second opinions. Better yet any one with a background of electronics would be nice.

Cheers.

Is it not under warranty? (But you probably voided the warranty by opening the case...)

It could be that button pressing has over time flexed the circuit board and weakened a solder joint. An electronics technician might examine the board carefully with a powerful magnifier looking for signs of a bad joint and then repair it.

No its not under warranty anymore unfortunately. That makes a lot of sense, and also explains why it semi worked. So there is a possibility that the solder joint leading to button 1 has snapped?

Yes, it's possible.

Check whether the charger has an ROHS marking on it. If it does it has been made with lead-free solder, and that is almost a guarantee of early failure due to a bad solder joint. :tinfoil:

Does not say or find any markings, but I wouldn't be surprised if solder is lead free considering how computer motherboards these days are ROHS compliant as people are worried about our planet.

Surely, solder joints breaking on switches is more an indication of poor mechanical design, rather than type of solder?

It could be. However, the use of lead-free solder requires a more complex solder process with more stringent process control to obtain successful joints. Even when done right, lead-free solder joints are more prone to failure than traditional solder. There is a reason why lead-free solder is not used in applications where reliability is a concern, such as medical, avionics or military.

I am curious to know if there is anyone out there run into this problem?

Just an observation about my v.32 BC-900. The buttons never did work very well. The contacts are simply sprung copper, as I remember (nickel plated maybe?). It helps if you clean them off, polish them up, or whatever. It's a PITA though. Mine's overdue for such "restoration".

Dave

Probably a bad joint or button. You can probably just replace the button with a cheap DIP switch from ebay, a couple bucks for a pack of 5 or 10. I replace both DIP and surface mount buttons with those all the time (you have to be able to solder though).

I cleaned it in fact I removed the tin plate. When it did worked barely press the button and responded. But after awhile it just stopped working. And no matter how hard I press, does not respond at all. The button itself makes good contact.

This time I removed only the back cover. Odd thing is when I apply pressure on the circuit board on a certain spot. Button 1 started working again, and not even pressing hard. The cleaning did solve from pressing the button too hard, but I think there is problem with the circuit that might be causing it. If that's the case well this sucks lol.

Sometimes it would start working again on its own. And this was during use, pressing the button every time and responded. And I believe that was the last time it worked. After that, button 1 is dead again.

can anyone confirm this these chargers are using lead free solder. I am beginning to wonder what Mr.Happy is saying makes sense.

And looks like I broken the plate by trying to make sure it was really firm on there.

Decades ago, in the good old days of lead everywhere, the solder on switch contacts, headphone sockets on Walkmans, etc still used to fail from time to time, so it's not a material-specific thing.

Sometimes when there is failure, it can be hard to spot - a pin can actually be failing to make contact with the blob of solder which completely surrounds it, though the joint may may look visually fine.

A quick remelting of suspect joints can sometimes fix a problem, but generally it's nice to be sure you know what the problem was (if only to be able to go straight fro it next time).

A multimeter set to measure resistance can sometimes be useful, if you can get good access to both sides of a suspect connection.
the switch connections seem fine, gradually working away from the switch following the appropriate traces can be worthwile.