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Day: October 26, 2010

Ceiling Fan Light Working Again

The ceiling fan in the bedroom has a remote control to turn it on and off. Over the past few weeks it’s become increasingly hard to turn it on and off, with the switch inside the remote feeling like its failing. Taking apart the remote tonight I found that instead of small tactile switches (like I thought it had from the feel) it instead has cheap, printed contact switches actuated by conductive rubber on the back-side of the buttons. As common with switches like this some of the rubber had worn off on to the PCB, fouling the copper and causing the buttons to not work well. A bit of quick work with a pencil eraser and alcohol-soaked paper towel cleaned the contacts up nicely and everything is working great again.

Click here to see a high-res version of the photo above, clearly showing the bits of rubber stuck on the PCB.

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