Hi,

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.

Hit the send button before checking the subject line..

R Kannan wrote:

Hi,

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.

On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:07:11 GMT, R Kannan
wrote:

Hi,

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.

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:

On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:07:11 GMT, R Kannan
wrote:

Hi,

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.

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

R Kannan writes:

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?

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: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

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.

Sam Goldwasser 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.


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

PeterD wrote:
On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:07:11 GMT, R Kannan
wrote:

Hi,

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.

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

MG Chemicals sells Rubber Button Repair Kits.
http://shop.vetcosurplus.com/catalog...b68656b6f683f6
http://www.mgchemicals.com/downloads...pguide0206.pdf

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.
======


"R Kannan" wrote in message
...
Hi,

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.

"vey" wrote in message
...
PeterD wrote:
On Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:07:11 GMT, R Kannan
wrote:

Hi,

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.

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

MG Chemicals sells Rubber Button Repair Kits.
http://shop.vetcosurplus.com/catalog...b68656b6f683f6
http://www.mgchemicals.com/downloads...pguide0206.pdf

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:

So they work by closing the circuit then?

Yes.

What is the purpose of the the
circuit pattern underneath the button?

To increase the contactarea, in a fashion.


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


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
:

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


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?

Gary Tait wrote:

R Kannan wrote in
:

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


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 (1mm) at the tip of the button and had completely worn away on
the troublesome buttons. I cut some tiny discs to size from some self-
adhesive aluminium tape and stuck them on the faulty buttons. The
remote has worked fine ever since.

storan4wd wrote:

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 (1mm) at the tip of the button and had completely worn away on
the troublesome buttons. I cut some tiny discs to size from some self-
adhesive aluminium tape and stuck them on the faulty buttons. The
remote has worked fine ever since.


I use rear window defroster heater element repair goo./

Just a bottle of what ever that dries with conductive
material in it.
Just lightly brush it on the button contacts.


--
"I'm never wrong, once i thought i was, but was mistaken"
Real Programmers Do things like this.
http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5