Anyone have experience repairing contact pads on controllers?

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BadMouth:
Used a circuit writer pen that I haven't found any other use for to paint the offending pad. It works fine, but it always works fine immediately after messing with it.
There wasn't anything visible on the PCB or pads this time.

ChadTower:

--- Quote from: pbj on June 22, 2017, 04:00:52 pm ---I'd superglue a piece of aluminum foil to the back of the membrane. That repair will outlast you.

--- End quote ---

I have done that before in low use pads (things that aren't game controllers). It does work.

RandyT:
I just cleaned up a couple of remotes for friends of mine. Same situation. a good portion of both boards was coated with a layer of oil.

I don't think it's leeching out of the rubber, unless it's absorbing skin oils like a sponge (which is very well could be).

Regular isopropyl is ok, but 92% is better. If it still doesn't work well, then the little black portion, which is impregnated with conductive material, has likely skinned over with rubber lacking this ingredient. If it's thick enough, you might want to try roughing it up a tiny bit, with some very fine sandpaper. If it is skinned over, this should expose more of the conductive material.

Otherwise, yeah, any thin, conductive material glued onto that area should work until it wears out the material or the traces on the PCB.

Howard_Casto:
White printing paper works better than sandpaper for cleaning the rubber pads.... less abrasive. Also don't put alcohol on the rubber membranes as it will dry them out enough to where thy might start breaking down.

RandyT:

--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 04, 2017, 09:25:16 pm ---White printing paper works better than sandpaper for cleaning the rubber pads.... less abrasive. Also don't put alcohol on the rubber membranes as it will dry them out enough to where thy might start breaking down.

--- End quote ---

Oils need some kind of solvent to break them down and remove them. You could try something less aggressive, but alcohol is generally low impact in the world of solvents, and leaves little residue, which is important. Nowadays, most remotes use a silicone based rubber, which alcohol doesn't affect. Here is some data showing alcohol resistance of silicone and other rubbers.

If white paper has enough tooth to remove the top layer, then I don't see any reason not to use it. If it works, it's more accessible to most than 2000 grit sandpaper. :)

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