4. VX-5 on/off switch recovery

1) VX-5 on/off switch
Have used VX-5 for nearly 15 years. Troubles surface as can be imagined.

The original lithium ion battery was dead long before, and instead FBA-23 battery case with eneloop batteries has been used.

The latest problem was that its switch-on can be attained only after pushing the on/off switch many times.

While recently I noticed a web footage by a W's ham for the solution of this problem. It shows that the problem can be eliminated by cleansing the switch surface of the dirt by 91-percent alcohol. That alcohol seems to correspond to the one available here as absolute ethanol.

I tried it and found the switch came to life instantly. Thus, I once more disasembled the VX-5 and took photos for my memos, which are shown below.

2) Separation of back case/front case/printed circuit-board

The front and back cases are separated as in the left photo by unscrewing 2 long screws at the top of the back, and 4 short screws in the battery bay.

As usual for this type of circuits, it is necessay to pay an utmost attention to the works to remove and attach the ribbon connector which connects the 2 cases.

The printed-circuit-board is on the front case side, unscrewing another 4 screw brings about its separation as in the right photo.

3) Cleansing of switch surface
As in the photo, on the pc-board there are 18 round switches which are just below each of the push-buttons.

The switch for the on/off is the one at the top of the left side column in the green background. This area shall be cleansed with a cotton swab soaked with the ethanol. The rubber switch side shall be also cleansed, though it looks better not to touch this so much.


4) Absolute ethanol
In this work, cleansing the dirt is all. So anything handily available might be all right. However this absolute ethanol (ethyl alcohol) seems to be used to avoid any possible bad effect on the pc board. It is said that professionl reapair shops also use this.

This alcohol seems not so uncommon depending on the person as it is used at home for cleansing extracting fan, or the likes,

Thouhg it is available in most of the pharmacies, I could not find out in my area. So I bought it through the net, 500 ml bottle in the picture cost about 1,000 yen including shipping fee.