The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Tour Easy: PTT Button Replacement

    After five years and one cleaning, the PTT button on Mary’s Tour Easy became increasingly intermittent, both failing to activate solidly and sticking closed (there being nothing quite like a hot mic during a good hill climb), so it’s time for an autopsy:

    Failed PTT Switch - as extracted
    Failed PTT Switch – as extracted

    The snap dome is much more scarred at the central contact:

    Failed PTT Switch - snap plate
    Failed PTT Switch – snap plate

    That might be a gold flash coating, but it’s pretty well worn away where it hits the central contact:

    Failed PTT Switch - center contact
    Failed PTT Switch – center contact

    Those scratches surely happened during the previous cleaning pass, as I don’t see any way for the dome to create them.

    The corner contact also shows some scuffs, along with a scar where the dome corner pivots:

    Failed PTT Switch - edge contact
    Failed PTT Switch – edge contact

    All in all, though, it worked quite well.

    The replacement switch, also intended for indoor use on a keypad or some such device, pivots around the front edge and may be easier for her fingertip to activate:

    New PTT Switch - installed
    New PTT Switch – installed

    Hot melt glue seems vastly underrated for how wonderful a structural material it is.

    If this one lasts five years, I’ll be perfectly happy.