Christopher

If you’re having problems with click bounce and a regular contact cleaner isn’t working you could try an oil for electric model train motor commutators: Peco Electrics Power-Lube PL-64 - I picked up a little in a model shop but you can buy it online in the UK for around £6 to £7 for a couple of mL - the key bounce problems have largely disappeared after one or two applications both for my M570s and for an older cordless trackman wheel that I had given up on. If you have one of these it is worth noting that they will run perfectly well on NiMH rechargeable cells whereas the M570 will not. The latter may win out on simple battery life but on the environmental side: using a rechargeable cell should be better in the longer term especially as the grid gets a higher proportion of renewables in service.

Fine multi-strand wire from an old phone extension cable is good as a wick to remove solder - use a tiny amount of flux to help.

You don’t need to get a solder sucker as Mathieu suggests - look out a bit of fine multi-strand wire (old phone extension cables - the flexible ones that go from the wall socket to the phone) will do fine as a solder wick. - Flux does help - a “no mess” one is the best to use - microscopic amounts.

Seems to have worked well. I used an iron with a “angled chisel” shaped tip which reached two of the wires at a time and walked the old microswitch out and then the new one back in. First of all, I wicked off the old solder with a bit of fine multi-strand wire from a bit of old phone of extension cable. I gave up on applying various contact cleaners etc. and gave in an bought some microswitches - I just had a look in my Cordless Trackman Wheel and they are the same switches but it is a bit more involved to get to the board where the microswitches are located. Since it is still clicking well I just put some contact lubricant (Power-Lube PL-64) on them. Be careful on reassembly to get the spring on the wheel back in place (when you open it the wheel may stay in the upper part of the casing - don’t loose the spring - to put it back - first position the wheel in place in circuit board.

Glued the bits of sponge back together with cyanoacrylate.

On re-assembly take care to get the rubber surround correctly in place, especially the end near the controls.

Bought a LG 18650 - HG2 - Li-Ion 3000 mAh - Doesn’t seem to be charged but I put it to charge and it seems to be charging - the speaker at least is now working connected to a power supply.

Didn’t come with solder tags. What follows is not strictly safe (soldering terminals on a Li ion battery): use a hot iron (I used 480ºC), a good flux and as little solder as you can get away with. Gently scratch the terminal a little. Tin the terminal as fast as you can: so as little heat as possible goes to the battery. Let it cool. Whilst cooling pull the tags off the old battery (Carefully). I used some small flat surfaced long nosed pliers and then flattened them with a hammer on a hard surface. Tin them as well: keep an eye on which side for each end. Do the other battery terminal tinning. With the first end cooled, quickly solder the tab onto the tinned surface.Do the second terminal when cooled, making sure that the tab alignment corresponds with that of the first terminal.

Torx 5 point 15IPR

The one I have seems to have a loose connection - I suspect that the USB socket has a broken solder joint. Since it is the High Command’s property I have sought permission to open it up and have a look. Meanwhile if I get it to connect and don’t move it at all it is charging and managed to do a software update. If I open it up, do I need to desolder the speakers to get to the other side of the circuit board or will it come out with the speakers attached?

Looks like it had a sticky patch fixing it near the edge of the board - this would make it unwilling to come out of the socket. The patch looks to be the width of the cable and square, so probably pushing a thin something (plastic) under the cable up to the edge of the board would unstick it.

Using a bit of parcel cord about 1mm diameter worked for me - some breakage of the cord but cheap from the corner stationary shop. Couldn’t buy the Ifixit batteries because of no international shipping (seems that surface transport is not considered even to other North American countries). Looking at the photos the battery set that I bought was identical to that sold by Ifixit.

I successfully changed the capacitors in the power supply but after a year or so the unit is on the blink (literally!) again. I just bought the capacitors from the nearest electronics shop and I think, from looking around comments that I can find on the web, it is probably advisable to go for high quality capacitors (electrolytic capacitors are very sensitive to reverse voltages or excess voltage spikes). A tube of thermal paste cost more than the capacitors, which gives a clue to their quality! I don’t read German but Google translate does a good enough job in this case.