Greetings All!
Thought I would share this odd little adventure that I have not seen described before!
I recently acquired a DrumIt Five, second (at least) hand to start toying with. Really nice shape and seemingly all original and fully function (so far) except for one rather important issue; the Save button did not work at all, including PREF-SAVE. It also felt a bit mushy compared to all of the other buttons that have a crisp snap when pressed so I suspected the button would need replacement. I carefully disassembled the unit and removed the cap from the "bad" button and also a good button to compare to, and they were both identical. An Ohm test on the pins revealed that indeed the button was actually fully functional. Puzzling!! Then I noticed it... the underside of the logic board had some scars on two traces. Sure enough, one was connected to a pin on the non-functioning button (see photo) and clearly the trace was broken. The second was still intact despite the scaring. I thought, weird! How could this have occurred from normal use!? And then the light bulb comes on.... The scar is directly above one of the module's two threaded mounting holes in the bottom plate! A previous owner has used a mounting screw that was too long and it jammed into the logic board, tearing into the traces! I wonder how many times this module may have changed hands, with an undisclosed issue, getting passed on to the next frustrated owner who could not save any settings!?
So I carefully scraped at the scaring to reveal the broken trace and then, using a magnifying glass, reconnect with a little bit of solder, using my smallest soldering tip (see second photo). An Ohm check was successful from button pin to trace endpoint so I connected power and checked that the button operation was as expected (although still a bit spongy) and then reassembled the module and now all is well. WhooHoo!! Sometimes an unexpected resolution to an unexpected problem. :)
Cheers!
Ken
(https://www.cncware.com/2box/images/IMG_1165.png)
(https://www.cncware.com/2box/images/IMG_1166.png)
NICE WORK... If this was my, I'd have accepted this was unrepairable. So Kudos to you for having a go and getting a result! Bravo.