Left on dpad broken

[Breaded Butter]

Title says it all.


I tested it using the input tester. It feels normal, it just doesn't register. Is there anything I can try that doesn't involve opening the case? I'm currently away from home and have no screwdriver, but intend to check for obstructions when I can. Until then, how would I remap left to some other button?

 

[LTStone]

If you do have to open the Pandora to check the dpad its a pretty easy/safe process just take you time and dont force anything. Sounds like maybe dirt under the diaphragm.

 

[Breaded Butter]

Okay, was finally able to open it up. There was no obvious dirt. I wasn't 100% sure on what else to look for, but I did notice some black smudge marks on the PCB contact like part of the dpad rubbed off on it or something. I'm really not sure what to do from here. I'm pretty comfortable with opening up the Pandora and doing stuff, I just don't always know what to do once I'm there unguided.

 

[levi]

Did you clean the black marks off the PCB? I'd guess they're carbon, and may be shorting out the d-pad so it looks like you're always pressing left (though I've not tested to see what happens in the input tester in this case).

If you did and it still doesn't work, it may be that the carbon came from the keymat pads, and there's not the right amount left there to activate the PCB switch. I'm not sure what the official recommendation is if this is the case.

 

[LTStone]

Just order a new keymat worst case scenario.

 

[comradekingu]

Cleaning will take care of it, from my experience on other electronics. Make sure to clean all of it, otherwise you will keep running into the problem.

Do you have a lot of heavy use on it? Any other lessons to be learnt from how it holds up?

 

[Breaded Butter]

Turns out it was the dirty contact. I have never cleaned a PCB before so I decided to look up the do's and don'ts first so I didn't make any horrible mistakes. I ended up just going over the contact with a microfiber cloth. After a few minutes of cleaning it was working fine.

The Pandora is pretty new, I grabbed it from the last production batch. I do use it quite a bit and it spends a lot of time in my pocket - all I can think of is maybe somehow it got warm and I was particularly heavy on pressing left? I really have no clue.

Back to something I said in my first post, I am vaguely aware that it's possible to remap the Pandora's keys which is why I first asked if I could temporarily rebind left to something else. I'm still a noob to not just the Pandora but Linux in general so I'd like to add that to my bag of tricks just in case.

As for any lessons to be learnt... never go on vacation without a toolkit?