Comments on: Fix Broken Buttons on Harmony Remote

By: Gordon

Gordon — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:58:38 +0000

the plunger yeilded better results, but I still have a problem and some time down the road I will need to pull up that pad. Here is a link to a guy with a similar remote, and this is what I will try…
http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Harmony-Remotes/Harmony-880-and-890-volume-control-button-issue/td-p/376234/page/5
look for a post from 02-18-201203:54 PM

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:25:28 +0000

Spirits, Yes – I believe the design has changed. I don’t see how Calikot is going to work on this design. I am going to try and do the thing someone else suggested and build up the “plunger” with crazy glue. If that doesn’t work, I may try to pull apart the contact as you suggest. I will post my results here.

By: spirits

spirits — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:45:28 +0000

Hey there, You’ve done a fantastic job. I’ll certainly digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I’m sure they’ll be benefited from this site. Regards, spirits

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 02:28:39 +0000

Ok, so I have a harmony 880 and when I disassemble it, there seems to be to two layers to the keypad. One just seems to be a green and white cover with holes for the small round metal contacts. It seems to be attached with an adhesive. I don’t know if it has a function. I imagine it does.

Then there’s a second layer which seems to be held together by adhesive and if I pull up one small side, I can see the top and bottom parts of the contact.

So my questions are:

1. are others seeing this or did the design change drastically between the two versions?

2. should I try to pull up the entire adhesive layer (both of them) and try to clean or repair the contacts?

I have about 3-4 buttons that simply aren’t responding anymore. it’s infuriating for something that we spent hundreds of dollars on.

Thanks for the help so far!

By: T Fogarty

T Fogarty — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 02:41:19 +0000

For anyone that may need to fix the stupid hard buttons on the 785 (they click when pressed and don’t rely on conductive back on the button). I just made mine work nearly as good as new, by putting a small drop of superglue on top of the metal dome that is stuck on the board, I tried to keep the drip in the centre of the dome and smaller than it. I guess you could maybe put a couple of layers of tape over them too. I think the bottom of the button wears down and just doesn’t allow the travel necessary to operate. I had to push my channel and volumes buttons nearly to breaking point, now all thats needed is just a tap. Very happy this has annoyed me for about a year now and I knew the hard buttons were different.

Don’t know how long it lasts, probably longer than it did originally is my guess. Logitech should be shot for putting the hard button types on it, I’m certain they tested them to last just outside warranty. When you pay $200 plus for a remote it should at least out last an OEM remote, not in the case of harmony remotes though. I’ve had 3 now all with buttons that were dead on arrival or soon after. It’s a pity as the rest of the hardware is reasonable.

By: Dan Ferguson

Dan Ferguson — Mon, 02 May 2011 00:36:49 +0000

To those of you with Harmony Remotes and buttons don’t work, good info on this site. Have had this problem with other remotes I have-usually I spilled something on them and have to take-em apart and clean with warm water then they work fine. The Harmony 676 I just got (only 5 bucks!) the volume would not go up only down. Took it apart and scraped off the gel and it worked fine. As for taking it apart-there are two screws on the back (very small philips) you can get a set of small drivers at the dollar store. Remove the two screws on the back then the two screws in the battery compartment. Then on the bottom of the the remote use one of the small screw drivers and pry the two halves apart a little then use another small one and it work it further up the control carefully. there are three tabs spaced about 1.5 inches apart on each side of the control- You can’t see them until you pry it apart a little-when you do put another small driver in there and pry it lose. Be carefull you don’t want to break them. When you get the halves apart there are two small screws holding the PC board down- they are located at the bottom near the battery contacts, remove those. Pull the PC board out and look at the bottom of the push buttons you will see the bad one has some shiny stuff on it. Scrape this off with one of the small screw drivers-wipe down the contact surface on the PC board and re-assemle-you are back in business. Hope this helps.

Dan-Lynnwood, WA

By: Trini

Trini — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:03:18 +0000

George : I was able to fix my 520. Several buttons required me to hold them for 1+ seconds before the connection was made and the signal was sent. I didn’t clean away any of the existing conductive liquid with alcohol or anything. I just flexed the rubberized keypad enough to “scrape” up any extra conductive gel (there was some gel on surfaces that didnt require it) onto the backs off the buttons that had stopped working. I didn’t have to buy any conductive liquid at all!

By: Trini

Trini — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:59:20 +0000

Hi!
I think maybe the rubbing alcohol dissolved the conductive film.

I didn’t have any rubbing alcohol …so I used hand soap.
And it’s made my buttons easy to push again!
(How long it will last ‘I don’t know’.)

Thanks for the tip on the CaliKote!

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 20:57:08 +0000

Thanks so much for posting this, especially the tip about CaiKote 44! Bought the small kit from allelectronics.com for $10 plus shipping, followed your instructions and the instructions for the CaiKote, and now my Harmony 676′s buttons are all working smoothly again!

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:19:02 +0000

Thanks for posting this blog entry. A little caikote44 on my skip forward, play and pause buttons and they work like new.