GumiElectronic

This post is in response to a question I was asked about cleaning the buttons on the RX5. I did this a long time ago so I don’t have good photo documentation of the process, but it’s pretty easy once you get the button board out of the case.

From what I remember, you have to disassemble the entire machine to get at the button board. The RX5 isn’t as easy to take apart as other drum machines.  I don’t recall the whole process so that part is up to you, but here’s a picture of the disassembled unit:

On the far right you can see the PCB with the button contacts that needs to be cleaned. All you need to do is remove the plastic sheet that’s taped to the PCB, then give the contacts a good cleaning. You’ll probably want to clean both the PCB contacts and the contacts on the plastic sheet. I did this job back in the days before I discovered DeoxIT, so I used 91% isopropyl alcohol instead. It did the trick just fine.

If your buttons are sticky, then you’ll also have to remove them from the board for cleaning. The picture above shows the button board (second from right). From the rear of the board, you’ll see 4 small tabs that lock each button into place. You can just bend these tabs inward to remove the button. They’re spring loaded, so be careful not to lose any of the parts inside the button. I had to clean a bunch of grime off the edges of the buttons as well as the rectangular slots of the button board frame. I used warm soapy water. Now your buttons will work like new.