Do your 7E buttons ever get stuck down?

I've always had this issue, it's super annoying but I've lived with it but now I'm building a 7E for my buddy and I really want to solve it so his doesnt do it (it's en route to me so I'm not even sure it'll do it).

I've taken the bottom PCB off several times trying to reposition it, there are locating pegs molded into the shell that keep it pretty centered and I've tried adjusting it to all possible positions (a very small variation). Some positions make it worse but none make it go away.

To describe the issue; the buttons (especially the top two) get stuck down if I dont press them EXACTLY right, friction / pressure against the body is what holds them down against their "spring" pressure. If I apply a little side pressure, pressing the right buttons to the left and the left side buttons to the right (towards the display) I can avoide this but I have ot remember to do this every time, if I get the ENT button stuck down while I'm in the air and last thing I changed was some important, bind related setting I could potentially break bind and then I'd be having a very bad day.

I need a solution for this, maybe filing down and polishing the insides of the case where the buttons ride, maybe a real return spring. Is this a common issue guys or am I the only one? Have you already fixed yours?

I tried a bunch, but I can't get mine to stick at all. The buttons do not move side-to-side and always travel 100% without any angular movement (e.g. they don't rock either). The total travel isn't enough to give them a ledge on my 7e. Is it possible that the board isn't fully seated or that something is between the board and the shell?

In this it appears that all the buttons on each side are part of a single mechanism held in place by posts between the board and the shell. Is it possible there is a broken link somewhere?

Deal57 wrote: [snip]Is it possible that the board isn't fully seated or that something is between the board and the shell?
[snip] Is it possible there is a broken link somewhere?

I was thinking the same thing, I even switched to 32AWG wire (going to the add-on 3-way's) thinking that was keeping it from seating. It's definitely sat all the way down and the buttons are all intact and look fine.

short (~2min) video of it happening, it's not random, I can cause it on demand...

That sucks. It looks like the buttons are moving (rocking) a bit, so i'm thinking you've got a bad button assembly. Either that or the sockets in the shell or board that hold the pegs that hold the assembly in place may be worn (enlarged)... given the leverage involved I would suspect the shell sockets first. Are they too big for the peg?

Of course it's hard to tell from here. I don't use my buttons much when i am flying but I certainly wouldn't want this to happen during a bind

To tell you the truth I have no idea lol. I'm going to have it apart in the next day or so and will pay attention then.

If it were you what would your plan be? I mean short of carefully peeling the tamper sticker back and taking the button assembly from the new one (that's due to be delivered tomorrow) and swapping these parts back into that one and sticking the sells (an eBay vendor) what possible avenues do I have to try? What about taller buttons (the actual SMD tact switches) I could swap those out easily then shave the silver button assembly down, as needed, to work and to depress ever so slightly less (.25-1mm or so) so that it doesn't travel far enough down to get cockeyed like it is. Is that maybe a workable plan (assuming I don't find something majorly out of place in my inspection, even tho I've looked over it with a fine tooth comb already).

First, I'd confirm that there isn't anything out of place with the button assembly, and if there is a crack or worn piece, fix that. I like the idea of raising the SMD switch pad a bit. I wouldn't actually remove it, just add about .5mm of stuff (you know, stuff, technical term!) to the top of it, or maybe just add a .5mm foam pad to the post on the plastic button, to effectively close up any gap a little bit. If that doesn't help, there may be no other option than to replace the part (or whole thing, if the part isn't available).

Have you contacted the guy on RCGroups that does Deviation upgrades (Barter?)? He handles a lot of these TX and perhaps he has seen this before.

These are really inexpensive considering the power we get out of them.