Howdy. I had some home renovations recently and my poor DigiTone bore the brunt of some pretty dusty conditions. What’s the best way to clean dusty gunk off the buttons?
cheers
You can take off the faceplate, remove buttons a put in some water.
Prevention is usually best
Isn’t there some sort of electronics alcohol rub with ear buds method kinda thing?
Alcohol can be destructive for paint.
Once I washed out a sticky button on my A4 with alcohol.
Don’t do it on the buttons. It will destroy the paint
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Would encourage not to use alcohol on the buttons (alcohol is mostly fine for PCB’s though). Soapy water for keycaps is best from my experience (especially coated ones like elektron trigs), mild dish soap and water in a cup. It’s easiest if you remove the faceplate, but not impossible to remove and replace the keycaps. They come off easiest if you pry them from the side, the way they latch down to the mechanical switch makes the side the best approach and you have to leverage them with something firm but not sharp like a guitar pick. The first one is scary but after you figure out the correct amount of force it’s a walk in the park.
This is only for the trigs though, full sized guitar pick other than maybe smaller ones will require more finesse if you want to remove the small button caps (like the arrows and page buttons etc) without taking off the face (might work with a small pick but heavy fender type picks like I use are a no), same strategy though, side angle, mild force with leverage against the side of the button holes, just look for something similar to a guitar pick but narrower, you could trim the outer edges of a guitar pick for example.
I keep saying guitar pick but you can figure it out on your own if you don’t have any or don’t want to buy some, a prybar cut from an old credit card for example, but I’d recommend softening the edges with some sandpaper or a scouring pad or something so you don’t leave a mark on the button or the paint.
This is what I mean about a small guitar pick vs a larger one (not everyone plays guitar) you can see a few sizes compared.
with the face off you can do it with your fingers though, there’s much better access.
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An air compressor.
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A hoover with brush attachment is good for dusty hardware i find, it’s doubly good listening to 90s hoover patches whilst doing it.
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I strongly second using a vacuum with a brush attachment as a first order of business, or if you take off the cover using an air compressor. You will want the dust gone before you apply any cleaning solutions.
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