I have very little knowledge in this, and I’m not even sure if what I’m trying to accomplish is going to be possible at all. I bought a Satechi Bluetooth Media Remote (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00824948U/ref … 0_TE_dp_i1) in order to control my phone on my motorcycle (play/pause music, next song). What I really want to do is mount something on my handlebar so I can control it without having to look or anything. I wasn’t able to find anything on the market that would do this, but I found the Satechi Bluetooth remote, which was the closest thing.
My question is this, what type of contacts are these on the board, and would there by any way to solder a wire to this contact, hook it up to a different kind of switch and use it like that? Again, I have little knowledge on this (I have done electrical work, but nothing at this level), and googling for information hasn’t yielded me much (mostly because I don’t know how to search for answers to this).
and heres the back, where the contacts are. The sticker just has these curved metal (i think?) pieces that allow you to push, make contact with the board, then pop back.
Did the Satechi Bluetooth remote work to do the control functions you wanted (before you dissected it) ? If so then I think the answer to your question is yes. Look at the parts of the pic I’ve circled in red. When you short those 2 contacts together (which is what the part circled in green, a conductive carbon “pill”, does), it signals the brains of the remote to do the function. It’s a basic switch. So soldering wires to those traces, or anywhere connected to the traces, will allow you to use another switch in place of the original remote button.
That’s what I was thinking. What type of solder would I use to get that small of a connection? My problem right now is figuring out how to not bridge the 2 with 1 solder joint.
Since posting this, I played around with using conductive wire glue, but it didn’t work well, so I want to go back to the soldering method.
Sorry mee, I never answered your question. Yes it did worked prior to tearing it apart, I literally got it in the mail, opened it, paired it, tested it then disassembled it. I’m just trying to make it fit a different role than it was intended for, and the supplied remote buttons are too small. Thank you again for your response
kharvey:
That’s what I was thinking. What type of solder would I use to get that small of a connection? My problem right now is figuring out how to not bridge the 2 with 1 solder joint.
I think good cleaning and proper flux is more important than solder ... but that's not my specialty. Clean w/isopropyl alcohol and use a good liquid flux and you'll have no problem w/soldering to those contacts.
Better yet would be to track down those traces associated w/the buttons you’ll use to something closer (physically) to the brains of the remote. My GUESS is that half of the tracks are tied to a ground trace and so you will only need 1 ground wire to all your switches and 1 wire to each of the traces. My GUESSS is that the center circle pad of the traces I circles are routed to somewhere close to the MCU brain. The outer rings are all tied to the ground trace. Mebbe. You can verify w/a DMM and make some resistance measurements. So really all you need are wires soldered to the switch +'s and 1 wire to ground to make external switches work.
More likely the buttons are wired up as a matrix. Easiest thing to do is solder two wires to each button (one to the ring, the other to the circle in the middle) and connect the other ends to the switch you want to use. The trick is to use some thin solder, after cleaning the pads with alcohol to remove any glue or other schmutz.
