MCG buttons randomly not working

[thistledown]

I have an MCG Pro and Mk IV Rudders connected together running firmware 1.99A on Windows 10. The only customization I have in the firmware is to add the index finger hat push to send F12 for TrackIR. 99% of my stick time is for DCS World.

For months, I had a problem where sometimes the front, bottom lever which I use as wheel breaks access doesn't actually break. I don't know if it will work until I land. I'd say that 80-90% of the time it works. When I sense it doesn't work (wheels down, plane not slowing), I quickly show the controls to verify and start using 'w' to break on the keyboard. It will come back if I unplug the black box for a few seconds or sometimes just on its own, but after I've landed. I've had other times where it seemed like the left gray thumb hat wasn't working (I use for TMS in F-16C), and again I would unplug/re-plug in black box and everything would work.

Yesterday, it was the worst. I was flying an F/A-18C for 15 min, and I couldn't change my sensor of interest with the middle castle switch. The axes would work (pitch, roll, yaw), but none of the buttons. I couldn't get any button to register in the plane. I put autopilot on and alt-tabbed to start up the VKB Config. It registered all the axes as working but none of the buttons. I unplugged the black box for 10 seconds, and re-plugged it in - still no buttons would register. I ended up quitting to desktop out of DCS. That wasn't enough. I then had to unplug/replug the black box before VKB Config would test buttons.

Any suggestions?

[fallout9]

MKII or MKIII base? Extension or not? Also check this.

[thistledown]

MK III base with an extension. I pulled both the extension and the MCG and cleaned both sets of flat contacts with 99.9% IPA. The MCG->extension didn't have any visible dirt, but the extension->base removed visible dirt on the cleaning pad.

Thank you for the link. I'll report back after testing.

[fallout9]

It would be worthy to check if the indents on the 3 contact pads are relatively the same on both base and extension. That would help finding out if there's proper contact pins-to-pads.

[thistledown]

I didn't notice any uneven wear on the contact pads. I only tested it out for a few hours with 5-6 landings. The problem appears to be resolved.

[thistledown]

All is working great after cleaning the contacts. Thanks again.