VKB-SIM

Haven't really used these three F1 - F3-buttons until now, but I just ran into this issue last night with the central button ("F1"). Used it as my engine on/off switch in a flight-sim and sure enough, the engine cut out on me mid-air multiple times. I took a closer look at the button and it seems that every so often (but not always) its left side will get "stuck" in the down position after I press it. Seems to happen more regularly when I don't hit the button "dead center" when I press it, but rather when I push it more on its left edge. Only way to cure this is to lightly tap the right side of the button which will make the entire thing pop out as it should and into its intended resting position. Kinda makes this button a bit useless. Is there any way for me to fix this? Perhaps by putting some grease in there?


S.

That should work without hesitation, maybe it's out of place?

Not sure if it'll show up on it because we're talking tiny differences between "hanging" and "works as intended", but here's a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4g6WqW1-D8

It's also way easier to "feel" the button getting stuck and popping back out, but obviously you won't be able to reach out of my monitor/PC to actuate the thing yourself ...


Note: To demonstrate, I deliberately pressed the left side of the button a couple of times to "force" the behavior. But it will also happen when I press it more towards its center. Only way to avoid it is to push down from way above and dead center ... pretty much exactly on the little dip in the center. Which is not how I use these buttons when actually gaming...

EDIT: Just double checked the other two buttons, trying to force the same behavior by pressing down on their left and right edges, but they never got stuck like the F1-button.

I do still have plenty of that plastic-on-metal-safe silicone/teflon paste sitting around that I bought to re-lube my TWCS throttle. Would something like that help in there or is it more of a mechanical problem?


S.

It just seems sticky, try to clean the sides a bit. If you think something got spilled on it, better open up and clean underneath too.

Can I get to it from underneath without having to remove the throttle/encoder wheel assembly? Pretty sure I haven't spilled anything on the stick, but I do use discord quite a bit when I fly and perhaps I have what we in Germany call a "wet pronunciation" ..


S.