Here's what I did to fix this. I disassembled the lamp and pried apart the six microswitches on the side of the lamp and cleaned the contacts in them with q-tips and alcohol. I was able to do this without unsoldering the microswithes. It now works just like new.
+
Here's what I did to fix this. I disassembled the lamp and pried apart the six microswitches on the side of the lamp and cleaned the contacts in them with q-tips and alcohol until the contacts were shiny. I was able to do this without unsoldering the microswitches. It now works just like new.
-
Here's an explanation of why cleaning the microswitches fixes the problem. The part that has the six buttons on the side communicates whether buttons are pressed or not pressed using both whether the wire the button is on is active and the resistance of the wire. Buttons share wires but have resistors on their circuits that give them different resistances when pressed. As the microswitches in the buttons age they oxidize and the resistance in them increases, it increases so much that one button starts to appear to the main unit as another button when pressed. The solution is to either replace the microswitches or to pry them apart and clean them.
+
Here's an explanation of why cleaning the microswitches fixes the problem. The part that has the six buttons on the side communicates whether buttons are pressed or not pressed using both whether the wire the button is on is active and the resistance of the wire. Buttons share wires but have resistors on their circuits that give them different resistances when pressed. As the microswitches in the buttons age they oxidize and the resistance in them increases, it increases so much that one button starts to appear to the main unit as another button when pressed. The solution is to either replace the microswitches or to pry them apart and clean them to remove the oxidation.
+
+
+
+
Edit: Cleaning the microswitches fixed the problem, but over time the microswitches oxidized again, leading to the same issues. I guess it’s a flaw in the microswitches that the contacts oxidize so quickly. Perhaps replacing the microswitches with new ones will permanently fix the problem, assuming they don’t have the same problem.
Here's what I did to fix this. I disassembled the lamp and pried apart the six microswitches on the side of the lamp and cleaned the contacts in them with q-tips and alcohol. I was able to do this without unsoldering the microswithes. It now works just like new.
Here's an explanation of why cleaning the microswitches fixes the problem. The part that has the six buttons on the side communicates whether buttons are pressed or not pressed using both whether the wire the button is on is active and the resistance of the wire. Buttons share wires but have resistors on their circuits that give them different resistances when pressed. As the microswitches in the buttons age they oxidize and the resistance in them increases, it increases so much that one button starts to appear to the main unit as another button when pressed. The solution is to either replace the microswitches or to pry them apart and clean them.