Post by hikenit on Aug 12, 2004 6:29:31 GMT -5
So I am sitting here today at work on my Birthday watching the printers print and day dreaming about vacation next week. I am so freaking bored and was wondering on what I needed to do to get ready to Geocache in South Florida and it hit me; "I need the Vista to work". All the people who have cached with me know of my relentless click stick problems while on the hunt so I decided to work on the issue.
The first thing I thought was "your going to ruin your vacation". I set that thought aside for a moment and studied other forums on what to do about the sticking click stick. None of the knowledge out there had helped, they all said to send it to Garmin and for a modest fee they would fix it since it was out of warranty. Being the cash cautious person I am I was determined to fix the problem I had myself.
After studying the Vista I decided to tear into it. First I took the rubber seal off the sides that has the buttons attached to it, then there was a strip of clear industrial strength double stick tape covering the button connectors and the cracks where the Vista case snaps shuts. I took my handy X-Acto #1 knife and cut a line where the case front and back meets and took care going around the button guts. At this point the case and my hands were getting mighty sticky. The case opened up quite easily and there it was, the guts of a GPSr!
Now the case was opened, the front of it with the screen and click stick had a very small but wide cable attached to the main board. I thought, "Uh oh, how do I do this. The screws to the click were buried underneath the cable. I fiddled with it for a minute trying to get the screws loose and the cable easily slipped out. I am freaking out at this point, kicking myself in the rear for attempting this right before vacation. I gathered my thoughts and thought "how did this thing slip out". I went ahead and cleaned the inside of the button gasket and went to the click stick itself. There was a small piece of rubber attached to the stick so I took it off and cleaned it and the stick with a cotton swab and alcohol "not the kind I sell either" just good ole 70 percent Isopropyl.
After the cleaning it was time to decide, screw in the click or give it some flex, I opted to leave out the screws.
Now the hard part of the morning was to out that little cable back in so I could see the screen work again. I took note on how it should go in and figured out that it was exactly like a computer cable of a hard drive, just 1/25 scale. I took the black piece of plastic off that snaps on top of the cable holder and locks the cable into place with the X-Acto knife and slipped the cable back into place and locking it in. At this point it was either it works or I am GPSr-less on vacation.
I carefully snapped everything back into place, put the rubber seal back on and put the batteries back in and crossed my fingers ;D I screamed "IT"S ALIVE!" Everything worked, and the click stick is better than ever. For two years I have had this problem and now it's fixed. I even tested the waterproof ness of it afterwards and it didn't leak. The tape was so sticky that the bond sealed again without having to retape it, although I would recommend that you do tape it over again if you try this at home.
Now it's time for vacation, and the hydro caches are calling me.
The first thing I thought was "your going to ruin your vacation". I set that thought aside for a moment and studied other forums on what to do about the sticking click stick. None of the knowledge out there had helped, they all said to send it to Garmin and for a modest fee they would fix it since it was out of warranty. Being the cash cautious person I am I was determined to fix the problem I had myself.
After studying the Vista I decided to tear into it. First I took the rubber seal off the sides that has the buttons attached to it, then there was a strip of clear industrial strength double stick tape covering the button connectors and the cracks where the Vista case snaps shuts. I took my handy X-Acto #1 knife and cut a line where the case front and back meets and took care going around the button guts. At this point the case and my hands were getting mighty sticky. The case opened up quite easily and there it was, the guts of a GPSr!
Now the case was opened, the front of it with the screen and click stick had a very small but wide cable attached to the main board. I thought, "Uh oh, how do I do this. The screws to the click were buried underneath the cable. I fiddled with it for a minute trying to get the screws loose and the cable easily slipped out. I am freaking out at this point, kicking myself in the rear for attempting this right before vacation.
I gathered my thoughts and thought "how did this thing slip out". I went ahead and cleaned the inside of the button gasket and went to the click stick itself. There was a small piece of rubber attached to the stick so I took it off and cleaned it and the stick with a cotton swab and alcohol "not the kind I sell either" just good ole 70 percent Isopropyl. After the cleaning it was time to decide, screw in the click or give it some flex, I opted to leave out the screws.
Now the hard part of the morning was to out that little cable back in so I could see the screen work again. I took note on how it should go in and figured out that it was exactly like a computer cable of a hard drive, just 1/25 scale. I took the black piece of plastic off that snaps on top of the cable holder and locks the cable into place with the X-Acto knife and slipped the cable back into place and locking it in. At this point it was either it works or I am GPSr-less on vacation. I carefully snapped everything back into place, put the rubber seal back on and put the batteries back in and crossed my fingers ;D I screamed "IT"S ALIVE!" Everything worked, and the click stick is better than ever. For two years I have had this problem and now it's fixed. I even tested the waterproof ness of it afterwards and it didn't leak. The tape was so sticky that the bond sealed again without having to retape it, although I would recommend that you do tape it over again if you try this at home.
Now it's time for vacation, and the hydro caches are calling me.
