Repair a Key Fob With Conductive Ink

I had a key fob for my car that wasn't performing as it used to. This instructable restored the buttons to their original function.

What You Need

1 The fob to repair 2 a coin to open the fob 3 conductive ink

Open the Fob

Use your penny to pop open the fob. Mine has a slot made just for it. Insert the penny and twist.

Inside the Fob

Inside the fob you will find a small circuit board, a rubber button cover with small conductive pads, and a coin sized battery. Inspect each of these for corrosion.

A Word About Conductive Ink

This is conductive ink. It's a simple easy way to make a connection for circuits. It's easy to find on the Internet.

Prep the Ink

remove the cap, unscrew the nozzle and remove the inner cap. The inner cap is easy to miss. Hopefully this saves someone some frustration.

Conductive Pads

Find the conductive pads on the rubber cover. if they have rubbed off, use the conductive ink to repair the pad. Use just a little ink. I used too much the first time and had to clean it off and reapply. You just need enough to make a good contact.

Image of Repair

This is an image of the repair. Be sure to let the junk thoroughly dry. The jnk is not conductive until it is dry. You can speed up dry time with a hair dryer.

Inspect and Reassemble

Inspect the contact pads and reassemble. You should have a working remote again. Note this remedy does not fix all broken remotes but if your contact pads were the issue you are golden. Note to the wise. Replace the battery with a fresh one while you are in here.