AnaTek Blue ESR Meter - Cheap Switch Fail

[SgtRock]

Greeting EEVBees:

--The first problem I had with my Blue ESR meter was that the right angle on/off button switch worked lose of the board because its pins were only retained by tiny solder pads on the back side of the board. I managed to cure this by (see picture below) soldering a piece of wire between the two support pins to keep the switch from rocking. Now the swich has gone wobbly and is intermittant. I plan to replace the right button switch (see picture) with an inline momentary (see picture) which looks more substantial and costs $0.99 instead of 20 for $1.99.

--While waiting a few weeks for HK delivery, I may even be forced to jury rig a temporary fix just to be able to operate. I love the meter but can AnaTek really believe that its switch arrangement will last 1000 operations. Your experiences, opinions and suggestions are humbly soliceted. See below link for my earlier post about kit bashing the Blue, and examples by people who did it better.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/kit-bashing-the-bob-parker-blue/msg150772/#msg150772

"That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers."
Laurence "Larry" van Cott Niven
1938  - 

Best Regards
Clear Ether

[Rerouter]

As I'm currently trying to build something with interlocks that may shift during transport, I've been wondering how else one might assist in overcoming the solder joints fatiguing on the board level other than making the holes tighter and the pads wider?

This is also a common failure mode in 1990's automotive stuff where the pads lift / tear or fatigue a ring and the components completly drop out,

(they will be hot-snotted, but it still has some give)

[SgtRock]

Dear Rerouter:

--Try this stuff. It cures hard as a rock. See picture.

"The actress delivered a striking performance that ran the gamut of emotions, from A to B"
Dorothy Parker  1893  -  1967

Best Regards
Clear Ether