Quick post on a simple repair that will save thousands of iClickers from the landfill.  I have had several iClickers handed to me to fix or just use for scrap.  Every one was fixable and it wasn’t even an electronic failure.

The failure comes under the category of “Design Failure”.  Product designers not knowing the manufacturing tolerances and component tolerances they are working with.  In the case of these wireless classroom participation voting remotes the failure is with the batteries not making good contact.

Below is a photo showing how the thick plastic is preventing the battery’s positive tip from reaching the contact.  For some batteries this is not a problem, for others you get intermittent on and off events and for Duracell you get zip.

CLICK TO READ ALL —>:

This goes to show how important it is for designers to really know the manufacturing tolerance of the plastic mold injection processes they use as well as the minimum manufacturing height of AA battery tips.  So to fix this we just need to remove some plastic.

Below are just some photos of my repair so others can save their iClicker or any other device with similar intermittent battery contact failure. You have to take three screws out but one is under the sticker.

Below is the bit we have to cut out or shave down some.

Remove the positive battery clip.

Cut out some plastic with a sharp knife.

Once you get some BUT NOT ALL the platic cut out it should look like the below photo. If you cut out too much plastic your positive terminal clip will not stay in place.

Your clip should slide back in and still be held in place by the platic you didn’t cut out.

In the below photo you can see the battery now makes good contact and all batteries should work just fine.

There, the iClicker is working.  I know there is a lot of these remotes out there with this problem so don’t bring them to me, fix them yourself :)

I hope this was helpful.