Monday, July 6, 2009

Cleaning an Olympus Footswitch

If your footswitch is anything like our footswitch, it collects everything hovering around your feet. From dust bunnies to hair, the plastics of the pedal can create static electricity, attracting all kinds of materials. If you ever want to see just what lies below, take a look at your footswitch.

We were recently asked by a good customer of ours how one would go about cleaning an Olympus RS-27 footswitch. Given that ours was no less sterile, we decided to figure out how. The following is a photo essay we prepared on how to clean an Olympus RS-27 footswitch.

NOTE: opening your footswitch may void your warranty. Use caution, as there are fragile elements inside. If you're the least bit hesitant, don't do it, particulary if you don't have a spare to use if you break something.

First, gather a phillips and a blade screwdriver.



Turn your footswitch over and identify the top two screws on the back side.


Remove these with your phillips screwdriver. You do not need to remove the third, lower screw.


Once the screws are removed, use your blade screwdriver to gently pry the outer shell from the bottom of the footswitch, starting with the two tabs at each end of the back edge of the footswitch.


Do the same at the other end.


Using your fingers, carefully pull the outer shell away from the bottom. There are several springs inside which should remain in place. You'll hear the familiar "twang" of the springs as you open the footswitch. Don't be alarmed. As long as the springs remain connected to the bottom, you're okay. If they do fall out, simply replace them when you re-assemble the footswitch.


Lay open the two pieces of the footswitch on your desk or table.


For cleaning out the dust and debris, we like to use a can of compressed air, which you can find at any office supply. In fact, compressed air is useful for cleaning keyboards, computer vents, etc. Spray using short bursts, or the can will freeze up. Gently remove any hair or fuzz which won't blow out.


Once you have cleaned out the inside of the footswitch, place the outer shell on top of the bottom so that it is positioned properly. The top will look raised since it has not been snapped to the bottom.


Press down on the left pedal until you hear it snap in place. The tabs on the front should engage the bottom.


Do the same for the right pedal.


Take the footswitch in both hands, and snap the center foot pedal onto the bottom (we used one hand in the photo in order to show the tabs along the front; it does work better if you use both hands).


Turn the footswitch so you are looking at the back side where the cable comes out. Snap both ends as you did for the front.


Lay the footswitch upside down on your desk and replace the phillips screws you removed earlier.


And that's all there is to it. Again, we caution that if you're not careful, you could damage the internal components and render the footswitch inoperable. You might first want to try using compressed air to clean out the footswitch without taking it apart.

Although we didn't have an RS-23 or RS-25 footswitch handy to compare, we're assuming the process is very similar. If you do find differences, let us know before proceeding.

1 comment:

David said...

This is a very nice and useful post that I have referred to more than once. Thank you very much!

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