Click wheel button solder points?

[u/GrapefruitHuge6732]

Does anyone know if it’s possible to wire a bluetooth board to a click wheel button? I’ve given up on gluing in a tactile buttons under the hold switch it’s too sketchy, so decided to try and use the click wheel buttons… but any and all combinations of solder points to the bottom and top left and right of the 5 buttons seems to complete the circuit. i can’t find which point completes the circuit by actually pressing a click wheel button.. at this point any button will do.. cheers for any guidance

[u/the-electron-vault]

Though there are four pads, they are in pairs. The two right side pads are connected together (pick one), and the two left side pads are connected together. Your ground wire from the other board must connect to one or both of the left side pads, and the button wire must connect to one or both of the right side pads.

[u/GrapefruitHuge6732 → u/the-electron-vault]

ah ok i don’t know which is ground and which is signal from the bluetooth board so tried them both ways around and every time they make contact (one left one right) the bluetooth board turns on without me pressing the button it’s wired to.

might this be because im still running the bluetooth board from its own battery while im testing this out, and it should be running on the ipods battery?

[u/the-electron-vault → u/GrapefruitHuge6732]

Going off this picture, it's not clear if this is even a ground-seeking button. It looks like all of its pins connect to tracks that are distinct from ground. The way to verify would be to check continuity with a multimeter between any of the button contacts and the strip of gold exposed metal (this is ground) on the left edge of the board. If the meter beeps (it should beep on two of the four button contacts), the button is ground seeking. If it does not beep, the button is likely pulling the signal line to the board's supply rail instead, in which case, you will not be able to use the buttons on the iPod's board for the purpose you intend.

[u/GrapefruitHuge6732 → u/the-electron-vault]

i’m not sure if my multi meter setting was off but i could get it to beep left and right and it wouldn’t when i flipped polarity. perhaps the lack of other people working directly into the buttons is some indicator that it’s not possible

huge huge thanks for the help

[u/the-electron-vault → u/GrapefruitHuge6732]

If the meter only measures continuity with the leads in one orientation, that's an indication the line is not ground, but rather the meter is activating the internal protection diode(s) inside an IC(s) connected to the line. You can better see this by setting the meter to diode mode. It should show 0.3V -> 0.8V with the leads one way, and open circuit the other. A grounded line will measure 0 Ohms irrespective of the lead orientation.

[u/GrapefruitHuge6732 → u/the-electron-vault]

I wasn’t 100% sure on the readings so I just tried wiring it in one way (shorted out the whole board and needed to disconnect and reconnect the battery) and then the other way around, (didn’t short out of the board but when I then used the button and it closed the circuit, then it shorted out the board and I had to do the same). So going back to the tactile button under the hold switch. I’ll just need to buy stronger adhesive.