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Do this at your own risk. You will no doubt void your warranty if you break something.



http://farm1.static.flickr.com/113/293505012_1b3a9ffc8a_d.jpg
Hrmmm tried 2 different types of glue, bad results. Any reco for proper glue to stick the blue rubber backing in place again?
justintime,



I would think that a rubber cement would be effective. Sometimes it is sold as "contact cement." Make sure that it is fresh.



In automotive stores there are some rubber based gasket cements that could be effective. There are actually different types. Some are rubber based and some are not. If you need to try different adhesives, don't pick from the same chemistry.



This class of adhesive is a "coat both surfaces and wait" affair. Be sure to wait long enough. If you press the surfaces together too soon the adhesive will not be completely degassed. The trapped gasses will expand and literally blow the joint apart.



In any case, a hard setting cement is a bad choice.
I tried rubber cement, it did not work either. As a matter of fact, at this point the blue rubber insert must be 'stretched', because I cannot even form fit it tight in place... it just sags. This just stinks!!! I lost all faith in this. I am NEVER going to be able to put the darn insert back in... no way to glue it in place, and even then , it is now not conforming..



I have no idea what happened, it must be all the 'fitting' into place and then cleaning off all the cement from repeated failures that stretched the rubber.



Fat chance Sonos would sell me a new rubber insert, huh? *&^%%$$!!!
justintime,



Let the membrane sit for a while. It is possible that all of the solvents from the failed attempts have caused the membrane to distend. With luck, the solvents will work their way out and the membrane will recover at least some of its former shape.



Out of curiosity, which side seemed to reject the bonding attempts? The gasket material or the plastic case?
It sat overnight, no recovery. It is stretched... I think the GooGone (which I used to clean it) reacted with the rubber. I am contacting Sonos to see if they can sell me a replacement.



justintime,



Let the membrane sit for a while. It is possible that all of the solvents from the failed attempts have caused the membrane to distend. With luck, the solvents will work their way out and the membrane will recover at least some of its former shape.



Out of curiosity, which side seemed to reject the bonding attempts? The gasket material or the plastic case?
justintime,



GOO GONE seems to be the darling of the green set because of the heavy citrus smell. The major point for me is "Contains petroleum distillates. ... Do not use near heat, sparks or flame." To me, this means "nameless stew of industrial solvents". It does not fit my idea of "green". My experience is that GOO GONE is generally not safe for use with polymers -- unless the polymer is the item you want to remove from a glass or metal surface. I always test carefully.



Some of the GOO GONE fractions have a fairly low evaporation rate. Also, GOO GONE tends to leave a difficult to remove film, that will interfere with adhesives. The SONOS gasket may be better in a few days.



GOO GONE is my common (one can purchase it without some sort of special connection) solvent of last resort. I'll usually follow the GOO GONE with a milder solvent that will remove the GOO GONE film.
Justintime,

PM me your address and i'll send you one...i have a couple of dud controllers that i'm not using..you can have one of them.
Incidentally.....I have never had to use Glue of any sort...double sided tape is perfect...and even then it only seems to be on rare occasions that the original won't just go back.
pwilli, thank you! PM sent!
Just curious, if my CR100 is way outside of warranty, what risk do I have purchasing a replacement battery and doing it myself. I have several controllers and now the 2nd controller stopped charging on the cradle and only charges when plugged into the jack on the top of the controller. The last time this happened Sonos had me send for a replacement which cost about $100.00. Cleaning the contacts on the bottom and making sure the pins are protruding sufficiently does not seem to help in any way. I have been led to believe that this not charging on the cradle issue is really a battery issue. I have never replaced any batteries on any controllers and some of them are probably several years old -- probably more than 5 years. In any case, the cautions about voiding warranty do not seem to matter much in my case unless if my battery replacement doesn't work you are saying that Sonos would not then replace the unit under the $100 replacement program.



Thanks for your reply.
Welcome to the forum.



I believe -- and I'm sure I'll be quickly corrected if I'm wrong -- that it is Sonos policy not to service components that have had their warranty seals broken by the end-user. If that's true, it would disqualify you from the replacement program.



You may have some luck with a replacement unit by searching eBay if you must have a CR100.
Just curious, if my CR100 is way outside of warranty, what risk do I have purchasing a replacement battery and doing it myself. I have several controllers and now the 2nd controller stopped charging on the cradle and only charges when plugged into the jack on the top of the controller. The last time this happened Sonos had me send for a replacement which cost about $100.00. Cleaning the contacts on the bottom and making sure the pins are protruding sufficiently does not seem to help in any way. I have been led to believe that this not charging on the cradle issue is really a battery issue. I have never replaced any batteries on any controllers and some of them are probably several years old -- probably more than 5 years. In any case, the cautions about voiding warranty do not seem to matter much in my case unless if my battery replacement doesn't work you are saying that Sonos would not then replace the unit under the $100 replacement program.



Thanks for your reply.



Actually it is a bad design issue IMHO (and fixable) and can't believe Sonos jacked you for $100 since you're not alone in experiencing this issue as its been reported on this very thread back 2007.



Have a look at the pictures linked in this thread.



http://forums.sonos.com/showpost.php?p=48781&postcount=23



and another with the same problem.



http://forums.sonos.com/showpost.php?p=107501&postcount=25



If it were me I'd open it up, bend the tabs out a bit, and slap it back together.
I have just used this great guide to change the batteries on my 2 controllers. Would have made a mess if not for this.



The blue backing can be restuck without any glue. Since the screws are on the 4 corners and along the long sides, just prise up the rubber where the screws are - do not remove the whole blue backing. When you are done, press it down firmly after working the little lugs into the recess - it reseals itself.



My batteries were not totally gone but they only lasted for about 6 hours with quite intense operating. Lasted about 4 years.
great guide.

i removed the blue backing, and it seems that originally it is not glued but some double sided tape is used.

probably a precut piece of double sided tape, but you could easily replace with normal dual sided tape.



in the netherlands batteries are obtainable via replacedirect.nl. for all you dutchies looking for batteries
Thanks to this guide, I just replaced two controller batteries. While I had them open, also bent the contacts up and cleaned the pads so they charge on the cradles again.



They are about 5.5 years old with constant use. The old batteries were lasting less than an hour and charging in about 5 minutes.



Just wanted to say thanks.
Thanks for this guide. I got a new battery off ebay and changed it easily thanks to this guide. Works a treat!

Thanks a lot!
After purchasing replacement batteries on eBay, I replaced the batteries in all three of my CR100s and bent up the metal tabs inside so they make contact again.



My controllers now all charge in their cradles and hold a charge!



The adhesive holding the blue backing on my controllers was completely dried out, so I used some Scotch "Permanent Double Sided Tape" to re-affix them. I can tell they're probably going to come loose in one or two places, so I'll probably follow up with some higher quality double-sided tape. Other than that, this worked like a charm. Thanks!
Brilliant, a snap, thanks!!
Hi cnewlander, I used your excellent pictorial guide to replace the battery in my cr-100 controller. All went very well and the new battery was fully charged when I switched it on. Unfortunately, the battery has never taken a charge since day one although it indicates that it is charging when in the cradle. It's a real bummer. Any ideas?
Welcome to the forum.



Does it charge if you plug the charger directly into the CR-100, bypassing the cradle?
Found a battery on eBay for $17 and was able to replace it easily. I agree that you don't need to remove the entire blue pad, just lift it up directly over where the screws are and just enough to get the screws out. I used a black Sharpie pen to put a dot over the screw holes to make them easier to find on reassembly.



On mine the gasket came out attached to the body, not the cover so I had to carefully work it back into the channel around the cover.



The wires to the plug on the new battery were quite a bit longer than the original, so I folded them back and re-used the clear yellow tape to hold them in place.



Thank again for posting this HOWTO!
I finally got round to replacing the battery in one of my controllers from 8 or 9 years ago. The battery retention had been very poor (a few minutes) for a while, but recently it stopped working altogether. With the battery now replaced it is great again.



I too managed to lift the blue only where the screws where, it has gone back easily. My guess is in one place I will need a little glue eventually.



The screws are quite soft I slightly damaged one using a screwdriver that was the wrong profile.



I'm in the UK and bought my battery from Amazon UK before I opened the controller so I didn't need to worry about glue or gaskets drying out.



Like the previous poster my wire was a little longer than the battery being replaced, but it tucked under the connector quite easily.



A good result for £11.
this week i replaced the battery in my 9 year old CR100. To confirm how old it was i took a quick look in my email, wow how time flies. i pre-ordered my sonos bundle 11/28/2004. crazy...



anyway, my CR100s both died many years ago. we moved on to ipads and iphones. however i was kinda bored so ordered a battery, followed these instructions and the original CR100 is back!



i missed it. i like the dedicated device and still modern feel of it. it might be nostalgia.



the replacement on the first went perfectly so i just ordered another battery to repair its fallen brother.



thanks for the info in this thread.
Thanks again for this guide. I just replaced the battery in my other CR100. I was again able to only lift the blue mat where the screws are. The replacement battery (from eBay) had the longer wires to the connector, just like the first one. The orange gasket was much better behaved this time -- it just stayed in its groove. The old battery was stuck much tighter, so I had to carefully cut the adhesive to get it out.
Many thanks for the guide. Helped me to replace a very worn battery which was only holding charge for 1-2 minutes.



Great tip to only peel back the corners/edges to access the screws rather than the whole rubber back.



Hitman
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