How to clean Skipping Control Wheels... My way.

It could be that whatever is on the contacts will not dissolve in electrical contact cleaner. Maybe try lens cleaning fluid, or experiment by drying a drop of diet coke, and seeing what kind of fluid best dissolves it.

And welcome to dyxum!

Sony A850: Spilled a dollop of Diet Coke on the front dial, not too long after that things started skipping around — never could seem to land on f/11 — and was hoping a corrosive effect had not already caused damage that a blast of solvent wouldn't cure. I rummaged around the shop for some Mass Air Flow sensor cleaner and realized it was in my pickup truck which is miles away, but I did have a can of carburetor cleaner!? I gave it a test squirt on the back of my hand and it left a slight white residue, which cleared off in about ten minutes.

I followed the test shot with a localized double straw blast in the front dial of the camera and began spinning it upside down and blowing with a rocket blower; directly it became very stiff, spongy and remained erratic. I thought it would be necessary to open it up for investigation to see what i had damaged, and went looking for my jewelers tool kit. A few minutes later it loosened up and spun like it should, except that the controls are no longer skipping and bouncing around, in other words it worked.

If I need to do it again I'll use a proper electrical cleaner, but hey, it was either carb cleaner or brake cleaner and i think i chose the lesser of two potential evils

Thanks for warm welcome!

Sure, after applying a contact cleaner I'll give You a sign if that helps.
I almost never use auto options. I often use aperture priority to control DOF or manual setting when I use a trigger with manual flash like Yongnuo. So this control wheel is using very often by me and when is cold outside it's frustrating when options jumps.

Sorry, forgotten about format. I used to shoot in JPEG+RAW. JPEG for fast view on PC, RAW when I want to develop a picture :)

Edited by oscar - 29 November 2016 at 20:43

Hi everyone! It's my first post on this forum, so I would like to say hello.
I also have problem with this control wheel in my Alfa 580. Could someone give me a tip or picture where exactly should I put a contact cleaner without disassembling? In the middle of this scroll in up and bottom? I really don't understand at all how to do this with drinking straw.
Best regards and sorry for my bad english, but i promise to practise :)

Lens cleaningg fluid isn't a bad idea. It is (usually) iso propyl alcohol and dries quickly without leaving any residue. It will shift most dirt build up from most things. Switch cleaning fluid usually leaves a slightly oily residue and this can get into more delicate parts of the camera with adverse effects; used sparingly, it should be OK though.

Its 2am and after reading Pirates suggestion I grabbed and applied what I thought was the sensor cleaning fluid but instead found it was lens cleaning fluid. The skipping is stopped huzzah. Long may it remain so.

Glad to see some members are having more luck with this process than what I'm having!
Tried the cleaning 6 times now and the wheel action is still reversed and lately getting worse. Seems like the cleaning agent is stripping away lubricant from the wheel so it's getting increasingly harder to turn the wheel.
Had to resort to leaving my vertical grip permanently mounted now and using it's wheel for any changes in shutter/aperature. Doesn't really make for quick shooting to say the least.

Just fingers crossed the backpay I'm due backdated to August can cover a new camera body!