Touchscreen Repair: Schlage BE469NXCAM716 Camelot Touchscreen Deadbolt With Z-Wave Technology

(UPDATE: This repair (on the first deadbolt) is still working after a week of use. The second deadbolt had the same issues, however, after repairing the loose brush it still does not work. It appears the actual touch panel is defective on this one. I'm glad Schlage has sent me a new deadbolt to replace it.)

There is a batch of Schlage Zwave deadbolts that are having a problem with the touchscreen.

I love this deadbolt. I like the look and the fact that it works well with my "Mi Casa Verde" (now Vera Control, Ltd. ) home automation system.

I originally purchased one of these deadbolts as a test and when it worked slick-as-a-whistle I immediately bought 3 more. However, about 6 months after purchasing, one of the deadbolt's outside touch-panel stopped working, or worked intermittently. After running through all the troubleshooting options in the user guide I finally called Schlage support and learned that a batch of these deadbolts was known to have this problem. The support person apologized and promptly sent me a new lock. Schlage was very responsive. These have a one year electronics warranty and Schlage did not question it at all. See the attached video to see the problem in action (or no-action).

Now I have a second deadbolt experiencing the same problem. Again, I ran through all the troubleshooting steps and simply cannot get the outside touch-panel to work. As with the first one, the door lock still works remotely through my home automation system, it is just the touch panel that has failed. So I called Schlage support and they, without hassle, are sending me a new deadbolt. Since I have two more of these that haven't died "yet", I asked the lady if she knew what the problem was and if it was repairable (They did not want me to return the bad ones so I will have two dead deadbolts - I thought I could at least use the motors & Zwave for something). She said it was something to do with the way the motor contacts the circuit board and she could walk me through it if I'd like. I didn't really have the time at the moment so I thanked her for the replacement and hung up.

After thinking about it for a while I grabbed my old/dead deadbolt and started taking it apart to see what I could see. Low and behold I noticed one of the "brushes" on the small inner gear appeared loose. See the pics in the instructions below for more detail.

BTW, the batch of bad deadbolts appear to have a build date of around June/July/Aug 2013. I only received approximate date info from Schlage support. The date is found on the back of the lock's battery case. It's kind of a bad picture, but maybe you'll get the idea.

VID_20140609_171610638.mp4
Download

Step 1: Remove Deadbolt

Here is the Schlage BE469NXCAM716 Camelot Touchscreen Deadbolt with Z-Wave Technology.

I assume you can figure out how to remove the lock from the door.

Step 2: Unplug the Touch-screen

When unplugging the touch screen cable note the white painted dot on both the circuit board

and plug for re-alignment later.

Step 3: Remove Circuit Board

Remove the 3 screws with phillips screw driver.
Remove/unplug battery holder.
Carefully pull the plastic circuit board housing out of its metal frame.
Unplug power supply to motor.
There are 3 plastic clips holding the board in place. Use fingers to release them and separate circuit board from motor housing.
(See pics for more info)

Step 4: Check the Brushes

Notice the metal prongs or "brushes" on the gears. These brushes make a connection with the contacts on the underside of the circuit board (see picture). The brush on the larger gear is good. It is solidly connected to the gear with melted plastic or glue. The brush on the smaller, inner gear has separated from its mount. This loosenes could explain the intermittent problem I was having. Before the brush completely broke off it would sometimes be aligned with the contacts and sometimes would not.

If you have a loose brush you may experience this problem.

Step 5: Remount the Brush

Here is how I remounted the brush.

Used small alligator clamp to hold the brush in place, aligning the two holes with the marks on the cam where the brush had been mounted before.
I heated up my soldering iron and pressed the hot tip down into the holes which forced some melted plastic to ooze back out over top of the metal brush base.
Concerned that the plastic may not be strong enough to hold the brush in place, I also swabbed some super glue on it as well.
Finally, reverse the dismantling procedure, put your deadbolt back together.