Hi Gerald,
I had typed a long answer to your flattering pm, but then the computer shut off
So I'm now reassembling the courage to redo it now.
Ok, the simple solution is to superglue the button back together and then onto the pin it came off. My lower left button is fixed this way.
Now if your lost the button, you need to find or make yourself a replacement.
The way I made one was by sawing out two oval shaped disks from a 1mm thick plastic coin. 1 was carefully drilled and sawed and filed out to accommodate the rim the button socket in the housing has. Also I made sure the button fitted the socked very well. Then I glued the two ovals on top of each other, and filed the whole button a bot more round. after that I carefully centered and drilled a small and snug hole for the button pin to go through.
Final assembly is tricky, time and consideration.
I opened up the D3, and took a look inside. You'll see the button pin simply gets into the housing an presses a thin metal strip against a contact point on the main print plate. On the outside there are two tiny rubber o-rings (if I recall correctly), those keep the water out
. Now because your new home made button may be thicker then an original you may need to fabric a shorter spring (I used a ballpoint pen spring
) to make it functional again. Anyway think it through. Observe the other button construction. Now putting the button on with a tiny bit of superglue, you want to block the button pin from going in, in order to slide the pin through your button so the head is level with the button surface. Take time cleaning and preparing the gluing area's, and take time to allow the glue to fully harden.
Maybe when I get home I may be able to find a photo of my poor mans experiments. Yes I simply cannot afford to by a new computer, so that's my creative motivation
I hope this description was of any use to you, and others.
I'm sure many could do a better job, but what the hack my D3 still works and wend to 66m with no problems.