(AKA “Fix that Flippin’ Faulty ‘F’ Key!”)
While testing ICs in my 1541 for the last video, I noticed that the ‘F’ key on the Commodore 128 had become wobbly and was no longer working. Not only that but the top-row ‘6’ key was also starting to wobble. Now I could just ignore it and pretend the letter F doesn’t exist (“The eisty awn ox amously ound ifty ive abulous ree ivers…”) But you know I’m not going to do that.
My first thought was that the mounting post in the keycap had snapped, but that wasn’t the case. So the problem had to be in the body of the key, and to access that meant disassembling the keyboard (27 small screws, and 3 latching keys that need to be unsoldered). When you take off the PCB, there’s also a tiny spring that forms the earth connection between the PCB and chassis – be careful not to lose that, as it can easily fall out.
Once exposed, it was clear that the plastic plungers that connected the keys to the graphite pads on the PCB had broken, and would need to be replaced. A bit of searching found a suitable part on Thingiverse that could be 3D printed.
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