7 Sep
2004
7 Sep
'04
10 a.m.
On Tue, Sep 07, 2004 at 07:04:57AM -0400, Paul A. Pennington wrote:
Dave;
I've tried several things on my Sony TV remote control. The various
paints and other expensive fixes don't last very long. What finally worked
for me was some heavy aluminum foil tape used for sealing air ducts.
Cut some tiny squares of the tape just big enough to cover the two
contact pads on the circuit board and stick it to the surface of the key
plunger. Evidently the resistance value is not critical, as long as it's
below some minimum value -- zero ohms is OK. My repair has been working
for a couple of years now.
Isn't the reason the original equipment came with rubber pads was to minimize
wear of the PCB contacts? When I was a kid, the only computer at home was a
Commodore PET (2001-N - 32K, 40 col., AKA 3032 in Europe) One of the most
loaded programs, by me and my 3 brothers, was the machine-language version
of Space Invaders. You move with the 4 and 6 number-pad keys, and fire with
A. Between all of us, we wore the gold off those three pads. I can only
imagine that copper or alumimum foil tape would do it much faster.
My solution to the damaged PCB was to A) buy a new keyboard back (at $35 from
the local dealer), B) salvage the old harness, C) build a frame from an old
Radio-Shack 150-in-1 electronic kit, D) install 3 genuine arcade buttons (about
$8 each at the time), and E) mount them in front of the computer. I wish I
had a picture of it, but it was perfect - with the second keyboard harness, I
was able to mount the buttons in parallel with the keyboard, letting us play
Space Invaders without damaging the new keyboard.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 07-Sep-2004 21:50 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -53.7 F (-47.6 C) Windchill -96.8 F (-71.59 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 23 kts Grid 348 Barometer 685.8 mb (10408. ft)
Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html