29 May
2012
29 May
'12
12:17 p.m.
On May 29, 2012, at 3:01 PM, microcode at zoho.com wrote:
Yeah, I'd not give up on the keyboard; coffee is a fairly mild thing to
spill on them, as it's more or less just colored water (assuming you're
drinking it black, like any proper engineer should). The worst that has
happened to my own keyboards after spilling coffee has been that I've had
to clean out the dried coffee from inside a keyswitch because it was
actually interrupting continuity once it dried out (this was specifically
with the Alps keyswitches in an Apple Extended Keyboard II, which I'm
given to understand are relatively similar to some of the Cherry models).
Better not to power it on too often until you're fairly sure it's dry,
though, because that does at least carry a small risk of shorting things
which should not be shorted. It's generally much worse for battery-
powered things, like mobile phones.
- Dave
Befoe you give
up, I'd take the keyboard as far aspart as you can (even
desolder bits if necessary) and clean all the bits separately. I doubt if
you've done any permanent damage.
I did that after I sent this post. At first I couldn't figure out how to
get the unit apart but I asked on geekhack (a keyboard forum, believe it or
not) and they pointed me to posts explaining it. It takes one screw hidden
under a Do Not Remove label and then some prying with a Leatherman tool.
The thing is built pretty nicely, it didn't crack or fall apart when I
disassembled it. All it is is a mainboard with the switches set in, a back
cover, and a trim piece that goes all around. I rinsed it again in the
shower because it looked pretty bad. Now it's all clean and drying in front
of a big fan. I'll try again towards the end of the week.