On Wed, 28 Nov 2012, Jeffrey Brace wrote:
I am working on getting a Commodore PET 2001 Chiclet
keyboard working
again. Some of the keys were not working. So I disassembled it and
cleaned it. But some of the keys still didn?t work properly. I noticed
that some of the keys had something metallic on the bottom of them and
others didn?t. It appeared to be random. I talked to some friends and
they seemed to think that that the rubber in the keys is a sorta
conductive silicon. My suspicion is that this silicon becomes less
conductive over time or is not reliable to being with. It seems that the
previous owner had fixed some keys by adding some metal to the bottom of
the keys. I think it is ordinary aluminum, but I am not sure. When I
replaced one of the keys with the thin metal on the bottom to previously
not working key, then it worked. My plan is to put this metal on the
bottom of all the keys so that they will all work and be reliable. If
anyone knows what kind of metal it is and where I can buy it, then I
would appreciate it !
Maybe he used something like a 3M 3311 foil tape?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?field-keywords=3M+3311
I'm not sure how well the adhesive would hold up long term since it isn't
intended for this application, but it is still very cheap.
Another option might be a foil tape that is made for electronic/EMI
shielding applications.
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/AdhesivesForElectronics/Home/Pr…
Something like the MG Chemicals 8339 rubber keypad repair kit might also
work if these buttons are using a conductive carbon contact. (I personally
preferred the older pre-RoHS version with the 3 small bottles though.)
http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/prototyping-and-circuit-repair/circuit-…
http://www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-8339-Rubber-Keypad/dp/B0081SGM8M