8 Jan
2009
8 Jan
'09
2:33 a.m.
Yet another small repair question --
Picked up an Osborne 1 with a non-functional keyboard. Upon opening it,
I found that one of the plastic/membrane keyboard ribbon connectors had
cracked partially through near where it plugs into the PCB.
Since these ribbons are actually part of the membrane of the keyboard I
can't just replace the cracked ribbon -- so the only option appears to
be to re-cut the end of the ribbon cable and expose a bit of the
conductive material. What's the recommended means to expose the
conductive stripes at the end? I've tried gently scraping with the tip
of an x-acto knife but it either does nothing or takes everything off
the end :).
Thanks!
Josh
8 Jan
8 Jan
7:10 a.m.
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009, Josh Dersch wrote:
Yet another small repair question --
Picked up an Osborne 1 with a non-functional keyboard. Upon opening it, I
found that one of the plastic/membrane keyboard ribbon connectors had cracked
partially through near where it plugs into the PCB.
Since these ribbons are actually part of the membrane of the keyboard I can't
just replace the cracked ribbon -- so the only option appears to be to re-cut
the end of the ribbon cable and expose a bit of the conductive material.
What's the recommended means to expose the conductive stripes at the end?
I've tried gently scraping with the tip of an x-acto knife but it either does
nothing or takes everything off the end :).
Are you sure the ribbon is actually a "sandwich"? My Tandy CoCos and
Atari 800XL units have a similar flex ribbon where the conductors are on
the top surface. I've been able to simply cut them back and reinsert the
remainder. (I initially went down the same path and tried scraping them -
with similar results <g>).
Steve
--
9 Jan
9 Jan
2:15 a.m.
Steven Hirsch wrote:
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009, Josh Dersch wrote:
It's not a sandwich, but there's definitely some sort of coating over
the conductive stripes -- I get nothing out of my continuity tester by
touching the probes on opposite ends of a given stripe. Hmm.
Josh
Yet another small repair question --
Picked up an Osborne 1 with a non-functional keyboard. Upon opening
it, I found that one of the plastic/membrane keyboard ribbon
connectors had cracked partially through near where it plugs into the
PCB.
Since these ribbons are actually part of the membrane of the keyboard
I can't just replace the cracked ribbon -- so the only option appears
to be to re-cut the end of the ribbon cable and expose a bit of the
conductive material. What's the recommended means to expose the
conductive stripes at the end? I've tried gently scraping with the
tip of an x-acto knife but it either does nothing or takes everything
off the end :).
Are you sure the ribbon is actually a "sandwich"? My Tandy CoCos and
Atari 800XL units have a similar flex ribbon where the conductors are
on the top surface. I've been able to simply cut them back and
reinsert the remainder. (I initially went down the same path and
tried scraping them - with similar results <g>).
Steve
12:37 p.m.
Josh Dersch wrote:
Steven Hirsch wrote:
I have used car rear window defroster repair conductive liquid to fix
these in the past - assuming you can get down to the conductive layer.
Try punching a number of holes through the insulation with a sharp pin,
then squeezing the conductive liquid into the holes in an effort to make
a few paths of connection. Possibly sewing fine wire through the holes...
There are also PCB repair pens that contain silver that you can draw in
thin lines. CircuitWorks is one maker and a quick search turned up
http://www.electroniccity.com/brands/32.asp as one supplier.
You can now take a similar width (or wider and cut to size) scrap
conductive strip and join it to your defective one to gain length...
John :-#)#
--
John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, VideoGames)
www.flippers.com
"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out"
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009, Josh Dersch wrote:
It's not a sandwich, but there's definitely some sort of coating over
the conductive stripes -- I get nothing out of my continuity tester by
touching the probes on opposite ends of a given stripe. Hmm.
Josh
Yet another small repair question --
Picked up an Osborne 1 with a non-functional keyboard. Upon opening
it, I found that one of the plastic/membrane keyboard ribbon
connectors had cracked partially through near where it plugs into
the PCB.
Since these ribbons are actually part of the membrane of the
keyboard I can't just replace the cracked ribbon -- so the only
option appears to be to re-cut the end of the ribbon cable and
expose a bit of the conductive material. What's the recommended
means to expose the conductive stripes at the end? I've tried gently
scraping with the tip of an x-acto knife but it either does nothing
or takes everything off the end :).
Are you sure the ribbon is actually a "sandwich"? My Tandy CoCos and
Atari 800XL units have a similar flex ribbon where the conductors are
on the top surface. I've been able to simply cut them back and
reinsert the remainder. (I initially went down the same path and
tried scraping them - with similar results <g>).
Steve
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derschjo＠mail.msu.edu -
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