Osborne 1 keyboard repair - success!

[Patrik Schindler]

Hello Tom,

Am 20.11.2020 um 15:11 schrieb Tom Hunter via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>:

> I have managed to completely disassemble the bad Osborne 1 keyboard

Congrats on that!

> The silver tracks remained undamaged as confirmed with a multimeter.

Very wise to check this while all is disassembled.

> I then carefully reassembled the 3 layers, inserted and super-glued the keyboard mechanisms in batches, testing after each batch.

When using super-glue, will this possibly negatively affect the ability to disassemble the keyboard again? As far as I’m aware, the prongs are most often just pressed flat with a hot iron to melt and thus held in place.

> I did not use any glue to reattach the 3 membrane layers so they are held together only by the keyboard mechanisms with their prongs protruding through the layers into the aluminium backing plate to which the prongs are super-glued.

Very good idea!

> The conclusion is that membrane keyboards can be fixed if your life depends on it. It is absolutely uneconomic though. I worked about 30 - 40 hours on the keyboard alone. Working Osborne 1s sell for between US$100 and US$300 on Ebay.

Well, with some routine you can become an expert and do that repair in 1-2 hours. All membrane keyboards are very much alike. While I’m truly appalled to do this for a living, I’m not frightened about doing this anymore. ;-)

:wq! PoC