Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

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Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard
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I have one of the all in one keyboards for my Apple II+. I repaired a broken key stalk but have inadvertently wandered into a problem. A couple of the metal tabs broke off and Inam wondering if there is some way to repair them or if there is a way to get replacement parts. My 1 and 2 key do not work, and the key I repaired (right arrow) doesnt work either.

I did google amd search around on this but hadnt found anyone who was dealing with broken metal. Any help is greatly appreciated!

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Re: Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

I think I have a couple of strips and stalks. I'll "look"this afternoon, I promised my wife I wouldn't touch my computer stuff today, so I'll get my teenage son to search for it.

These rfi keyboards are the worst to repair but don't fail as easily as the early keyboards which tend to get dead or intermittent keys. I can revive a datanetics in an hour or two with either some ISP or deoxit or simply swapping out a switch. But these RFI ones can take me a half a day to get right. If you miss one key or need to go back and adjust something the whole keyboard has to come apart and just opening it might mess something else up.

I'll let you know what I have later.

Cheers,
Corey

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Re: Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

Hehe. You know you have an addiction when you have to pledge to the wife not to indulge for a day.

Yeah I am really regretting getting into it with that keyboard. I just got tired of looking at that broken arrow key. Lacking a stalk.. I had tried gluing it together not realising the cap and stem came apart. Only succeeded in gluing it in place. So years later finally decided to take it apart. But yeah.. that keyboard is a nightmare. The little tab for the arrow key broke.. and then somehow the big tab for the 1bkey broke ruining that circuit. I had though of gluing on an extension to the bottom of the key stalk with something conductive on it to make the contact.. before i realized it required contact in two places. If you have any spares I will gratefully buy them from you. I've never seen any for sale.

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Re: Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

Hello,

I've never seen any for sale.

What about this one ?

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Re: Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

Ok... Found my stash of parts.

Did you just need a couple of stalks and a couple of tabs that are connected? The tab strips you only need a couple connected together. What I have done in the past is replace sections that are messed up and not the entire strip. Usually I needed at least 3 in a row to keep in place. I also use a couple of strategically placed toothpicks to align the PCB to the plastic sheet and top. Then I remove the toothpicks one at a time and replace with screws.

PM me what you need with your address. I may be able to get them out tomorrow or Tuesday. If not then next weekend.

Cheers,
Corey

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Re: Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

Hello,
I've never seen any for sale.

What about this one ?

Yeah I've seen complete keyboards for sale.. but $169! Can get an entire II+ for that or less. Crazy. But I was referring more to parts for this particular keyboard, which Corey has thankfully come to my rescue on!

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Re: Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

I think I'm ready to throw in the towel on this one. This keyboard is just *impossible* to fix once it gets screwed up. I have been super careful with alighnment, checking for bent metal, etc. But I still cannot get it to stop producing letters with the numbers 3 through 9 (3D, 4F, etc). I'm trying to figure out the schematic to understand how it's interpreting things that way. What a nightmare this thing is!

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Re: Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

Well, I've fought it to a draw now. I got rid of the extra characters after finding one more bend in the 'line' of tabs. 3 is still quirky and produces a random number of spaces after the 3 when you hit it. The - key was working briefly but has stopped again. Seems to be depending on which screws are installed (I did the first row of screws and then powered up for a quick test of the top row, then added more -- that first test was when - was working.

Maybe the new metal will help. All this because I couldn't stand the sight of that broken arrow key. Smile

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Re: Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

I have repaired these keyboards before, as Corey says it can be quite tricky to re-assemble the unit.

I have a few broken keys and a missing decoder board, the key caps were also missing.

I found a guy in Canada selling bits of a keyboard, i haven't used him for awhile but i did see his adverts a few days ago..

He goes under the moniker slacanuk.

There are quite a few different sized strips used so you would have to grab the correct sized one.

This is one of his listings:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/APPLE-2-ll-PARTS-CIRCUIT-BOARD-KEYBOARD-WARRANTY-FREE-SHIPPING-/291086786819

Its for the keyboard PCB without the contacts, but I'm sure he would have the contacts, he sold me some of the key caps and mechanical switches, but I had to ask for them.

He doesn't have the highest rating on eBay but I have found him very accommodating and 100% reliable and that's shipping to Oz.

Hope this is of some use.

Cheers, Martin...

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Re: Repair or replacement parts for Apple II+ keyboard

Thanks! I msged him so we'll see.

BTW -- if anyone has keyswitches for my A2S1 keyboard, I will buy them.. I need about 10-15 I think. Can't find those anywhere.

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