Spilled water on my Filco Majestouch 1 - quick question.

[krazik]

Hello everyone, long time lurker, first time poster. I am in need of competent advice and I immediately thought of you...

I've recently spilled bongwater into my majestouch, and my judgment being off at that time, I did not begin the drying process until the next morning. 
After ~36 hours I've tested the thing and it turns out that three keys on the bottom row "b", "n" and ";" do not function. Physically the switches travel normally and a quick multimeter test on the PCB shows that the soldering points and traces for the offending keys are OK.

So the way I see it, the switches themselves do not make the contact. I am not sure that water can damage simple mechanical assemblies that quickly. I am thinking perhaps they are contaminated with some type of debris. Per ripster's guide, I intend to submerge the thing in distilled water, and should that fail, desolder and replace the faulty switches completely - but perhaps you know better. Are there are less drastic measures I could take first?

[tp4tissue]

you went out of your way to insert your rebellious drug habit.. LOL


DO NOT submerge..

just let take the case off if you're handy...  and put it into a bag with some Rice..  and leave it alone for 1 week.


if the water got into the switch.. well, you probably got to desolder..   depending on how clean the water was..

[pr0ximity]

Now the smell, well that's another issue entirely.

[dantan]

you went out of your way to insert your rebellious drug habit.. LOL


DO NOT submerge..

just let take the case off if you're handy...  and put it into a bag with some Rice..  and leave it alone for 1 week.


if the water got into the switch.. well, you probably got to desolder..   depending on how clean the water was..

What is he supposed to do with the rice after that? Cook it with the bongwater?

[azhdar]

The rice is to lure the asians to his place so they fix the keyboard .

At least he can give them the rice .

[feizor]

The rice is to lure the asians to his place so they fix the keyboard .

At least he can give them the rice .

Touché

[rowdy]

The rice is to lure the asians to his place so they fix the keyboard .

At least he can give them the rice .

I was going to say this, but I got in trouble las time I did )

[frosty]

Replace the switches?

[esoomenona]

Is no one here ashamed? This guy, on his first post, comes here for help, and none of you want to help him? What is the point of judging him and disregarding him right out of the door?

OP: http://imgur.com/a/9sHx7

[frosty]

Is no one here ashamed? This guy, on his first post, comes here for help, and none of you want to help him? What is the point of judging him and disregarding him right out of the door?

OP: http://imgur.com/a/9sHx7

I did ask OP to replace the bad switches?

[esoomenona]

You get a pass for attempting to actually help. If no one else appreciates that, I do. Thanks.

[frosty]

Yeah, thanks esoomenona
Anyways, OP should try replacing the bad switches. If it doesn't work try hardwiring them.

[tp4tissue]

Yeah, thanks esoomenona
Anyways, OP should try replacing the bad switches. If it doesn't work try hardwiring them.

if the OP doesn't want to solder..

He can attempt UBER-Ghetto electronics technique..

Wrap some wires around the prong, and either tape it or hot glue.. 


I did this when I was a kid.. cuz I didn't know soldering irons existed.

[krazik]

Thanks for your replies guys, I've read ripster's guide and rinsed/dried the pcb using his instructions, but the keys are still dead. I have no problem with soldering - however, I thought it would be wise to check if the switches are really at fault before I order some and swap them.

To do so, I've employed a Flexible Signal Bypass Device, pictured below:



First we test a known working key (yes, I bite my nails):


As you can see, this works:


However, when I do the same on the offending key:


No keystroke signals are being sent. To make doubly sure, I've checked with a multimeter and the help of my wife, who held the "b" switch down while I probed the solder points. It appears that the switch closes the circuit properly when pressed.

I've went along the PCB path on the right and it appears that it is OK as well. Frankly, I am stumped. Am I correct in thinking that switch replacement will not do anything, since the keystroke is not being sent even when I bypass the switch mechanism? What else could've gone wrong?

I'd appreciate any ideas. It'd be a shame to scrap this thing :<

[frosty]

have you even tried desoldering the bad switches and putting on new ones? if not, try it! :-)

[rowdy]

The solder joints look reasonable from that picture.  At least consistent with the other joints that can be seen.

Are you sure the wire is making contact?  If you are potentially going to desolder the switch, scraping the joint a little bit to make it shiny won't hurt, and might help get a better contact with the Flexible Signal Bypass Device.

If there is still no joy, then simply replacing the switch is unlikely to help.

Next is to start checking the traces, in case the water or keyboard disassembly has disturbed something that might have been borderline dysfunctional previously.

[krazik]

I've confirmed that the joints and switch are OK, here's a video of me checking the surrounding traces. 20 seconds in, I am touching the two joints of the B key and pushing the switch, producing a sound each time.

The spill covered the asdfg zxcvb keys, mostly. I'll keep checking these traces in my spare time, but so far everything checks out. If anyone else knows the best areas to check for damage on this board, I'd be grateful. I was thinking that maybe a resistor shorted out somewere, but I can't tell where all of them are, and I don't think I can separate the black cover plate from the PCB without desoldering all the switches first.

Either way, it doesn't seem that there's an easy fix. This may become a hobby project; I've ordered a Ducky Zero in the meantime ;p

[rowdy]

It has exceeded my humble troubleshooting skills

Sounds like something in the controller or one of the other components might have been damaged, but I am not sure how you would diagnose that.

[krazik]

Just an update; I fixed it thanks to Andy from The Keyboard Company, who worked out from my description which points should I test and then bridge. A quick solder job later, the keyboard is alive and well

[esoomenona]

.

[rowdy]

Just an update; I fixed it thanks to Andy from The Keyboard Company, who worked out from my description which points should I test and then bridge. A quick solder job later, the keyboard is alive and well

A happy ending