I think I broke something

[bigpook]

I was moving keys around on my unicomp keyboard and messed up one of the springs. It kind of got bent. It was the b key so I swapped the spring with the pause key spring. It was tricky but I was able to seat the spring on the little plastic pin.

Anyways, the left Shift key no longer works on the h, k and o key and the Right shift key no longer works for the b, x and z key.

I think I hosed the board, anyone have any suggestions?

[iMav]

I suggest you call Jim in the morning.  

[bhtooefr]

Almost sounds like the membrane was damaged somehow. Not sure how you managed that.

[xsphat]

Did you do that to your new one?

[bigpook]

Thanks all for the replies, the keyboard is my customizer 104/105. I was swapping the keys around which is pretty straight forward. The customizer has the stem and caps while my spacesaver had the keys. So I swapped them, the spacesaver is fine. The customizer is hosed.

I am not sure how I damaged it either. The spring rests in a hollow tube and at the bottom is a a little plastic lever that the spring connects to. Granted, there is not a whole lot of room to maneuver but it is doable with a pair of long needle nose pliers. Simple, really. It took me longer to go to the garage to get the pliers than it did to reset the spring.

I was able to seat the spring on to the pin with very little force. Its not like I had to apply a whole lot of pressure to get it to go. Obviously, I did something wrong and that bums me out.

Anyways,I will call Jim and see what he suggests.

[lowpoly]

Maybe one of the hammers is pressed down permanently? This might mess up the matrix.

[bigpook]

I will need to check that out, thanks for the suggestion.

[bigpook]

I took a look at the key, I had to use a flash light to see down the tube. It all looks good. It looks like it would take some work to damage the mechanism, its possible, but you would have to go gorilla on it.
Just pushing the spring onto the plastic pin doesn't look like it would damage anything.
Anyways, there is nothing visible that I can see. I tried plugging the keyboard into another PC but got the same result.

I found a web site where the owner of a Model M completley tore it down and rebuilt it. He went so far as to remove the plastic studs that fasten the 2 metal plates together. He cleaned it all up and reattached the metal plates with screws. I would have to be pretty motivated to do that : )

Forgot to post the link
http://sandy55.fc2web.com/keyboard/repair_model_m.html

[bhtooefr]

Wow, that's SERIOUSLY motivated.

Then again, this is the guy that discovered greasing the springs, too.

[bigpook]

Just thought I would give a quick update. I was having some issues with my full size unicomp keyboard, certain letters would not work with the shift key.

Initially, I thought it was self-inflicted as I had damaged one of the springs(for the B key) and swapped that spring with the pause key, as I don't really use that key. Once I did that I discovered shift - letter problem. I was pretty bummed about it.
I put the keyboard aside for a few days, and then took it completely apart, they break down pretty quick and I was contemplating removing all of the plastic rivits so I could get at the membrane. That looked to be a daunting task and I didn't have the heart to start on it. So I let it sit for a bit.

I was looking at the disassembled board this afternoon and thought I would just toss it in the trash. But just for fun I put it all back together and plugged it into a machine, and what do you know, it works fine. I have no idea what caused the problem in the first place or what would cause it to correct itself. I am just happy that it works, it is one of my favorite keyboards.
Life is good : )

[Eclairz]

Sometimes as I program, I find it is easier to start over than to try to fix the problem, especially if I've been pondering over it for much longer than i should have. Problems sort them selves out if you don't have the error in the first place