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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: CaffeineTripp on Sun, 28 June 2020, 06:59:41
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Recently I disassembled my Unicomp to clean behind the keycaps; remove the keycaps and the keys, shook out and used canned air to remove any debris that was on the plastic case, then reassembled the keys. This was done while the keyboard was unplugged from the computer. Currently, about 1/3 of the keys do not validate input when pressed. The "click" is still present, however no letters, numbers, or symbols are present on any word document.
Strangely enough, pressing Shift and then the key will allow the key to work. No driver or software was installed or removed during the cleaning process. I'm completely at a loss for what the problem is
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Was everything completely dry before reassembly?
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My guess is that you ****ed up the MCU somehow when cleaning. Perhaps it's not wired up properly anymore?
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mm.... the little spring and rubber might've moved out of position.
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i do agree with tp4 (although i never saw the rubber in M move, it is riveted) your hammers and spring may have gotten out of line i had that problem on one key, it clicked not as loud and did not register, it was on a M that i was in the process of bolt modding so it was very easy to fix (remove the few bolts, realign put back the bolts) I do not know how hard or easy it would be in a closed sandwich. or it could also be the plastic rivets going bad and breaking, although i would not expect any click in this case.
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i do agree with tp4 (although i never saw the rubber in M move, it is riveted) your hammers and spring may have gotten out of line i had that problem on one key, it clicked not as loud and did not register, it was on a M that i was in the process of bolt modding so it was very easy to fix (remove the few bolts, realign put back the bolts) I do not know how hard or easy it would be in a closed sandwich. or it could also be the plastic rivets going bad and breaking, although i would not expect any click in this case.
I opened up some of the keys previously and didn't see anything mechanically wrong or out of place, but I'll have to check closer and compare known-good, but at the same time, some of the keys do work when Shift is pressed, but not when they are pressed to get a lowercase letter.
My guess is that you ****ed up the MCU somehow when cleaning. Perhaps it's not wired up properly anymore?
I don't think anything got goofed up that way, I was very meticulous about how much cleaner I was using and where it was going; sprayed it onto a microfiber cloth to clean the keycaps only.
mm.... the little spring and rubber might've moved out of position.
I thought that might be the case as well, thought the click is still apparent (of course that doesn't really mean anything) but that's the only evidence I've got of it 'working' properly with the key caps on.
Was everything completely dry before reassembly?
Like a desert.
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The shift key making them work is wild. I've never seen anything like that. Try to open it back up, and as dumb as this sounds, unplug the pcb and plug it back in again. Or check to see if something might have gotten on the little membrane bit that sticks out and goes onto the PCB.
I know nothing about the technical aspects of keyboards, but I do own about 2 dozen Models M including 6 Unicomps, so I have some basic knowledge.
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The shift key making them work is wild. I've never seen anything like that. Try to open it back up, and as dumb as this sounds, unplug the pcb and plug it back in again. Or check to see if something might have gotten on the little membrane bit that sticks out and goes onto the PCB.
Right! It's the oddest thing. It shouldn't work at all. I thought perhaps my PC was looking at a corrupt driver and associating the two with this specific keyboard, but not that I'm aware of. My Quickfire works just fine as does another Cherry board, but for some reason the Unicomp simply doesn't want to work. I'll have to do a little digging. There's only been two other instances of people that have had this same problem with their keyboards and I believe of them had a Unicomp as well. Probably just a fluke.
I know nothing about the technical aspects of keyboards, but I do own about 2 dozen Models M including 6 Unicomps, so I have some basic knowledge.
Thanks for the reply and the suggestion anyway!
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Try pressing down firmly where the lock lights are, I'm dealing with this currently as I stripped one of the controller screws 4 years ago.
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Try pressing down firmly where the lock lights are, I'm dealing with this currently as I stripped one of the controller screws 4 years ago.
I'll have to give that a shot as well, thank you!
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If you bought it recently, Unicomp has a warranty and they'll probably fix it btw.