geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: litster on Sat, 18 June 2011, 00:36:58
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Well, the first white Filco reds I bought on taobao had a problem. The 1 key got stuck. I wasn't going to send it back to my taobaobee agent and ask for an exchange from the taobao seller. So what would a geekhacker do? Open it up, of course.
I opened up the keyboard (thanks for your open Filco mod post, ripster!), de-soldered the 1 key switch, opened the switch up , made the stem go up and down with its top removed (oooh, sounds erotic!), put it back together, soldered it back onto the board, and it is working again.
While I had it opened, I took a few pictures of the keyboard's motherboard. enjoy.
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=19248&d=1308374954)
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=19246&d=1308374950)
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=19247&d=1308374952)
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It was working fine for a week. My daughter was using to to play minecraft, but she couldn't give herself an item (item number 19) and told me the 1 key doesn't work. to the computer, the 1 key doesn't register. If I unplugged the keyboard and plugged it back in, then hit, say, 2, I would go 121111111111.... until I hit another key. Then the repeating 1 stopped. The behavior of the key is that the switch was shorted. The stem could still go up and down like normal. But to the keyboard the key is held down. I reproduced this problem on another Filco if when repeated the steps above while holding down the 1 key myself the whole time.
I still don't know exactly what was wrong. I did what I did and it is now working. This ritual works sometimes when a computer has a problem. turn it off, pull all the cards and drives, put them back in, and it is working again. :)
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Wow Litster, that's too bad but hopefully you are all set now. See there was a reason that I didn't follow your purchasing reasoning and go for the white Filco on e-bay. I would have been totally wild. Thankfully the two Filcos I have work perfectly. And the tenkeyless will be exactly what I want once my white keycaps come in from Imsto. Yes, I'm still waiting on them. It seems like I always get my timing wrong with him. The first time took me 5 weeks to get them. And my tracking now shows that I should receive them next week. If so it will be well over 3 weeks from purchase to receipt. As you can tell I'm not very patient.
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Oh, I am set. It is all fixed. It wasn't a big deal. But I can understand not everyone is willing to open up a keyboard to fix a key that may or may not work.
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Ok this makes me feel better about opening up my black to fix the damn shift key
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Yeah, I was looking for compressed air last night, but I ran out. So I went for the next biggest tools I could reach :) Besides, I wanted to learn how to open a Filco case to see the inside.
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Black switch has weird, almost clicky feel (http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?18737-Black-switch-has-weird-almost-clicky-feel)
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My daughter was using to to play minecraft
You're a good parent.
As in, most people would *sigh* "What has this world come to?..." However, geekhack isn't most people.
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It has been kind of a pain in the butt to run a minecraft server with Notch and company keeps putting out monthly releases without testing it. But we have fun playing it together. Also, my kids are my sweat shop to break in those new springs in the switches for me :D
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Sometimes you can fix problems with Cherry MXs with a blast of compressed air or Deoxit.
There seem to be a few Deoxit variations, which one is the best for keyboard switches? Also, how do you use it, just push the switch stem and spray around it ?
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congratulations, i love how gen2 filcos have blue pcb btw