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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: nala on Fri, 02 December 2011, 10:41:17
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So it finally happened today. After almost two years of using a Filco TKL with blues, I had my first spill on it. It wasn't the biggest spill ever but it was just enough to get inside one or two switches. I'm kinda sad cause this keyboard has been almost flawless for the time I used it, and now just pressing that L key and then listening not click just makes me a sad geek. I made sure it would dry out and turned it upside down but somehow that ****ing vitamin water managed to ignore gravity and get inside.
Is there any way to replace the switch? I don't know **** about soldering and all that stuff so I want to try and avoid that, if possible I would rather send the keyboard to someone to get it replaced. The problem is I'm from Argentina and I don't know a single person who uses a Filco or has knowledge in desoldering a Filco around here. Is there any GH'er around Latin America that would do the job for me? Otherwise I guess I'll have to take a course in soldering to fix my lovely Filco.
Well, that's about it. Just had to flush it out. Such a sad day.
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no plate mounted, learn to de-solder/solder goto some electronics store buy el cheapo solder iron, solder sucker, and solder for less than 30bucks. Youtube for good lessons.
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Lanx made a good suggestion. 90+% solution in his post. It's not as daunting as it may seem, I'm living proof of that. Don't worry too much.
On another note, where in Argentina are you?
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i guess youre a sad panda today... The dont drive and drive also aplies to keyboards....
Dont drink and type..
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Feeling with you. I keep my fingers crossed so i don't spill anything :P
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Definetely gonna have to go and learn how to solder. It really sucks cause I was just so careful when I was drinking while next to my keyboard but I was just playing some League of Legends and I had a little drink and bam, the death arrived at my home.
I'm from Buenos Aires, btw. For the one who was wondering.
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I'm from Buenos Aires, btw. For the one who was wondering.
Stunning place, I was there only 2 days, what a mistake. I should have stayed permanently.
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Which contact cleaner do you recommend using? I'm gonna try and see if I can clean it before.
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Dude. Find the Cherry MX wiki. Most of the time it can be fixed without desoldering.
Yes, very true and a first choice of course. (Excellent resource)
I was just mentioning that the more extreme action of solder repair is not such a horribly difficult issue as it seems. It DOES seem intimidating, but it's virtually a no-brainer. Trying to re-assure our South American GH'er. :)
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Gonna use distilated water with compressed air. Doing it right now. If it doesnt work, ill try relubricating. if its still ****ed, it will be time for some desoldering lessons.
p.s: god i hate rubber dome
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Just woke up today after cleaning it yesterday with dilluted water and compressed air. Waaaaaaaay better. Still not as good as normal switches though, but it now clicks and makes a quite similar sound to a clean switch. I'm not sure if I should just clean it again, with dilluted water and canned air, or go with the lubricating step as I think that probably after squirting in all the water, the lube probably went away too with all the sticky **** the vitamin water left.
Any ideas? I think I'll wait for desoldering till the next spill. Or when I make a trip to USA around January and leave it to someone that can replace the switches.
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****, now i'm in the same boat.
yesterday afternoon, my manager came up behind me while i was working, i had my headphones on, he bumped the back of my chair with his knee to get my attention.
i had a can of dr pepper a good foot away from my keyboard, but when i swung around to see what the hell hit my chair (i was qqqqqqqqqqqqqqquite startled) i knocked the can with my arm.
it mostly got the key tops and i cleaned things as best as i could, but after a nights sitting, it's clear that 3 switches got hit. q, 4, and f3.
/sigh/
going to try using electrical contact cleaner in the switch itself before de-soldering and rebuilding the switches. i will NOT be dunking the board/switches/plate.
Sue him in small claims court.
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of course there is way to replace a single switch,,
the only thing you need to do is having a soldering iron~~
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There was a guy that had a spill on his razer blackwidow and managed to clean out the sticky with distilled water without soldering. Pure alcohol 95% should work as well and evap faster.
Whatever you do make sure you do not plug the keyboard in while it is wet.
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...in Filco Ninja land.
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Dilluted water and compressed air definetely did the trick. You can easily tell that the switch is not as a normal one but at least it clicks and feels almost the same. Not sure if I should try relubricating with silicon grease though. I don't know how I'll do that. Not gonna bother desoldering for just 3 keys so probably once I go to USA around January I'll sell it for some cheap amount and get a new keyboard, or give it to another GH'er to replace the switches.
I would learn how to desolder myself but I'm not an electronics dude, more like a hospital guy.
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How risky would PFTE Dry Lube be? Can anything go wrong? I don't feel like doing stuff just for science. It's kinda hard to find these lubricants in Argentina but somehow I found a place that sells PFTE Dry Lube down here. I'm not sure where to get SuperLube as it's a branded lubricant and I don't know if they ever cared sending their stuff down here.
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On the top side of the plate there are 2 tabs at the top and bottom of the switch that are the far end of the lever holding the switch retention tabs. So you de-solder at the bottom side and make sure the switch is loose, and then on the top side you pinch those 2 tabs and pull out the switch.