First of all, how many times have you reseated the cap? Sometimes you have to replace the cap to get the switch to click a few times.I've only done it twice since it's very tricky to get the spring properly in the stem since the bottom part of the barrel is cracked off (whoever orginally handled this board obviously had thrown it into the box and the f keys took the brunt of it). I'll try it again a few times, but doesn't the deformed spring have anything to do with it?
You may have to replace the spring and flippy. I'd suggest trying to epoxy the barrel together as well. But you might have to replace the barrel plate.
First of all, how many times have you reseated the cap? Sometimes you have to replace the cap to get the switch to click a few times.I've only done it twice since it's very tricky to get the spring properly in the stem since the bottom part of the barrel is cracked off (whoever orginally handled this board obviously had thrown it into the box and the f keys took the brunt of it). I'll try it again a few times, but doesn't the deformed spring have anything to do with it?
You may have to replace the spring and flippy. I'd suggest trying to epoxy the barrel together as well. But you might have to replace the barrel plate.
I'm thinking that getting my hands on a bad barrel plate and carving some replacement barrel parts for the broken barrels to glue in place would be a permanent solution. Or just sending the whole board in to Unicomp to have it repaired. They will actually reattach the plate like the factory without a bolt mod.
Sorry for the lack of pictures to go with the words. Great guess as you're pretty much right on except the crack is vertical with the cracked piece missing (imagine a V cut out of the front side of the barrel). The spring got hung up on this V section and when the stem was placed back in, and it deformed the spring since it was outside the barrel in the V section. It basically worked like a guillotine, except the top of the spring didn't sheer off, but was deformed.First of all, how many times have you reseated the cap? Sometimes you have to replace the cap to get the switch to click a few times.I've only done it twice since it's very tricky to get the spring properly in the stem since the bottom part of the barrel is cracked off (whoever orginally handled this board obviously had thrown it into the box and the f keys took the brunt of it). I'll try it again a few times, but doesn't the deformed spring have anything to do with it?
You may have to replace the spring and flippy. I'd suggest trying to epoxy the barrel together as well. But you might have to replace the barrel plate.
I'm thinking that getting my hands on a bad barrel plate and carving some replacement barrel parts for the broken barrels to glue in place would be a permanent solution. Or just sending the whole board in to Unicomp to have it repaired. They will actually reattach the plate like the factory without a bolt mod.
Huh? I don't comprehend what you are saying at all. Not enough information?
Edit: I am guessing you have a broken barrel on your F12 key, the key was taken off, and replaced and the spring got hung inside the frame, then you removed it, and it was bent out of shape, and it won't click at all. The "crack" is vertical or horizontal? I'm puzzled.
In my experience, a deformed spring is hopelessly dead.Bummer.
Why go through the agony of trying to cobble together an imperfect fix on a cheap plastic part?
Do a bolt mod and replace the barrel plate and ruined spring/pivot plate assemblies.
If you are interested in Model Ms you will quickly accumulate some parts donor boards, and Unicomp only charges $10 for a barrel plate, as I recall.
Unicomp redoes the rivets like factory.
Not from what they told me on the phone. They said they have the barrel plate as a part and can replace mine as part of a repair. He even mentioned I could do it myself with a bold-mod, but theirs will be sealed the same as factory.Unicomp redoes the rivets like factory.
Unicomp opens the case, removes the guts, and puts in a new set of guts.
You will have a 2015 Unicomp keyboard in a 1988 IBM case.
I have the feeling your barrel frame is really damaged badly. Not only on the front side, but in the back side too. You probably lost the rivets holding the top part of the keyboard together. That explains the "droop" of the key to begin with. It's probably not clicking because there is not enough tension between the barrel frame and the back plate.F12 was clicking fine before I took out the stem to check for a cracked barrel. It was just my retardedness of not paying enough attention to detail to noticed that the spring would move out of the stem as I placed it back in the barrel. :(
In any case, you can try to band-aid it, and see if that will fix it. However, you will still have the same problem with the barrel if there is a chunk of it missing. The hammer behind the F12 key may be out of alignment with the barrel frame, and the membrane may (or may not) be damaged.
It's really a question of what you want to do with it. I hope you get it working.
I still haven't fixed the one that has the num/cap/scroll lights not working that I posted on here about a year ago.
I remember that pic! :thumb:I still haven't fixed the one that has the num/cap/scroll lights not working that I posted on here about a year ago.
That can be fixed. You may need to bypass the ribbon cable and use an arduino 4-pin M/M cable. (Or something similiar.)Show Image(http://i.imgur.com/gPGobRK.jpg)
I guess nobody really looks at my pictures much.