Author Topic: Spilled a tiny amount of water on Unicomp 122-key, a couple of keys now shorting  (Read 1360 times)

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Offline inopem

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Hi all,
I spilled a tiny amount of water on my Unicomp 122-key. I removed all the keys and wiped all the liquid below them. I put it back together and plugged it back in and now a couple of the keys are shorting together; space -> menu key and asterisks, num lock -> num lock, up and `/'. I gather some of the water has gone into the membrane layer. I've let it sit over night upside-down with the keys removed, but still no joy. Is this a replacement part job, or will it just be letting it dry out? Any advice on this? I'm having to type this on a borrowed one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-MB110B-B-Keyboard/dp/B005EMLOP4  :-[.

I'm a bit worried about having to have it repaired; I live in the UK and postage to Unicomp in America is pretty expensive, not to mention the actual repair.
Thanks.
« Last Edit: Wed, 21 December 2016, 08:17:54 by inopem »

Offline tp4tissue

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open it and dry it with paper towels..

assuming there's no exposed copper from wear/tear,  it will eventually dry on its own,  but... if there is exposed copper on the dielectric sheet,  then leaving the moisture there might rust it..

Offline fohat.digs

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I gather some of the water has gone into the membrane layer. I've let it sit over night upside-down with the keys removed, but still no joy.


If capillary action has pulled water between the layers, it will take longer to dry than overnight. If you are lucky, with plain water, it will dry "clean" of residue.

I would stand it up on the front (space bar) edge in hopes that it would drain downwards.
“No political truth is of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty: The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands .… may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” —James Madison, Federalist 47
“All the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judiciary, result to the legislative body. The concentrating of these in the same hands, is precisely the definition of despotic government. An ELECTIVE DESPOTISM was not the government we fought for; but one .... in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among several bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits, without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.” — Thomas Jefferson, commentary on Federalist 48