Filco Ninja Intermittently Stops Working

[HighNoon]

I bought a Filco Ninja w/ browns from KeyboardCo via Amazon in mid-2011 and have been using it at work ever since. I love the board but just yesterday it stopped responding to key presses and I noticed all of the LEDs were off (Numlock LED should have been on). I thought the board was completely dead, but then I took it home and after a little while it started working again. Since then, it has stopped again and started working again (I'm typing on it now).

I emailed KeyboardCo and they told me it was likely a bad main controller chip, or possibly an internally-broken cable.

Here are the prices they gave me for replacement parts:

KBC-FIL-FS-CAB (Full size Majestouch cable) @ £5.00 + VAT
KBC-FS-PCBA-B (Filco full daughter board, blue LED) @ £10.00 + VAT
Carriage £8.00 + VAT

Is there any way I can 100% verify that the controller is bad before I buy a replacement? I'm not much into the DIY scene... are there any 3rd party replacement controllers that might have more features or be cheaper?

[strict]

You can get an aftermarket replacement controller here. Aftermarket detachable Filco cables can be found here.

As far as verifying the OEM controller, maybe someone else would know a good testing method because I don't. My best guess would be to drop the controller into another Filco board and see if the symptoms carry over.

[phoenix1234]

I bought a Filco Ninja w/ browns from KeyboardCo via Amazon in mid-2011 and have been using it at work ever since. I love the board but just yesterday it stopped responding to key presses and I noticed all of the LEDs were off (Numlock LED should have been on). I thought the board was completely dead, but then I took it home and after a little while it started working again. Since then, it has stopped again and started working again (I'm typing on it now).

I emailed KeyboardCo and they told me it was likely a bad main controller chip, or possibly an internally-broken cable.

Here are the prices they gave me for replacement parts:

KBC-FIL-FS-CAB (Full size Majestouch cable) @ £5.00 + VAT
KBC-FS-PCBA-B (Filco full daughter board, blue LED) @ £10.00 + VAT
Carriage £8.00 + VAT

Is there any way I can 100% verify that the controller is bad before I buy a replacement? I'm not much into the DIY scene... are there any 3rd party replacement controllers that might have more features or be cheaper?

Likely you have an internal unstable cable. That can explain why the keyboard has unstable condition, here and there. You can check it by opening the keyboard, check the molex where the cable connect to the PCB. If it has been broken, you can just replace it.

Here is a tutorial from Ripster how to replace a Filco cable
http://imgur.com/a/3NrMd#0

In the worst scenario, if you have a damaged controller you can replace it with an alternative controller anytime. I believe in GH you can find quite a few of them.

[HighNoon]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to open up the board and see if I can find anything wrong with the cable. Unfortunately I don't have another Filco to test the cable or controller with but hopefully I can still isolate the issue.

[zeroni13]

Likely you have an internal unstable cable. That can explain why the keyboard has unstable condition, here and there. You can check it by opening the keyboard, check the molex where the cable connect to the PCB. If it has been broken, you can just replace it.

Here is a tutorial from Ripster how to replace a Filco cable
http://imgur.com/a/3NrMd#0

In the worst scenario, if you have a damaged controller you can replace it with an alternative controller anytime. I believe in GH you can find quite a few of them.

I agree most likely a bad cable.

[HighNoon]

I finally managed to get around to opening the board and both the cable and controller *look* fine. The molex connector for the cable is solid but the board still isn't recognized when I plug it in to my desktop.  I also unsocketed and resocketed the controller but that didn't do anything. At this point since the connector and cable look fine I am leaning towards ordering a new controller.