Broken keyboard

[tethyrian]

Hello Geek Hack, long time lurker, first time poster here, I have a very saddening story for you all, and a request for assistance.

So, for about the past year I have been looking into mechanical keyboards, since they are said to be more confortable and I was recently having wrist troubles. I was asking people in school if they had any old school white keyboards they wanted to give up (most people didn't know what they had) and one person gave me one. He described it as "clicky" and immediately I got excited. I went to his house and was sadly dissapointed, it did make a "clicky" noise, but it was rubber dome.

Than, one day I was rummaging through my dads garage and I saw and old keyboard, I pushed one button, just one and immediately knew it was mechanical. I asked if I could take it home and he said that I could have it.

After most likely years of this keyboard sitting in the garage (Wisconsin winters get pretty cold) the keyboard is sadly not working. When I power on the computer, all the LED's flash on than off, seems normal, and than when it boots into windows, nothing happends, the keyboard doesn't work at all. I have tried it on multiple computers to no avail.
 
The keyboard is the Leading Edge DC-2214. If anyone can help me and give me some trouble-shooting steps, I would much appreciate it.

I am so close to finally owning a mechanical keyboard! Man this thing feels nice.

[tethyrian]

No rust or spill spots, but I may have found the problem, where the power/data cable (that you plug into the computer) connects to the keyboard on the inside, there are 5 wires, in this order from left to right:

Black, Grey/White(can't tell the difference rigt now, low light), Red, Brown, Yellow
And than a ground  wire screwed into the board.

Now the problem, I think, is that the Grey/White wire is severed, judging by where it is severed, it seems that the cause  may be from the top lid being snapped on while the wire wasn't in the proper place.

Do you think that just a quick soldering job would do the trick?

EDIT: Also, would anyone hapen to know what these wires are each for, just curious. I would imagine Black and Red are power.

[keyb_gr]

Do you think that just a quick soldering job would do the trick?

It's worth a shot. An interrupted clock or data line would explain why the board obviously starts up but does nothing.

EDIT: Also, would anyone hapen to know what these wires are each for, just curious. I would imagine Black and Red are power.

Better whip out the multimeter and confirm with known DIN keyboard plug pinout.

Last time we had a totally non-working mechanical here, it was some cracks in the PCB that required patching traces with pieces of wire.

[tethyrian]

It's worth a shot. An interrupted clock or data line would explain why the board obviously starts up but does nothing.

Better whip out the multimeter and confirm with known DIN keyboard plug pinout.

Last time we had a totally non-working mechanical here, it was some cracks in the PCB that required patching traces with pieces of wire.

Alright, sounds good. Unfortunetly I don't have access to any soldering tools until next wednesday. I will keep you posted until than. Thank you.

[kps]

EDIT: Also, would anyone hapen to know what these wires are each for, just curious. I would imagine Black and Red are power.

Kishy's pics are a bit blurry, but the one closest to the 40-pin IC is power, the next one is ground, the middle is unconnected (I think), and the two closest to the edge are Data and Clock (I can't tell which is which).

[chimera15]

Just get a stripper/crimper from radioshack and some yellow 20-22 gauge connectors. Shouldn't have to solder it.

[keyboardlover]

After that, get a real stripper to give you a lap dance after you've finished fixing the keyboard.

[Tony]

It is great if you post some pictures here so that we coud share your accomplishment. The stripper show, of course.