Weird Unicomp keyboard failure

[jonathan1984]

I own a Unicomp Customizer which has been my daily keyboard for just under two years. Recently however, it seems to have acquired a weird defect: four keys have stopped working. They're the space bar, 7, 8, and F4. (The numbers are those in the rrow, not the numpad).

I live on the other side of the world, so sending this back to Unicomp isn't an option. So I have to take this apart - any clues from the Geekhack community what could be wrong, and any good disassembly guides I can refer to?

[itlnstln]

Easy with the link, Ripster.  We wouldn't want whiners coming to check it out.  Although, I have a good feeling they will be dealt with rather swiftly there.

[bluecar5556]

I used to help noobs but I no longer have the time to.

But I DO offer my sig.

Welcome to geekhack, jonathan1984.

"How politely I respond to others depends on their post count. To Noobs I apologize if you become a civilian casualty.

Poster has 1-10 Posts - I'm ultrapolite (this takes personal effort). Answer any and all questions to best of ability. As Number One I no longer alas have time for most noob questions. Will instead lurk and lol at Senior Geekhack member answers.
11-100 - I supply links willingly without snark. Will just point out my sig instead. Saves typing.
101-500 - Snark factor goes up dramatically. By then I point out Wikis and the Geekhack Search Engine DO work
501 -1000 - Now I act like I am in real life (my wife does frequent facepalms and tries to move me to the kids table on Holidays)
1001-5000 - Welcome to Welly's Whiner World!
5000+ - FUFUFUFUFUFUFUF  -Ripster's sig

Don't let Ripster's persona get to you(see def #4,) did all the switches stop working all at once?  It may be a bad connection in the matrix from the controller to the switches or anywhere in between, when that is the case.  Needless to say, you will have to fix it yourself if you are not shipping it out so grab a philips screwdriver and crack that baby open.

[bluecar5556]

Thanks for calling me a stupid person, more so i'm ignorant when it comes to disassembling a unicomp, there is a difference.

[bluecar5556]

:flips a keyboard over: the philips screwdriver only rotates on the 5.5mm bolt, looks like it doesn't fit...  Those look like bolts, not a philips screw...

That harmless advice is better than you displaying your persona when all you had to say was "look at my sig" instead of derogatorily calling someone a noob, for instant gratification.

"the mask or façade presented to satisfy the demands of the situation or the environment and not representing the inner personality of the individual; the 'GeekHack' personality"

Based on Ripster's advice, you need a 5.5mm thin wall deep socket 1/4" drive like this.  If you have a 1/4" drive ratchet or nut driver, you're in business.
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 25067[/ATTACH]

[bluecar5556]

Thanks for the insight on how to take a unicomp a part.  

After performing a search for "Unicomp" on Ripster's sig, I found All Black Unicomp Spacesaver and Red LED mod.

Not sure if there is a difference between the spacesaver and customizer, due to my ignorance, but it's a good start.

[bluecar5556]

Imagine that, so that's how you prune all the new inexperienced people and shunt them elsewhere when they could in fact, have very valuable knowledge that geekhack could benefit from.  Did you come out of the womb with a keyboard and learned how to crop images at an early age, that you need to share with the world?  :happy:

[bluecar5556]

Keyboard Science goes by the numbers, not the emotions.

I used to help noobs but I no longer have the time to.

.

[quadibloc]

They're the space bar, 7, 8, and F4. (The numbers are those in the rrow, not the numpad).

My first question would be, what is the layout of the matrix on a Model M?

I presume that it is identical on the Unicomp, even if it is no longer put together with the same kind of bolts as a Model M.

[bluecar5556]

Quadibloc has the right idea.  Too bad a lot of mechanical keyboards aren't available at retail stores, otherwise I would buy and return just to take good images of their matrix's, or a disassembly how-to and pinout's while i'm at it.  I'm just dreaming...

[The Solutor]

I own a Unicomp Customizer which has been my daily keyboard for just under two years. Recently however, it seems to have acquired a weird defect: four keys have stopped working. They're the space bar, 7, 8, and F4. (The numbers are those in the rrow, not the numpad).

I live on the other side of the world, so sending this back to Unicomp isn't an option. So I have to take this apart - any clues from the Geekhack community what could be wrong, and any good disassembly guides I can refer to?

You can take a look to the bolt mods threads

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:6615

http://sandy55.fc2web.com/keyboard/repair_model_m.html


And to some generic disassembly guides

http://www.preater.com/modelm/#mozTocId681291

http://www.mikecase.net/ModelM/Black-USB-ModelM-Keyboard-Mod-2.html

Given the odd placement of your not working keys, hardly the problem is due to a not working column.

It could be either a number of misplaced hammers, or (more likely) a worn membrane.

So could be a good idea to order one of them from unicomp.

[bluecar5556]

That first link is especially good.  Well written.  Good pics.  Clear instructions.  Hints and Tips.  A model for mods.

Contributors:
    microsoft windows,
    ripster
Created by
    ripster
25 Jul 2009 at 19:27
Last edited by
    ripster
14 Aug 2011 at 09:39
Last comment by
    ripster
on 19 Aug 2011 at 10:54

About the misaligned hammers and worn membrane, wouldn't that cause the switches to stop working gradually, instead of all at once?  Perhaps all the switches didn't stop working all at once.  We may never know since it's possible Ripster ran him off to OCN.  Off with the "noobs" heads!

[The Solutor]

About the misaligned hammers and worn membrane, wouldn't that cause the switches to stop working gradually, instead of all at once?

Could be a membrane's trace broken, what I mean is that can't be the membrane connector, a row or a column should include more than four keys.

Contributors:
    microsoft windows,
    ripster
Created by
    ripster
25 Jul 2009 at 19:27

Was my birthday.

I hope this helps.  :party:

[jonathan1984]

Sorry for the belated reply - very long weekend in my part of the world.

Don't let Ripster's persona get to you(see def #4,) did all the switches stop working all at once?  It may be a bad connection in the matrix from the controller to the switches or anywhere in between, when that is the case.  Needless to say, you will have to fix it yourself if you are not shipping it out so grab a philips screwdriver and crack that baby open.

All four keys started malfunctioning at around the same time. At first the malfunction was intermittent - i.e., the keys would stop working for a few minutes, then behave after a while. It progressively got worse over a two-day period, until the keys were essentially dead.

About the potential for "worn-out" parts being at fault - it's a relatively new board, only about a year and half old. Can a new-build keyboard wear out that quickly?

[sapincher]

I made an account just to post on this thread. I have, coincidentally, the exact same failure on my unicomp. Spacebar, "7", "8", and "F4" no longer are registered by the computer. I looked at a membrane map for this model, looks like the keys aren't connected at all. So it's a pretty odd coincidence.

I don't really know what posting on this forum will accomplish other than archiving my experience with this failure, since it isn't really a forum where you ask for help and get help.

I'm not even convinced it's a forum: ripster seems to treat it as nothing more than a website featuring nothing but his guides, insulting folks who try to post content that doesn't relate to him. Great, and look at that, he has his own ranking system to determine how he insults people.

Why don't you just make a website for your guides and leave it at that? Why operate under the guise that this is a forum where everyone has the ability to speak without getting insulted?

I don't think I've run into a thread yet where you don't post "Look at my sig." It's meaningless. A lot of the times you don't explain why someone needs to look at your sig - like telling them to F3 your sig for a bolts mod without explaining anywhere that the reason for doing that is to access the membrane pads.

Don't you have some bull**** in your sig that goes:

"If it's helpful or truthful, say it.
If it's helpful and not truthful, don't say it.
If it's not helpful and truthful, don't say it.
If it's not helpful and not truthful, don't say it."

If you ask me, you say a lot of unhelpful ****.

EDIT: What another coincidence. After reading all these different threads last night to nurse my keyboard back to health and coming to the conclusion that your pride makes you a pretty disgusting person, you have been banned. If it's anything like your last one back in October, it's apparently just for show.

[sapincher]

For the record, a 7/32" driver will also work on Unicomp's bolts.

[fohat.digs]

This post will probably not help your problem, I'm sorry, I have owned, dis-assembled, and/or modded at least a couple of dozen Model M/Fs and never seen what you described.

I never experienced any "electrical" problems in at least the first dozen that I owned, and since I have a bunch of them, at least a third are destined to become "parts donors" anyway.

There are multiple ways that the barrel/spring/key assembly can get out of whack. If you have not pulled the caps and carefully re-seated them (several times) that would be your first experiment, determining whether this is a mechanical or electrical problem. You can usually feel a key that is not operating properly mechanically.

Metal paint on mylar is not a perfect or strong solution. I have had several circuits ruined by scratches or cracks or whatever. I have not tried the "touch-up paint" repair method but it seems pretty good for many people.

Sorry that your location makes Unicomp's $30 rehab offer less than the bargain that it is for us in the US!

*     *      *      *      *

Certain members here have "interesting" personality quirks.

At the top of the list is the dreaded "Ripster" who has generated an extraordinary and incalculably valuable volume of keyboard knowledge and posted it here, free and clear, for anyone with the time and patience to find it.

Yet, he then turns around like the *****iest 13-year-old girl and attempts to offend everyone in earshot for no apparent reason.

Don't take it personally. This is entertainment.

[mich]

I made an account just to post on this thread. I have, coincidentally, the exact same failure on my unicomp. Spacebar, "7", "8", and "F4" no longer are registered by the computer. I looked at a membrane map for this model, looks like the keys aren't connected at all. So it's a pretty odd coincidence.

Mabye they have had a short run of faulty membranes or something. Remove affected keys and try pressing directly on the hammers. Get some continuity tester (a battery, flashlight light bulb and two wires should suffice if you don't have anything better) and verify if the connection is really dead; if it is you will probably need a bolt mod.

[sapincher]

I did a bolt mod on my keyboard and found the problem was caused by a corroded trace on the membrane map at the extreme right of the keyboard. The trace is literally less than a millimeter from the sheet's edge. I don't really like the design of this... Putting a sensitive trace so close to the edge of the map is asking for trouble if you ask me. (Also, it looks like the Endurapro's map is wildly different from the one on their website.)

In other news, this bolt mod is totally messing with the acoustics of my keyboard. It sounds dull now.

[mich]

There are lots of equally sensitive tracks completely leaving the buckling springs assembly and going to the PCB but they somehow don't corrode. I suspect that you accidentally spilled something on this board.

BTW, it seems quite weird for F4,7,8,space to share a trace. Do you have a pic like this? http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:5065&viewfull=1&page=11&do=comments#post376771

As for the sound, people claim that it depends on how much you tighten the bolts.

[sapincher]

I don't have a pic of the Endurapro's membrane map, sorry.

That same trace connects a few keys... I believe when I looked at the trace I found Tilde, F3, F4, 5, 7, 8, NumEnter, NumMinus, RightContextMenu, and Space were all connected by the same trace.

[fohat.digs]

Bolt tightness does have an effect on sound. It was tempting to me to tighten all my bolts down hard, and that really did deaden the sound.

Now I go just barely finger-tight and it helps keep sound and feel light. You do not need the "strength" of 50 steel bolts to hold a couple of plates together, it is more a question of consistent stability.

[sapincher]

Ooh, just a quick update to this thread. I ordered a backup membrane pad for my keyboard and found that Unicomp is now sealing the membrane pad circuitry as opposed to letting the sheets flop about before... this should be very nice at preventing corrosion