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Author Topic: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?  (Read 2059 times)

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Offline NAMESPACE

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Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 12:39:14 »
Hey everyone,

About six months ago I purchased a unicomp 122. About a week ago I noticed that some of the keys were seriously jacked up, it took almost no force to depress them and they had almost no click or tactile feeling. The weird thing is that they keys in question are not even the ones most used - such as F22 which I have pressed about twice and now feels like a rubber dome.

There seems to be no pattern to it; the * on the keypad. The ; and the _.

Has anyone had this before? I have not yet opened it up to take a peak for fear of making it worse (I don't have much modding experience). All the keys in question still work fine, they just feel like mush and are almost completely silent.

Thanks for you help (or just reading this),

NAMESPACE
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Offline BlueBär

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 12:56:15 »
Did you try reseating the keycap? Both parts of it. Check if the spring below still looks fine.
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Offline NAMESPACE

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:03:09 »
Yes - I took several off and swapped to see if that made a difference. All the springs look fine.
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Offline Pacifist

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:06:21 »
Quote from: NAMESPACE on Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:03:09
Yes - I took several off and swapped to see if that made a difference. All the springs look fine.

Its not the springs looking fine, its the springs being seated correctly while the keycap is inserted
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Offline NAMESPACE

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:09:25 »
I think you're right Pacifist; but I already tried that. Do you have any advice on what to do? (in case I did it wrong or whatnot). :)
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Offline BlueBär

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:14:09 »
Can you take a well lit photo of the spring mechanism with the cap taken off? You can always send it to Unicomp for repairs btw.
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Offline NAMESPACE

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #6 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:20:39 »
Yes - I can take a photo (but believe me when I say that I cant see the difference). I could also post it here if anyone wants to see my sexy buckling springs :eek:. I don't want to send it to unicomp because I'm cheap - shipping costs a nightmare.
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Offline BlueBär

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:25:48 »
Hmm can you see if the pivot plate below might be broken? You can also try to press down the spring with a pen to see what goes wrong. Buckling spring is a fairly simple mechanism so there's not too many things that could be broken.
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Offline NAMESPACE

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:31:12 »
Will do. Give me 5 to perform the operation.
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Offline NAMESPACE

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:36:47 »
Nothing. Everything seems to be fine....
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Offline BlueBär

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:42:11 »
Very strange. You might have to disassemble it to see what's wrong with it, but there are some people who know a lot more about Buckling Springs than me so I hope they see this topic.
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Offline NAMESPACE

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 13:44:08 »
Okay - Thanks for your help. I'll post this to unicomp and see what they know and open it up.
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Offline E TwentyNine

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #12 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 18:03:06 »
After you've removed the key (both pieces if it's two piece), when you're putting it back, tilt the keyboard forward so the spring leans forward.

The most common factor in not getting the click is the spring not seating correctly inside the stem. 
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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #13 on: Sun, 16 March 2014, 18:34:09 »
Quote from: E TwentyNine on Sun, 16 March 2014, 18:03:06
After you've removed the key (both pieces if it's two piece), when you're putting it back, tilt the keyboard forward so the spring leans forward.

The most common factor in not getting the click is the spring not seating correctly inside the stem. 


This. You might even hold the keyboard past vertical or almost upside-down.

If you look all the way down into the key stem, there is a dimple in the center. If that dimple is not centered in the spring, it will not feel right.
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Offline NAMESPACE

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #14 on: Thu, 21 August 2014, 13:58:18 »
It's been about 500 hundred years since I started this thread and I thought that, even given the time the guys who helped me might want some closure about how it all turned out.

The model M is fixed now. Unicomp didn't know what was wrong; but replacing the spring and the thorough cleaning I gave it make it work like new.

I did a once over on the spring and it seems that *nothing* was wrong with it.... I guess some things will always remain a mystery.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped advise me what to do.
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Offline rowdy

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Re: Unicomp 122 keys acting up - Anyone had this before?
« Reply #15 on: Fri, 22 August 2014, 20:09:07 »
Thanks for the feedback - it helps people who find this thread in the future and wonder if it worked.

Glad things worked out :)
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