I picked up yet another Zenith keyboard on ebay last week for $40 (including shipping). After taking it apart and giving it a good cleaning (it was pretty disgusting under the key caps), the only problem with it is that the indicator light on the Caps Lock key doesn't work. To fix this, do I need to get a replacement Alps switch installed or is it possible to put a new bulb in? I'm assuming a new switch, but figured I'd ask. Not sure I want to pay shipping both ways plus labor to have a new switch installed just for this. I'm not sure that my soldering skills are up to the task of installing a new switch myself and I'd rather not kill the keyboard finding out.
Besides, I've probably got a couple of lifetime supplies of great keyboards at this point. I've got 5 Zeniths (3 ZKB-2's, 2 KBD17's - 1 ZKB-2 has a hodge podge of key caps and is missing the Zenith logo plate, and one KBD17 with the caps lock indicator light blown), a Northgate 101P (NIB), a Focus 3001 (NIB), a Dell Quiet Writer (Alps switches, NIB), and 5 IBM / Lexmark model M's (3 NIB, all with the 2 piece key caps built around 1994 part #1391401). I can't decide if I prefer the Zenith or IBM keyboards. If the IBM's didn't make so much noise (tough to type sometimes without waking the house up), I think it would be the IBM.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, I became a keyboard snob freshman year in college when I got my school issued Zenith Z-248 computer with a ZKB-2 keyboard. It took me a while to figure this out, but I kept going back to that keyboard as I got new computers. I still have that original ZKB-2 and will hopefully always have it.
