[Coco] Coco keyboard trouble

[gene heskett]

On Monday, January 16, 2012 11:21:03 AM Bill Pierce did opine:

> My current coco has an Eagle AT interface and the keys on the keyboard
> are slowly going one by one as the pads are wearing thin. As I can't
> find an old AT keyboard at the moment, I'm trying to get one of my old
> Coco 3 keyboards to work again. I opened the coco keyboard and cleaned
> all the contacts and reassembled. Dead keyboard. Upon further
> inspection, there seems to be a trace on the ribbon cable coming from
> the keyboard that is broken. It's the very first trace on the side that
> has 2 traces then a missing trace. Is there anything I can use to
> "paint" over the trace to make the connection? This trace is on the
> clear plastic ribbon cable coming from the keyboard so it would have to
> be something with conductivity and not melt the plastic.
> 
The shack did at one time have a 'pen' that could draw a trace.  No clue if 
they still have it or not.  I would expect it to be pretty fragile though.
Failing at the shack, I think I'd check the JameCo web site, they might 
have something.  I have used a GC product called Nickle Print a few times, 
but not on anything as flexible as those ribbons.  It worked well on some 
100 watt carbon film on ceramic tube resistors in the tv transmitter when 
the lead ferrule on the ends got oxidized though, apparently standing the 
heat generated by those resistors for another 20 years.  They however, once 
painted and reinstalled, were never moved by more than their thermal 
expansion again.

That troubleshooting instance is yet another war story I'll have to tell 
before I'm done.  It took around 6 months to run the cause of those 
intermittent streaks in the picture down.

> Thanx
> Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Bill Pierce
> ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> --
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> Coco at maltedmedia.com
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Cheers, Gene
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