Duo keyboards!

[Franklinstein]

I haven't seen much on here about these delightful examples of portable computing (at least, not much positive), so I thought I'd have a go at it.

I've pulled the keyboard apart on my FrankenDuo (Duo 210/250/280 parts) because it really didn't work anymore. It's very strange. Has anybody else tried this?

The keys are really easy to get on and off, just pull up on 'em (and push them back down to replace). Then, the rubbery membrane lifts off. On the underside of the rubber, you'll notice the black circles - bits of electricized rubber, which bridge the crescent-shaped contacts of the two clear plastic sheets underneath it.

Since the traces on the plastic sheets are little more than exposed metal (it's very much like defroster traces), I was thinking how it would be best to go about improving the contact between the rubber of the top membrane and the contacts on the electrode sheets. I was kind of thinking very fine sandpaper might work, get rid of whatever oxidation or whatever else is impeding my circuits without damaging the keyboard too much.

Not quite sure how to approach the rubber membrane, though. I'm thinking just soaking it in warm water might get rid of any accumulated impurities well enough.

Has anybody else attempted to restore a Duo's keyboard to a usable state?

 

[beachycove]

There is something here:

http://home.comcast.net/~gionpeters/hhhh/duo.htm

... if you scroll down.

In the past, I planned to give a really bad Duo keyboard such a going over, and thought of using a product called "Rubber Renue" (which really does work well on old rubber) along with cleaning, etc, but then I came across a Rev. F keyboard and did not need to go to the trouble. The dysfunctional keyboard is now in the parts box. I have three Duos and all keyboards seem to work fine.

They also improve with use, in my experience, which once included a fair bit of banging on the keys. This suggests that the website has it right and that simple friction can clean the contacts.

 

[MultiFinder]

My little 2300c came to me with a few dead keys. I took the keyboard apart and found that they were the last three on a single trace, and there was a dark spot just before the dead keys. I said to myself "Oh noes! Fizzled trace! I guess I need a new keyboard..."

In a fit of brilliance (they don't happen often), I carefully scribbled over the dead area with a pencil. Works great now. Graphite FTW!

 

[Franklinstein]

So I pretty much finished this project.

First, I soaked the rubber mat in warm water, no soap (rubber hates soap, at least that's what I've been told).

Then I washed all of the keys.

While all of that was drying, I had a crack at cleaning up the two electrode sheets. I tried with 1000-grit sandpaper first. It worked, kind of turned the clear plastic around the contacts opaque, but the contacts went from bronze-ish to silver like they're supposed to be, so that's all that mattered.

After I finished the first row, I decided to try something besides sandpaper, and grabbed a pencil eraser. It worked just as well, with no marring of the surrounding plastic.

Half an hour later, I had both sheets done, all nice and silvery again. I reassembled the keyboard, and BAM! Not much improvement.

If I wanted to type REALLY hard, I could get most keys to work on the first press (as opposed to having to hold each one down for several seconds for a reaction). Others had to be pressed dead-on before they would register. It IS better than it was, but it's definitely still not usable, at least not for anything over 5 WPM.

 

[30pin]

I have a couple of Duo's. Both the keyboards are bad. I found some extra keyboards and tried them. They were also bad. After trying to type on the duo, my PB180 is pure joy!!!

 

[RacerX]

The keyboard on my 280 felt so much nicer than the keyboard that came on my 2300c that I swapped them. I'm a little picky about keyboards though... I bought a replacement for my 3400c because the original just didn't feel right to me.

 

[tomlee59]

Good Duo keyboards are rare (and somewhat short-lived). When you find them, cherish them!

I have a stack of Duos that would get used much more often were it not for their ^$#** keyboards. And it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference whether they're revA or rev-triple Z...

 

[QuadSix50]

I have a Duo 230 and its keyboard has a mind of its own. Wasn't that bad when I first got it, but it's just progressively gone south from there. This resource will definitely help me out with (hopefully) getting the keyboard back to normal again.

 

[MultiFinder]

Mine seems to work fine after doodling on a few traces. Those things are mushy as all get out, but I gotta admit that they're fairly solid-feeling keyboards. Nothing compared to the MacBook, but still pretty solid.