[Coco] Coco3 Keyboard

[Chester A Patterson]

It's curious because the warranty seal was unbroken (I broke it) I
compared and re-checked against my first CC3, which I bought new.
Definitely a CC3 keyboard and foil. I made absolutely certain of the
proper positioning and allignment of the foil. All the contacts are
black, thanks for the heads up, I'll look more closely at that aspect.
What's really got me is that all the letter keys work, just the
non-letter keys don't work. It's not a major problem, what with the
keyboard adapters available. It's just that I find this situation so
utterly odd and wondered if anyone else had experienced it, and if
perhaps anyone out there has a spare CC3 keyboard laying about. Thanks.
/Chester

----- Original Message ----
From: Chester A Patterson <vchester at setec-cr.com>
Hi. Recently I bought a fried CC3 on ebay. Removed the TV modulator and
it works fine. Except that only the letter keys work, none of the other
keys work (F1, F2, Alt, Ctrl, shift, numbers, etc) I tried cleaning
contacts. Nothing. I took apart the keyboard, cleaned it up, and uppon
reassembly found that the contact foil doesn't line up correctly with
the screw holes and key pins when the contacts sit correctly on the
springs. About a 1/4" off. How the previous owner ever got any use out
of this CC3 I have no idea. Perhaps only joystick use. A very peculiar
occurance. Anyone else this happen to?

===============================================
Are you 100% certain that it's not upside down/flipped left-right?
Seems like it wouldn't be that tough a mistake to make, being a fairly
symmetrical design.
 
That said, I've noticed on more than one CoCo3 keyboard sections of the
traces turning from silver to black, apparently due to oxidation.
This seems to lead to intermittent operation of either a row or column
of the keyboard grid, getting progressively worse until it quits working
altogether.
 
I've not tried repairing a keyboard in this codition. Perhaps our
resident chemist, Robert Gault, could shed some light on whether this
might be reversible... Tarn-X ?
 
I wonder if a keyboard manufacturer could/would duplicate the mylar
flexible circuit in reasonable quantity.
 
Bob