130XE Keyboard Problems

[+DrVenkman]

I have a 130XE that has been sitting in storage. I bought it years ago on eBay and never actually got around to using or trying it much, beyond powering it up. Today I cleaned it up and gave it a going over. It seems to be fine, electronically, at least according to the self-tests; I don't know if that exercises the extended RAM however. Anyway, the problem is that damned mylar keyboard. Several keys don't work - Help, Control, left Shift, the Spacebar and the Caps Lock key. Oddly (maybe?), the right Shift works, as do the rest of the function keys. The bottom row of text keys were troublesome until I took the keyboard apart (twice!) and cleaned up the contacts on the mylar, then banged the heck of them a few times after reassembling. But no luck with those others.

 

Any advice on how to deal with this? Can the mylar be repaired, or should I just track down a replacement?

[Joey Z]

I have a 130XE that has been sitting in storage. I bought it years ago on eBay and never actually got around to using or trying it much, beyond powering it up. Today I cleaned it up and gave it a going over. It seems to be fine, electronically, at least according to the self-tests; I don't know if that exercises the extended RAM however. Anyway, the problem is that damned mylar keyboard. Several keys don't work - Help, Control, left Shift, the Spacebar and the Caps Lock key. Oddly (maybe?), the right Shift works, as do the rest of the function keys. The bottom row of text keys were troublesome until I took the keyboard apart (twice!) and cleaned up the contacts on the mylar, then banged the heck of them a few times after reassembling. But no luck with those others.

 

Any advice on how to deal with this? Can the mylar be repaired, or should I just track down a replacement?

you can get conductive paint and repair the traces, or you can buy a new one from best electronics, or B&C computervisions (at least one of them, not sure if both or which one).

 

you'd have to find the break to repair it. This can be accomplished by figuring out which line is shared by all of these keys, and then tracing with an ohmeter from the connector pin down until you find a break. keep in mind, there can be multiple, so you should check from just past the first break, on down until the next one, or the end. it's not uncommon at all for the traces on the mylar to develop tiny cracks. I personally haven't used the conductive pens, but I know others have had success with them.

[+DrVenkman]

Yeah, I've used conductive ink to repair the mylar edge connectors on my two 1200XL's. Those are much larger traces than some of the ones on this 130XE keyboard - I expect you'd have to use a very fine brush or tip on the pen to do that kind of a fix here. I know B&C sells replacements so I will probably just order one of those and then try a fix on this one someday when I'm bored. If it works I'll just keep it as a spare.

But while I'm talking about my 130XE, a couple of general questions for anyone: first off, what's with these odd-ball jumpers on the board? Some kind of production fix for a design flaw? Second, what's the deal with the empty traces, pads and markings in several places on the board? Looks like there's places for a couple small IC's, some resistors and caps ... Any ideas what those are for?

 

 

[Joey Z]

Yeah, I've used conductive ink to repair the mylar edge connectors on my two 1200XL's. Those are much larger traces than some of the ones on this 130XE keyboard - I expect you'd have to use a very fine brush or tip on the pen to do that kind of a fix here. I know B&C sells replacements so I will probably just order one of those and then try a fix on this one someday when I'm bored. If it works I'll just keep it as a spare.

But while I'm talking about my 130XE, a couple of general questions for anyone: first off, what's with these odd-ball jumpers on the board? Some kind of production fix for a design flaw? Second, what's the deal with the empty traces, pads and markings in several places on the board? Looks like there's places for a couple small IC's, some resistors and caps ... Any ideas what those are for?

 

 

empty pads are for PAL stuff, the jumpers are probably post production fixes like you thought. probably.

[Stephen J. Carden]

I have a 130XE that has been sitting in storage. I bought it years ago on eBay and never actually got around to using or trying it much, beyond powering it up. Today I cleaned it up and gave it a going over. It seems to be fine, electronically, at least according to the self-tests; I don't know if that exercises the extended RAM however. Anyway, the problem is that damned mylar keyboard. Several keys don't work - Help, Control, left Shift, the Spacebar and the Caps Lock key. Oddly (maybe?), the right Shift works, as do the rest of the function keys. The bottom row of text keys were troublesome until I took the keyboard apart (twice!) and cleaned up the contacts on the mylar, then banged the heck of them a few times after reassembling. But no luck with those others.

 

Any advice on how to deal with this? Can the mylar be repaired, or should I just track down a replacement?

This very problem is why ILS did a KRH (Keyboard Replacement Hardware). There are three different hardware products that piggy back on the Pokey and allow the use of a PC Keyboard. Every one of my Atari 8-bit have some sort of keyboard hardware. I have 2 TransKeys, 2 AKI, and 12 KRH's. We have a new design but until I have enough people wanting them I am not going to do another board run. You can see detail of the KRH on my web site.

http://www.RealDos.net/ils-keyboard.html

 

Stephen J. Carden

[_The Doctor__]

Those jumpers are correct, it came from Atari that way.....

[+DrVenkman]

Those jumpers are correct, it came from Atari that way.....

 

Thanks for confirming that. They look professionally done, but of course soldering cleanly and competently is just a matter of practice so it's nice to know for sure. Can you provide any insight as to what this fix is supposed to do correct in the original board layout?

 

And do you have suggestions regarding the keyboard issue (fix or replace)? I'm not inclined to use an external keyboard hack; I prefer to keep my stuff as externally original as possible.

[flashjazzcat]

Joey's explained the fix, so if you're not up for the defogger paint, it's probably new keyboard time.

[+DrVenkman]

Joey's explained the fix, so if you're not up for the defogger paint, it's probably new keyboard time.

 

Well I might give the fix a try this weekend but gah, my mid-40's eyesight isn't what it used to be ...

[_The Doctor__]

defogger paint can remove the trace depending on brand and mylar, make sure to use a quality pen like circuit write or similar, a little tape on either side of the trace you repair or you can end up with a mess, if there is no break you can look up the resistor mod on the site it can fix it as well. The traces either go high resistance and can't be read (resistor fix) or they rub off or crack (circuit writer fix)

Time for someone to have a new mylar, or thin sheet/board run. might be way cheaper than ordering replacement from one of those I just found 30 more for the millionth time vendors who jack the prices all the time... these used to be 10 bux now they ask 25... They have hundreds of them last I saw but you know how it goes.