Repair damaged trace on 130xe keyboard mylar.

[Almost Rice]

Hi all,

 

I got this 130xe in a lot that I bought last month. The system works fine except for not being able to press RESET, OPTION, SELECT, START, and SPACEBAR. Also the Power LED was weak. It got weaker when I pressed Reset, Option, Select , or Start.

 

The LED has since gone dim. I have bypassed the trace that is used for R O Sel Start and Power LED. It works fine, but I did not have an easy way to fix the Spacebar. Has anyone had repaired a trace on the mylar? I was looking into using some conductive paint or even a car Defrost repair kit. So far, the expense of getting these 2 things have prohibitted me from getting them. I could possible get a XE cheap on ebay, but its kind of wasteful since I already have a 130xe and a 256k 800xl.

I am just asking to see if anyone has come up with an easy solution to this problem.

 

Thanks

Toan

[classics]

Take a length of very very thin wire, like 30 gauge wrap wire and strip all the insulation off it.

 

Take a bare 2" section and lay it down over the broken section so it bridges the bad part and makes quite a bit of contact further down the trace on both sides, then tape it down into place with some scotch tape or packing tape.

 

You can get a spool of 30 gauge wrap wire at radio shack.

 

The defogging kit or conductive pen is really the best way to repair it. The advice above will work in a pinch, but will probably lead to further damage to the traces down the road.

 

Steve

[Artlover]

Those conductive pens work well. I fixed a mylar typewriter keyboard and it's worked just fine ever since and it's been like 18 years ago that I did it. RadioShack sells those pens for $12.99.

 

Also, depending on how good your soldering skills are, it IS possible to solder on mylar film too. I've fixed a 5200 stick and a few printer head mylar ribbon cables like this. Worked great. However, it's VERY hard to do without making a big mess out of everything. Plus you'll have that solid drop of solder melted into the plastic that, depending on the situation, can make it impossible to reassemble everything properly. To that end, I've never used this method on a keyboard before. As a matter of fact, this is why I got the pen to fix that typewriter, because the solder blob would have prevented reassembly.

[Gunstar]

Take a length of very very thin wire, like 30 gauge wrap wire and strip all the insulation off it.

 

Take a bare 2" section and lay it down over the broken section so it bridges the bad part and makes quite a bit of contact further down the trace on both sides, then tape it down into place with some scotch tape or packing tape.

 

968899[/snapback]

 

This is EXACTLY what I did for my 130XE keyboard about 15 years ago, when I had a broken trace on the mylar, it's worked fine ever since.

Edited November 21, 2005 by Gunstar

[Rybags]

I was going to buy a conductive pen. But $35 was too much for the small amount of work I wanted to do.

 

So, I got a small vial of conductive laquer instead for $10.

[Almost Rice]

This is my repair. I used a stripe of aluminum foil cut into long thin strips. I then put it on a piece of tape. There is barely enough contact, but it works.

 

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

Edited November 21, 2005 by Almost Rice