XL keyboard problem - no power light?

[VW]

I got a type 2 XL keyboard from ebay for my 800XL which feels great but somehow taking it out of the wrapping it came in, the power light part of the circuit board snapped off.  It's slightly annoying not having the power light and I am wondering if I should try gluing that corner back together.  So my question(s) for keyboard experts are:

1. Will I damage the keyboard or XL by running it with the corner of the board missing and not connected?

2. If I could glue it back together, could that potentially make things worse by possibly not having a fully connected circuit if the break isn't as clean as it looks? It looks like a clean break but I'm wondering if I should try it.

[TGB1718]

Please take some photo's and post them, close ups if possible (both sides of the board), we can then hopefully make

some sort of judgement as to the damage done and possible repairs.

 

Can you solder ? will most certainly need some doing to repair it

Edited September 11, 2020 by TGB1718

[VW]

The pic is not great but it wasn't as clean a break as I thought as there is an overhang of the baseboard with the circuitry.  At this point, I think I will give up on the gluing back together idea and am wondering if it's safe to run without the corner light bulb.

[+Stephen]

Several things:

• Yes, it is safe to run without the power LED
• Use an epoxy based glue to re-attach the PCB corner
• Once that is glued together, you can CAREFULLY use an X-Acto to scrape away the solder mask (the green covering).  Gently do this until you see bare copper on those two traces
• Once the copper has been exposed, it will be very wasy to use thin wire and a decent flux, and solder a "bridge" across the break.

 

Once done, the PCB will be as good as new.

[StickJock]

You'll only need to scrape off the solder mask on the main PCB, so you don't risk breaking the little piece back off.  Then, solder your wire jumpers from the scraped traces to the corresponding solder blobs under the LED. Basically, you are just using the little piece as a holder for the LEDs, and you are gluing it back to the main PCB so as to locate the LED holder in the right place.

 

You can probably trace the broken traces back to the keyboard connector, and then just solder your wires from the LED to the appropriate pins on the connector.  Then you don't have to deal with scraping the solder mask and soldering to the exposed trace.  A schematic, which you can easily find online, may help you to track down which pins on the keyboard connector to use.  Make sure to connect the two wires in the right order as LEDs only work in one direction (they are diodes, after all) and won't light if you get the wires swapped.

 

Good luck!

 

[VW]

Thanks Stickjock and Steven, I haven't soldered in a while but will keep all this in mind if the lack of a power light continues to annoy me. It's good to know that I don't have to do it though.

[svhovater]

I highly advise getting the power light to work. I nuked my Side2 by unplugging it when I thought the power was off. (or was it when I plugged it in?) Expensive mistake.

 

[Sugarland]

There was a post here about a keyboard that was smashed and the PCB was nearly broken in two. It was fixed by soldering wires to both sides and reinforcing the PCB... I also recommend gluing the corner back on and soldering some wires. Key is to apply solder to any area where you removed the solder mask to avoid accelerated corrosion where the mask is removed.