Key contact restoration
"whit3rd" wrote in message
...
On Friday, January 15, 2016 at 2:47:08 AM UTC-8, mike wrote:
On 1/15/2016 1:22 AM, Gareth Magennis wrote:
The customer has ripped out all the contact buttons on the right side of
the keyboard, the left side set is still in place and working.
I can't imagine you can manufacture new keys at a repair price the
customer could tolerate.
There's a guy who shows up at local ham radio swapmeets and sells
radio attachment gizmos.
He has a 3D printer and claims to be willing and able to make custom
gizmos.
It ain't quick, but you could digitize the shape of an ideal key set, get a
3D print of
its upper and lower surfaces (actually, just the lower surface is critical,
the upper
can be done with hand tools), and mold your own key sheet.
If left-side and right-side match, you can (with care) dupe a left-side
sheet,
building molds by (if necessary) bronzing the model item.
It'd be easier to get an off-the-shelf product, but most manufacturers
(google on
"elastomer kepad" aren't big on stocked items.
http://www.eecoswitch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ElastomerKeypads.pdf
So, are there any similar keypads on any items that have spare-parts
departments?
Yes, that is exactly the question here.
I need to cannibalise a contemporary keypad assembly that has conductive
pads at least 5mm diameter.
Failing that, I need to make my own rubber knobs, and somehow incorporate
conductive rubber 5mm pads to operate the PCB switch pads.
I don't think this is actually possible in any kind of reasonable
time/effort scale.
Gareth.
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