Gambler: Know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em. Knowing when to stop tinkering!

[ACML]

I probably have some form of OCD and I'm constantly tinkering with things that are "good enough", but I think I'm finally learning to fight the urge to tweak things one too many times.  Some of you have been there too.  You swapped a VLSI 40 pin IC one too many times only to be greeted by a red or green screen or severely bending or breaking pins.  Today I am proud that I resisted the urge to mess with one particular machine.  It has had many swapped parts trying to troubleshoot a few issues and I know, one more removal and replacement will not end well.  It is working great right now and I'm not going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Remember rule #32 from Zombieland, "Enjoy the little things".  I'm also learning not to rush modifications.  Yes, you've done this a dozen times, but it's a hobby, enjoy it.  I found a 1200XL keyboard I thought I fixed up that has the SHIFT keys acting like the BREAK key.  Somehow in my haste to finish that keyboard refurbishment, I shorted the BREAK key trace and that of the SHIFT trace.  I slowly removed the mylar and realized I had done a poor job of cleaning off the gold contacts on the PCB side.  I had to re-apply Bare conductive paint and its all good now.  Bare conductive paint is great for repairing keyboard mylars, but it does dry up in the tube.  I've been able to revive it with adding a few drops of water, but it's time to order a new tube.

 

If you find yourself in a hurray, and you are getting stressed and impatient, STOP, you're doing it wrong.  Also, if your happy the way it works, it doesn't need any more fixing!

 

 

[malachykidd]

3 hours ago, ACML said:

Bare conductive paint is great for repairing keyboard mylars, but it does dry up in the tube.  I've been able to revive it with adding a few drops of water, but it's time to order a new tube.

 

Are you using distilled water?  I imagine the chlorine/chloramine and/or dissolved solids in tap water might cause problems for the resin or carbon in the ink.

 

Have you tried Circuit Scribe's Conductive Ink Pen?  It looks like it's more or less the same base as Bare Conductive-- water and "resins"-- but Circuit Scribe uses silver particles instead of carbon.  It's in a ball-point pen format, but you don't have to press hard to get it to flow.  I've only used it on two keyboard mylars so far, but it's worked really well for them-- just lightly touch the tip of the pen to the mylar and the ink flows.

[Beeblebrox]

I've used a similar ball point ink. The big issue I found when used on flexible mylar is that it isn't flexible when it is dry. So it cracks easily. You have to apply serveral coats and that doesn't always work for a mylar that needs even flat surfaces. A flexible version of the ink in the same ball point would be ideal. Not come across one though.