exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Ok - Keyboard’s sorted.

I used the carbon pen to make a little puddle of the stuff on a bit of plastic. Then used tiny paintbrush to transfer some of it to the little legs on the key plunger that bridges the contacts on the Mylar.

The contacts on the Mylar look no different under the Ctrl key compared to anywhere else. But the plunger contacts were just a little bit more shiny than the others.

Painting on a bit of the carbon ink and leaving it to thoroughly dry has solved it. Surprising how tiny the problem was - a hair’s width of a small leg - just one tap with the brush was all that was needed.

Now - does anyone have one of those clear plastic parallelograms that fit into the LED opening on the HDD cover? That’s the last bit missing!

Thanks all for the help!

Chris

displaced wrote: 28 Nov 2020 15:34...Now - does anyone have one of those clear plastic parallelograms that fit into the LED opening on the HDD cover? That’s the last bit missing!

Stick a tape from top to cover hole. Mix clear epoxy glue/resin. Fill it in the hole. Let it harden. Or use thick plastic from whatever you have at hand and sand it to shape. Put in the hole and bond plastic with some heat (looks like soldering iron tip on original case).

I have not tested any of these my self so it is at your own risk.

DoG wrote: 28 Nov 2020 16:16

displaced wrote: 28 Nov 2020 15:34...Now - does anyone have one of those clear plastic parallelograms that fit into the LED opening on the HDD cover? That’s the last bit missing!

Stick a tape from top to cover hole. Mix clear epoxy glue/resin. Fill it in the hole. Let it harden. Or use thick plastic from whatever you have at hand and sand it to shape. Put in the hole and bond plastic with some heat (looks like soldering iron tip on original case).

I have not tested any of these my self so it is at your own risk.

Oh I like that first idea! And I think I have just the stuff... I’ve got some low-melt-temperature modelling plastic.

... although I think it sets white, not clear. But if it’s available as clear-setting, I can get some!

(I’d dared to fire off an email to Brad at Best enquiring about one of these. The reply was ‘we might have it, we might not’. Bit of a character, eh? :))

displaced wrote: 28 Nov 2020 19:33 (I’d dared to fire off an email to Brad at Best enquiring about one of these. The reply was ‘we might have it, we might not’. Bit of a character, eh? :))

Schrödinger's Atari Dealer.

He also fits the Heisenburg uncertainty principle. You either know what he has in stock or whether he'll sell it to you but not both at the same time.

stephen_usher wrote: 29 Nov 2020 13:27 He also fits the Heisenburg uncertainty principle. You either know what he has in stock or whether he'll sell it to you but not both at the same time.

Hehe, absolutely!

To be fair, I got a very detailed reply... but apparently the only way for him to obtain an LED cover is to destroy an existing new-old-stock TT HD bay cover. That would be a real shame, so I politely withdrew my order.

The ‘polymorph’ mouldable plastic I’ve got does indeed set white, so that’s no good.

I’ve made an STL for the LED cover, which should print ok with some translucent PLA. Unfortunately my printer’s suffering from lack of use and maintenance, so I’ve not managed a decent print yet. Translucent prints are apparently tricky at the best of times, so I’ll park that until I’ve got time to mess about with the printer.

Going to make a second STL that’ll be a mould into which I could pour clear resin. That might be a bit more tolerant of a wonky printer, given a bit of sanding.