Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    I recently spent several hours prying off each and every keycap
    of my 2 1/4 year old A1000 keyboard.  I bought a can of compressed
    air to help blow out the debris.  There was an entire Siamese cat
    embedded in my keyboard, not to mention 4 pounds of Oreo crumbs.
    
    I then cleaned the actual plunger shaft using some Freon gook that
    I bought at the local Radio Shack.
    
    The results?  The keyboard looks and feels better than new.
    
    Ed.
    
    By the way, it's easy to pry off a keycap by attacking it from east
    and west with two small flat screwdrivers.
    

    I been told by a reliable technician that the following technique
    works very well.  He uses this on VT100 keyboards.
    
    1.  Unplug keyboard to remove power (very important!)
    
    2.  Apply liberal amounts of plain water
    
    3.  Allow plenty of time for COMPLETE drying (compressed air source
        will speed this process)
    
    4.  Plug it in
    
    

    RE:.2
    
    Did you say WATER?? Like in H20??  I've been in the hardware repair
    business for over 13 years now and I've never heard of or even dreamed
    of using water in a piece of electronic equipment.
    
    Has anyone else out there done this? 
    
    WATER??................
    

    I know it sounds crazy, but an experiance with a remote tv controller
    I have leads me to think it might be ok....I dropped the sucker
    into a pitche of iced tea!  (I know stupid move ;-)
    
    Tied it, and NO GO...I though it was back to manual channel hopping
    (heaven forbid)...just for grins, the next day, tried it again..WORKED
    like a champ!....
    
    I guess, that since no power is applied, and its just mechanical,
    and a few chips...
    
    But I still don't want to try it.......
    
    scott
    

    I'd say he was joshing us....he just forgot the ":^)"....
    
    Don't try this at home with out parental supervision...
    ...so they can buy you a new one when you power it up!!!
    
    
    How about that K-tel pocket vacuum that also plays 20 of the top
    fifties songs we've seen on the boob tube....   :^)

    Actually, pure, distilled water might be OK, but tap water would
    leave behind a film of contaminants, oxides, and other crap that
    would tend to gum things up.
    
    

    I think I'll opt for the method given in .1 .  As long as there
    are no hidden springs inside the thing that will make it fly
    appart into a zillion unrecognizable pieces when I remove the
    last screw.  
    
    I just cant bring myself to put water (or ice tea for that
    matter) into it. (Although ice tea may "speed" it up a bit.
    

    Water is no joke!  Every module made in DEC goes through something
    called aqueous (meaning water) cleaning.  This is nothing more than
    a large (very large) dishwasher with detergents designed to remove
    the flux applied to the module before soldering.
    
    The VT100 keyboard went through this (I think) There are only two
    cautions:
    	
    	1. Drying is EXTREMELY important before power gets applied to
    	   anything.
    
    	2. Some parts DO NOT go through this and are inserted after
           wave solder.  These tend to be things like pots, dip switches,
    	   and things that can't take the heat of wave.
    
    If you are worried about the contacts or quality of your water then
    force the liquid off the part with (clean) air before evaporation
    has a chance to leave residue in place.
    
    I spilled a glass of Coca Cola into the back of an old (and not
    very good) RUNNING television once { stupid but true }.  It went
    to black immediately.  BUT, figuring that I had nothing to lose,
    I washed every module in the set in my bathroom sink using tap
    water and 409 (I think).  When put together, this set ran better
    than before (so good in fact that I kept it instead of junking it
    as planned).

I was originally not going to reply to this note, but when I saw that so many
of the replies were not Amiga related - I fugured it would be okay.

My second Atari-ST arrived with a serious overdose of nicotine poisoning,
and it needed to be scrubbed inside and out before I was willing to use it.

I removed the keyboard and noticed that there were very few active components
on the logic board, mostly just etch and diodes, and a small microprocessor.

I scrubbed the keyboard assembly intact in the kitchen sink with palmolive
detergent and a small scrub brush, being careful to keep the microprocessor
out of the suds.  THE RESULT WAS A KEYBOARD THAT DIDN'T WORK VERY WELL!
When it was done and dry, there were several non-functionls keys on the
keyboard, and the overall keyboard feel was wrong.  In addition, it still
smelled like smoke, and there was still some crud I couldn't reach under
the keys.

I then disassembled the keyboard sandwitch, separating the PC board from
the plastic that held the keycaps.  This also exposed the actual switching
surfaces for proper cleaning, and caused the keycap array to exist as a 100%
plastic subassembly that I had no qualms about fully immersing in soapy
water and using high-pressure sprays to get the glop out from under the keys.

The keyboard works great now, and at least one other ST owner has followed
my instructions and fixed an intermittent keyboard problem.

There are two points here:

	1 - Water didn't break any of the electronics.

	2 - Water (it may have been the soap) DID affect the switch
	mechanics and electrical contacts in the switches.

If you want to see the gory details of cleaning the Atari keyboard, you can
read PRNSYS::DUA1:[LOMICKAJ.HOBBY.ST]STKEYBOARD.TXT.

I've seen the water method used [I came across the keyboard being blotted]
but then the old things in a newspaper office may not have that much to 
lose. [Much coffee, one of the most corrosive substances possible to 
introduce.] One editor complained that his shift lock engaged whenever he 
used the left shift key, and it turned out that the two keys were fused 
together underneath with unidentified food.

    re: .9  Don't suppose you bought the Atari from a chap in Manchester
   , NH?

Yes, of course.  My detailed description of cleaning this computer is
posted as a reply to your original offering of an Atari for sale in the
ATARIST conference.

    Ah .. okay. When you mentioned nicotine stain, I wondered if there
    could have been one any worse than his!!

    Well the results are in.   After using the aforementioned freon
    gunk, the keyboard, instead of having 2 sticking keys, had 5 sticking
    keys and about eight more that didn't even work at all.  Faced with
    the prospect of buying a new keyboard I decided to take the plunge
    so to speak.   That is I washed the whole circuit board assembly
    in soapy water (all the while exercising the keyswitches).  After
    that a long long rinse under running water (still exercising the
    keyswitches).  This followed by a good forced air blow-dry.  And
    finally an injection into each keyswitch of 99.8% alcohol (still
    exercising those keys.)  The results after 2.5 days of work?:  A
    keyboard that works as good as new.
    
    Thanks to one and all for your suggestions.  Its good to be back
    online.
    
    Bob
    

    Won't water help things rust?

    Not if you flood the thing with 90-some percent alchohol and then
    carefully blow it dry.  I did it and it has worked just fine ever
    since (six months now).  
    
    Bob
    
    (by the way...welcome back)