tezza
October 3rd, 2008, 04:24 PM
Hi Guys,
One of the classic computers I've been looking for was a Sinclair QL. Well, I've now got one (see below) but, like many old Sinclairs, it suffers from a few (actually a lot) of non-working keys.
From reading on the web, this is likely to be the membrane. I've know where I can get a replacement, BUT before I order I want to be sure it IS a keyboard membrane and not an IC that drives the keyboard. The keys affected are all down one end. They are clustered at the top, right hand side of the keyboard. About 16 keys are affected.
I know in Commodore machines the chip driving the keyboard can fail, and affect certain keys. You can relate the affected keys to a published matrix (either one row fails or one column) which is a strong hint it is actually the chip rather than, say, a dirty keyboard. Anyone know of such a matrix chart published for the QL I could check? Or is it almost 100% certain it's the keyboard. All other keys apart from the ones that don't work at all seem fine.
My gut feeling says it's the membrane. Any comments?
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/images/08-10-04-sinclair-ql-web.jpg
(still a bit dusty..I need to give it a clean)
Tez
One of the classic computers I've been looking for was a Sinclair QL. Well, I've now got one (see below) but, like many old Sinclairs, it suffers from a few (actually a lot) of non-working keys.
From reading on the web, this is likely to be the membrane. I've know where I can get a replacement, BUT before I order I want to be sure it IS a keyboard membrane and not an IC that drives the keyboard. The keys affected are all down one end. They are clustered at the top, right hand side of the keyboard. About 16 keys are affected.
I know in Commodore machines the chip driving the keyboard can fail, and affect certain keys. You can relate the affected keys to a published matrix (either one row fails or one column) which is a strong hint it is actually the chip rather than, say, a dirty keyboard. Anyone know of such a matrix chart published for the QL I could check? Or is it almost 100% certain it's the keyboard. All other keys apart from the ones that don't work at all seem fine.
My gut feeling says it's the membrane. Any comments?
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/images/08-10-04-sinclair-ql-web.jpg
(still a bit dusty..I need to give it a clean)
Tez