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Please help. Commodore 64 keyboard replacement needed.

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bettablue

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Eugene, OR
I just got my Commodore 64 connected and powered on. I was able to type in a couple of small programs, but I noticed that there were a bunch of dead keys on the right side of the keyboard.

What I'm hoping to find is one from a dead or dying C 64 or VIC-20 computer. I'm not in the best shape to offer a whole lot for a replacement, or I would just purchase a VIC 20 and strip the keyboard from it. So, if someone here has one I can get cheaply, please contact me. I can get a shipping prepaid shipping label to you to make that part easier.

Thanks much.
 
I was looking into that, but the keys that are malfunctioning, all seem to have bad springs or something. They feel collapsed, and have no rebound, plus when the affected keys are pressed, they don't register a key stroke.

If there is something else I can try, I'll be more than happy to do that, but I was thinking of getting another keyboard, working or not. If I get a good replacement, great, if I get a parts board, also great, I can make one good board out of the two.

If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to shoot me a line, or reply to this thread.

I do appreciate your feedback and recommendations.

azog said:
They're relatively easy to take apart and clean. Why not try that first?
Click to expand...
 
The keyboards are pretty simple; there's usually only three things to take care of, in most likely order of failure:

* Clean the bare keyboard PCB with a rubber eraser.
* Put some kind of rubber renew on the conductive pads. I've used two different ones myself, one with exceptionally good results (http://www.azog.org/?p=931)
* The springs sometimes appear on ebay. I just looked at the last listings, and they tend to range upwards to $5, but I would try the above two things first. The springs are relatively weak to begin with, altho it should be easy to test them by swapping them with known-good.
 
Maybe I'm just lucky but I've never know a spring fail, just go missing and the only keyboards which couldn't be repaired were where the PCB or the shell were damaged. Have you taken the tops of the faulty keys to determine if the springs are even there? It's possible that someone in the past replaced them with springs which didn't have enough travel. At a push, you may be able to stretch the spring slightly to increase it's travel.

Rob
 
crock said:
Maybe I'm just lucky but I've never know a spring fail, just go missing and the only keyboards which couldn't be repaired were where the PCB or the shell were damaged. Have you taken the tops of the faulty keys to determine if the springs are even there? It's possible that someone in the past replaced them with springs which didn't have enough travel. At a push, you may be able to stretch the spring slightly to increase it's travel.

Rob
Click to expand...

Thanks to both of you. I'll pull a few of the malfunctioning keys later.
 
bettablue said:
What I'm hoping to find is one from a dead or dying C 64 or VIC-20 computer. I'm not in the best shape to offer a whole lot for a replacement, or I would just purchase a VIC 20 and strip the keyboard from it. So, if someone here has one I can get cheaply, please contact me.
Click to expand...
Have you contacted the Clark County Commodore Computer Club (right there in Las Vegas)? The 5C's president, Al Jackson, or one of his members could possibly help you.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
 
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