Silly Keyboard Cleaning Question

[randolph.pickle]

Hi everyone.

My VIC's keys have lost their sensitivity, so I've decided to give them a little cleaning. I've cleaned the gold contacts with a rubber pencil eraser and wiped them down with rubbing alcohol, however, I'm not sure what to do about the rubber beneath the keys. I read here about using copy paper to clean them, so I tried it and got a little gray smear from each key. My question is, do I continue wiping them until I've removed this gray crude? I'm not sure if I'm removing a conductive material or what... Forgive my ignorance. I just want to make sure I'm doing this correctly.

[joshuadenmark]

These rubber pads are to be cleaned as gently as possible, as you say it will remove the conductive material from the fragile old pads.

[Imperious]

If cleaning doesn't make the keys work as intended, there are 2 other options.

1. Get some conductive paint and paint it on.
2. What I have done, which is to use a paper hole punch and punch out some
small circles of aluminium foil and glue them to the rubber pads. This also
works well for most remote control rubber pads.

[randolph.pickle]

These rubber pads are to be cleaned as gently as possible, as you say it will remove the conductive material from the fragile old pads.

Thanks. That is what I was afraid of.

1. Get some conductive paint and paint it on.
2. What I have done, which is to use a paper hole punch and punch out some
small circles of aluminium foil and glue them to the rubber pads. This also
works well for most remote control rubber pads.

While I don't think I'm ready to go as far as #2, #1 sounds like a good idea. When this issue arises again, I'm going to look into it.

To the naked eye, the rubber conductors looked pretty darn clean, but I could see a little bit of smudging on the gold contacts. After giving the rubber conductors a single wipe with copy paper, and polishing the gold contacts, I have to say my VIC feels better than new!

[Mike]

Just thought I'd share my bad experience with conductive paint.

[randolph.pickle]

That's horrible Mike!

From what I gather through searching the forum, eslapion had success with the Chemtronics Circuit Works CW2605 Rubber Keypad Repair Kit.

By the way, Merry Christmas to everyone (if you're into that sort of thing ).