Abbub
Experienced Member
Spent 30 minutes last night fixing a 128 keyboard and took some pictures:
(This assumes that you know how to open up a 128 and are reasonably comfortable with a soldering iron.)
Picture 1: An unhappy Commodore 128 keyboard.
Picture 2: Required items. Soldering Iron, Solder sucker (or wick would work), driver set (need a medium phillips driver, a small phillips driver, and possibly a torx (t6, I think?), a donor keyboard, and a beer (optional).
Picture 3: The donor parts from the spare keyboard. The 'blue barrel' (not sure what the technical name for this part would be..it's the part circled), the spring, and the key itself. When you remove the key from the donor keyboard, make sure you pry up both sides of the key evenly until the key pops off. At this point, the spring will likely fly across the room unless you're careful. Also, on the top row of keys, the broken part is blue. On the alphanumeric keys the middle part (barrel) of the keys are black. I haven't looked at these closely to see if there's any difference other than color, but I would replace a broken black barrel with the same sort from the donor keyboard.
Picture 4: The bottom of the keyboard. You need to remove the 8 screws circled in orange to remove the keyboard from the top case (makes it easier to work on). On one keyboard I fixed, these were torx screws, on another they were phillips. Then you need to unsolder the 6 wires (two keys) on shift lock, caps lock, and the 40/80 keys. These are the red arrows on the picture. Finally, remove the 27 TINY little phillips screws that hold the bottom of the keyboard to the top. ALSO: Before you remove the keyboard from the top case, be sure and note how the LED is oriented. It'll probably fall out at some point, so you want to make sure you put it back the way you found it.
Picture 5: The bottom of the top of the keyboard.
The part circled in green is the bottom of the 'blue barrel'. These slide right out of the hole if there's no key holding them on. If you have a broken key, it'll probably just drop right out and you can insert the replacement part. While you're at it, grab a q-tip and some alcohol and clean the bottom of the keys that comes into contact with the bottom board (circled in blue).
Picture 6: ...and then clean the contacts on the keyboard circuit board, circled in blue on this picture. Once you have both sides clean and the replacement barrel inserted into the keyhole, reattach the circuit board back to the top half of the keyboard by reversing the steps discussed in picture 4. (27 screws, solder the state keys)
Picture 7. Once the two halves of the keyboard are reassembled, you can flip the keyboard over without having the blue barrel fall out. Place the spring around the outside of the keyhole and then push the replacement key straight down into the square hole.
Picture 8: Reattach the keyboard to the top case, making sure that you put the LED back just like you found it. Plug in the LED and the Keyboard to the main board and close the case. You can screw the case back together, buy you might want to power up the system and try out all of the keys. Voice of experience: it's a drag to put the system back together and then realize that you forgot to re-solder the state keys.
It's as good as new!
(This assumes that you know how to open up a 128 and are reasonably comfortable with a soldering iron.)
Picture 1: An unhappy Commodore 128 keyboard.
Picture 2: Required items. Soldering Iron, Solder sucker (or wick would work), driver set (need a medium phillips driver, a small phillips driver, and possibly a torx (t6, I think?), a donor keyboard, and a beer (optional).
Picture 3: The donor parts from the spare keyboard. The 'blue barrel' (not sure what the technical name for this part would be..it's the part circled), the spring, and the key itself. When you remove the key from the donor keyboard, make sure you pry up both sides of the key evenly until the key pops off. At this point, the spring will likely fly across the room unless you're careful. Also, on the top row of keys, the broken part is blue. On the alphanumeric keys the middle part (barrel) of the keys are black. I haven't looked at these closely to see if there's any difference other than color, but I would replace a broken black barrel with the same sort from the donor keyboard.
Picture 4: The bottom of the keyboard. You need to remove the 8 screws circled in orange to remove the keyboard from the top case (makes it easier to work on). On one keyboard I fixed, these were torx screws, on another they were phillips. Then you need to unsolder the 6 wires (two keys) on shift lock, caps lock, and the 40/80 keys. These are the red arrows on the picture. Finally, remove the 27 TINY little phillips screws that hold the bottom of the keyboard to the top. ALSO: Before you remove the keyboard from the top case, be sure and note how the LED is oriented. It'll probably fall out at some point, so you want to make sure you put it back the way you found it.
Picture 5: The bottom of the top of the keyboard.
The part circled in green is the bottom of the 'blue barrel'. These slide right out of the hole if there's no key holding them on. If you have a broken key, it'll probably just drop right out and you can insert the replacement part. While you're at it, grab a q-tip and some alcohol and clean the bottom of the keys that comes into contact with the bottom board (circled in blue).
Picture 6: ...and then clean the contacts on the keyboard circuit board, circled in blue on this picture. Once you have both sides clean and the replacement barrel inserted into the keyhole, reattach the circuit board back to the top half of the keyboard by reversing the steps discussed in picture 4. (27 screws, solder the state keys)
Picture 7. Once the two halves of the keyboard are reassembled, you can flip the keyboard over without having the blue barrel fall out. Place the spring around the outside of the keyhole and then push the replacement key straight down into the square hole.
Picture 8: Reattach the keyboard to the top case, making sure that you put the LED back just like you found it. Plug in the LED and the Keyboard to the main board and close the case. You can screw the case back together, buy you might want to power up the system and try out all of the keys. Voice of experience: it's a drag to put the system back together and then realize that you forgot to re-solder the state keys.
It's as good as new!