Back to the Sharp MZ-700. You may remember mine was missing a "blank" key. User psmart over on the Sharp MZ forum, very kindly provided me with a spare key and pillar/contact.
The machine is disassembled again...
We need a spring, so time to rifle through the tub of junque fixings to see what we have that looks promising...
I'm kicking myself slightly here, as I junked a few old PC keyboards a couple of weeks ago that would have provided a perfect spring!
I'm kicking myself slightly here, as I junked a few old PC keyboards a couple of weeks ago that would have provided a perfect spring!
While the keyboard is in bits, the contact surfaces on the PCB are cleaned with a cloth and a bit of IPA. If your keyboard is not responding well, and needs a bit of force to work, you can clean the rubber contact surface on the plunger too. Mine works fine, so I'll not do that here.
The PCB can now be reassembled, taking care to ensure the power LED fits back through the hole.A word on retrobrighting... Apparently these machines don't retrobright well, the legends fade on the keys. Now I've been watching a few YouTube videos on the chemistry and science behind retrobrighting. This one especially interests me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPl356YKcVs&t=1557s
What is interesting here is he uses a heat pad, rather than UV light, which is better for me, as I'm located in an overcast area of the UK. Sun is in short supply, and I don't fancy going out and getting a UV floodlight. Anyway, I won't be retrobrighting this unit, because of the tendency for the keys to fade.
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