Date   : Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:53:19 +0100
From   : jumbos.bazzar@... (Mark Haysman)
Subject: master keyboard

The keyswitches is about the only thing an Elk's good for nowadays isn't it? 
(ooo that'll start the flames coming in!)

A minter boxed I can understand keeping for posterity, but I've got a good 
half a dozen yellowed and scrathced Elks I've baught off eBay for just that 
purpose of being a Donor for Master keyboards.

On another note, the Arc keyboard uses an 8x51 as a decoder, and that KB 
works in a similar manner to the Master one. I've got the code for that 
controller, I suppose it would be a good idea to take a look and see if it's 
outputting ASCII, or just generic keycode numbers like the Master Custom 
chip will.

Mark.

>
>>A gentleman on this mailing list told me in a private email that one
>>can buy a set of replacement keyswitches on eBay for a few pounds.
>>They're called Acorn Electron. ;-)
>
> ouch.  A dead Elk maybe, but to rip apart a working one for keyswitches
> is sacrilege :)
>
>> Shouldn't it be possible to pull
>>them apart and clean those keyswitches,
>
> If you mean taking the keyswitches themselves apart, no.
>
>> or is it not a failsafe way
>>to make them work again?
>
> _sometimes_ a squirt of contact cleaner (e.g. rswww.com part number
> 132-491) in between the white plunger and black switch body, followed by
> a good dew operations of the switch, works. Usually though, the switch
> is plain worn out.
>
> -- 
> (\__/)   Bunny says NO to Windows Vista!
> (='.'=)  http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
> (")_(")  http://www.cypherpunks.to/~peter/vista.pdf
>
>
>
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