I was interested to see in Quanta the picture of the replacement
membrane with strip leads. This is just what I have done, but with
a
standard membrane. Having found that the fault was in the leadout
strips, and jumpered breaks by drilling holes and fitting fine wires
with conductive paint, as more broke, I decided that the best way
was
to cut them off and fit strip cables in a similar way, the strip
cable
having the same pitch as the connectors on the main board. There
seemed no point in putting another of the same pattern in. I've
done
several and they have been fine. I probably put a note about this
in
Quanta at the time. I have also got a Rainbow keyboard which came
fitted to a QL; it just plugs into the connectors, and usefully
sports
a numeric pad. I don't know what is inside as it is rivetted!
BryanH
Little tips and suggestions like this are always helpful. Why not jot
it down and put it in Quanta or QL Today for a wider audience to read
of the possibilities.
My only slight concern would be when plugging the strip cables into
the membrane sockets ont he keyboard. Would this potentially force
them wider open so that if ever you went back a standard membrane (and
thank goodness Rich is securing supplies of these vitasl spares with
assistance from Quanta) they would fail to make proper connection with
the by-now wider contacts?
Years ago (in the 1980s) I had a QL with a replacement keyboard sat in
place of the original keyboard (Schoen or one of those types,I forget
which). When it became faulty and I tried to use the original keyboard
and cover, the keyboard did seem intermittent, but I couldn't tell at
the time if this was the membrane (which had been in the attic for a
while) or the contacts which was the problem. That QL got kept for
spares for years so I never did find out if it was my adventures with
the wire connections which caused the problem or not.
Dilwyn Jones
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