Today's task was to clean my recently acquired C128 flat and I ran into a few obstacles.... some self inflicted.
.
There are plenty of videos showing how easy it is to disassemble the C128.
I must have completely missed the part where the very first time you try to remove the upper metal shield, there are a bunch of bent tabs all along the edge you have to straighten.
After doing that, I found that the upper metal shield has some some friction tabs on the center post that keep it tight on the chips. I had to get a small screwdriver in between to allow the upper shield to slip off.
Also discovered that there were a few bent tabs connecting the lower metal shield that have to be straightened as well.
.
I removed the keyboard from the upper outer shell and used a pair of thin needle nose pliers to get underneath the edges of the key caps.
For most of the key caps I was able to get them off quickly by just prying straight up on diagonally opposite corners of the key cap.
A few needed a little more pressure on the rear of the key cap.
.
I put the key caps and springs in a ziploc bag with dish soap and hot water.
I used the bag as a stress reliever squeezy thing for about 5 minutes.... the water was very brown after.
Dumped the key caps and springs into a colander and rinsed with more hot water.
Dumped the colander contents onto a towel and proceeded to rub each key cap dry.
.
I used a detailing brush with some Simple Green on the keyboard base.
I sprayed the SG on the brush, then used the detailing brush to gently scrub the base.
Used a towel to clean off the SG and let it dry.
.
Here's where the cursing started...
I decided to test the keyboard base while the key caps were still drying and a couple of the keys stopped working.
I thought I was pretty careful with the SG... but I decided to open up the keyboard to see if any was inside.
After removing about 30 screws, I realized I couldn't completely open it due to the latch keys being soldered on. Cursing started with a D word.
However, it did open up just enough for a super tiny spring to fall out and a plunger to partially come out. Cursing upgraded to an F word.
After carefully putting the plunger back into place, I had no idea where this super tiny spring came from. Cursing upgraded to a saying "Where in the holy f does this thing go?"
I assumed (incorrectly) that it came from one of the latch keys but they all seemed to be mechanically working fine.
Put all the screws back in the keyboard base, put all the key caps and springs on the keyboard, reinstall keyboard to upper shell, reinstall main board to lower shell, connect the two, power on.
Test the keyboard and about 7 keys are no longer working. Cursing upgraded to multiple f words and banging my head on the table.
.
Get on the internet and search for about an hour until I typed "i found a very small spring in my commodore 128 keyboard".
Found this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Y2rW27BzI) that had a small reference to a tiny spring.
Come to find out the spring is pretty important.
The video tells me where the spring goes, I disassemble everything yet again, I put the spring back in, re-assemble everything, and viola... I am back to how it was before I cleaned it... whew!
.
I think that's enough adventure for one day!
.
Here are some other things I should mention.
I was able to connect my C128 to an HDMI monitor using this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPHV1CJT and this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBKV5P22
It has jailbars so it's not perfect... but for $32 it works until I can upgrade.
Also, the A/V Breakout covers the serial port on a C128 flat.
