Dear Lawrence,

                          Check out �Hall Effect� Keyboards? I have Not used one � just read a Very brief description...

Kind regards �

B. Noel Gilbert

From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Sent: Tuesday, 30 April 2024 12:09 pm
To: wlug@list.waikato.ac.nz
Subject: [wlug] I Have No Luck With Keyboards ...

Yesterday I decided that my heavily-used clicky mechanical keyboard (a
Das Keyboard 4) had accumulated far too much grime, and it was time to
take the risk of cleaning it.

In the past, every time I�ve tried cleaning a keyboard, it has never
worked right afterwards. I�m a software guy, not a hardware guy.

I found the keys quite easy to pry off. A light amount of leverage with
a small screwdriver was helpful when space was tight, but once I�d
cleared sufficient room around a key, I could pull it off just with my
fingers.

Even the wider keys were not hard. I found some warnings online against
removing these, because of the trickiness of their extra stabilization
mechanisms. But these were actually quite simple: a steel spring with
its ends poked through two tiny brackets (removable, but best left
in place) at each end of the key. It took a bit of pressure with the
screwdriver to bend one end of the spring far enough to take it out of
the hole, but it snapped immediately back to its original shape after I
had taken the key out, so I saw no problem putting things back
afterwards.

The space bar was even simpler: just two additional support posts at
the ends, in addition to the usual post (common to all the keys) that
held the actual switch in the middle.

After I had got all the keys off, the grime on the keyboard itself was a
wonder to behold (I�ll spare you the details). I tried to use a
bunched-up corner of a wet cloth, and even a vacuum cleaner with the
smallest nozzle (again heeding warnings online against compressed air),
and I was able to remove maybe half the accumulation of deposits, not
much more. I figured that was good enough.

Of course, in the process, I likely got some water into two slots
that were exposed after I removed the keys.

There was a recommendation online to leave things to dry for at least 6
hours. Call me impatient; I left it for just 5.

Afterwards, I plugged it in, without the key caps, and tried a few
keys, and was gratified to find they still worked.

After that, I put back all the keys, now nice and clean and dry. Even
the ones with those extra springs went back with only a slight amount of
fiddling to re-engage with those brackets on the keys.

And afterwards, the keyboard still worked. I left it plugged in, and
went to do something else.

Half an hour later, I came back to my computer ... and the keyboard was
dead. Not a single response from any key.

Put it back in the heater cupboard and left it overnight. No change
this morning: still dead.

So I feel very sad. I thought I had broken my keyboard jinx. But it�s
currently zero for three.

I have some other keyboards, of course, including a colourful oddity I
bought from Dick Smith (whose layout leaves out the right-hand
super/windows key), and a Kensington �washable� (dare I risk it?), with
the pipe/backslash key in a different position. But I had grown
accustomed to the volume control knob and other niceties of the Das
Keyboard.

Looking back through my records, I was surprised to discover I had
bought it about ten years ago, from Mighty Ape. So I suppose it�s had a
good run. But it seems nobody in NZ sells the things any more.

So currently I mourn, and I also look for alternatives ...
_______________________________________________
wlug mailing list -- wlug@list.waikato.ac.nz | To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave@list.waikato.ac.nz
Unsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/postorius/lists/wlug.list.waikato.ac.nz