[PLUG-TALK] Keyboard cleaning, again

[Keith Lofstrom]

> On Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:55:19 -0800
> Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> dijo:
> 
> >I used a whole bunch of 1.5 inch pieces of 0.75 inch adhesive tape
> >approximately like dental floss.  I slid each piece sideways under
> >the keycaps, then slid it back and forth up and down each row 
...

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 06:38:26PM -0800, John Jason Jordan wrote:
...
> I have removed a laptop keyboard in the past, and some day I suppose I
> will take this one out. I wish manufacturers could design a keyboard so
> the mechanical part with the keys would snap off the top, leaving the
> electronic parts in the machine. Then you could just take the
> mechanical part and run it through the dishwasher.

The T60 removable keyboard has wires and contacts, but no electronics
for the key scanner, AFAIK.  The trackpoint sensor contains resistive
strain gauges, perhaps ceramic with printed constantin wires (WAG). 
The keyboard might do well in the right kind of cleaning solution.  I
imagine dishwasher soap (being caustic) would etch all the wrong things.

Perhaps somebody knows somebody who is a detergent chemist, and can
tell us what kind of detergent will eat biological material without
harming metal and plastic.  The flex cable should be held down with
wire or something, to keep the agitation from breaking it off.

I doubt the keyboard would be hurt by distilled water and ultrasound,
though the circuit board under the keyboard, or the flex cable, or
the solder joints may have have almost-broken traces that fracture
with the vibration (it would break sooner or later anyway).  Most
jewelery cleaners are too small, but this http://snurl.com/u4yfj 
would work.  Ultrasonic Power Co. and others make far larger units,
as well as immersable transducers.  The question is, what companies
around here use them, and for what?

Ultrasound is better than audible frequencies for this - more 
acceleration (shaking stuff loose) with less displacement and strain.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs