The keyboard on an Apple II Plus I aquirred was in dire need of a restoration.
Full model of this keyboard is Datanetics 01-0551-01 Rev B, which is the 2nd keyboard to be made for the Apple II (original one was model 01-0425).
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I started with the keycaps. I gave them a good wash in soapy water, these were the dirtiest keys I've ever seen. I gave them several good rinses at first in hot soapy water, then let them sit in the water for a couple hours before taking them out to wipe with a cloth. Image from first rinse:
Next, I noticed the keys were quite scratched and needed a polish. There's lots of products you can use, but I just used a cloth and window cleaner and polished each key for several seconds, which made an amazing improvement. Here's the before and after pic of the shift key.
Lastly for the keycaps, I noticed these keys had a brown shade to them and the text itself was very yellowed, this was not the original color of the keys. I decided to give them a quick 30 minute retobright submerged in 3% hydrogen peroxide. It made a huge improvement and returned the keys to the original dark beige color.
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Next it was time to look at the main keyboard board. I first put clear scotch tape over all the stamps on the back of the keyboard so they wouldn't wash off. I then gave the keyboard a good wash submerged in water. I made sure to press each key at least 100 times to try and get all the debris out of inside the switches.
I let the keyboard sit for an hour to get the majority of the water out. I then sprayed lots of 99% IPA inside each key while pressing each key another 100 times to make sure I get all the water out as well as any remaining debris. This is what the process looked like.
Once the keys dried out, I used a multimeter to go though each switch to read the resistance when the key is pressed. There were still 2 keys that showed opened circuit when pressed, as well as a couple keys showing 10Ω ~ 80Ω I sprayed some contact cleaner in these keys followed by a lot more IPA until I got under 2 ohms for all the keys (most were under 1 ohm) . I set the keyboard aside and checked again several days later. There were several keys that read over 2 ohms, I gave them another final IPA rinse.
Here is the before and after of the back of the keyboard. You can see all the original flux washed off, but I managed to keep all the markings by using the tape to cover them up.
There was one electrolytic capacitor on the encoder board, 1uF 50volts. I've replaced it with a tantalum one (173D105X9050VWE3) so that I won't need to worry about it going bad.
On a hunch, I checked the bottom of the board for any cold solder. After taking a closer look with a microscope, there were indeed bad joints. I only found them on the bottom side of the long pins, all others were ok. I applied some flux and fresh soldier to all the pins.
I checked the bulb under the power button, and it was burned out. It runs on 5v, a replacement one can be found on Mouser made by VCC, model 683. The replacement bulb legs are a bit long, a trim was needed.
Last is the power keycap. The text "Power" was very faded. After giving it a good cleaning, the text came completely off.
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I decided to use the transfer method described here and here to restore the text. I first printed the "POWER" text onto transfer paper using a laser printer. I put a dotted boarder so it would be easy to get the text centered on the key.
The power button came out pretty well on my first try. However the transfer glue I used didn't pick up all the ink, and the protective finish spray I used didn't have the right texture finish. I recently found an eBay seller who had one of these, so I just ordered a replacement and it's is in the mail now.
After connecting keyboard back up, I found one issue where the spacebar would sometimes type two or three spaces at a time. After some troubleshooting and a closer inspection, I found that it was caused by a cold soldier joint!.
All the pressing of the spacebar over the years caused the joint to crack. I went back and re-soldered every single joint from the keyboard switches to ensure that I don't get any additional issues with them anytime soon.
Here is the keyboard after placing the keys back in, all ready to go for my Apple II Plus.
Full model of this keyboard is Datanetics 01-0551-01 Rev B, which is the 2nd keyboard to be made for the Apple II (original one was model 01-0425).
I started with the keycaps. I gave them a good wash in soapy water, these were the dirtiest keys I've ever seen. I gave them several good rinses at first in hot soapy water, then let them sit in the water for a couple hours before taking them out to wipe with a cloth. Image from first rinse:
Next, I noticed the keys were quite scratched and needed a polish. There's lots of products you can use, but I just used a cloth and window cleaner and polished each key for several seconds, which made an amazing improvement. Here's the before and after pic of the shift key.
Lastly for the keycaps, I noticed these keys had a brown shade to them and the text itself was very yellowed, this was not the original color of the keys. I decided to give them a quick 30 minute retobright submerged in 3% hydrogen peroxide. It made a huge improvement and returned the keys to the original dark beige color.
Next it was time to look at the main keyboard board. I first put clear scotch tape over all the stamps on the back of the keyboard so they wouldn't wash off. I then gave the keyboard a good wash submerged in water. I made sure to press each key at least 100 times to try and get all the debris out of inside the switches.
I let the keyboard sit for an hour to get the majority of the water out. I then sprayed lots of 99% IPA inside each key while pressing each key another 100 times to make sure I get all the water out as well as any remaining debris. This is what the process looked like.
Once the keys dried out, I used a multimeter to go though each switch to read the resistance when the key is pressed. There were still 2 keys that showed opened circuit when pressed, as well as a couple keys showing 10Ω ~ 80Ω I sprayed some contact cleaner in these keys followed by a lot more IPA until I got under 2 ohms for all the keys (most were under 1 ohm) . I set the keyboard aside and checked again several days later. There were several keys that read over 2 ohms, I gave them another final IPA rinse.
Here is the before and after of the back of the keyboard. You can see all the original flux washed off, but I managed to keep all the markings by using the tape to cover them up.
There was one electrolytic capacitor on the encoder board, 1uF 50volts. I've replaced it with a tantalum one (173D105X9050VWE3) so that I won't need to worry about it going bad.
On a hunch, I checked the bottom of the board for any cold solder. After taking a closer look with a microscope, there were indeed bad joints. I only found them on the bottom side of the long pins, all others were ok. I applied some flux and fresh soldier to all the pins.
I checked the bulb under the power button, and it was burned out. It runs on 5v, a replacement one can be found on Mouser made by VCC, model 683. The replacement bulb legs are a bit long, a trim was needed.
Last is the power keycap. The text "Power" was very faded. After giving it a good cleaning, the text came completely off.
I decided to use the transfer method described here and here to restore the text. I first printed the "POWER" text onto transfer paper using a laser printer. I put a dotted boarder so it would be easy to get the text centered on the key.
The power button came out pretty well on my first try. However the transfer glue I used didn't pick up all the ink, and the protective finish spray I used didn't have the right texture finish. I recently found an eBay seller who had one of these, so I just ordered a replacement and it's is in the mail now.
After connecting keyboard back up, I found one issue where the spacebar would sometimes type two or three spaces at a time. After some troubleshooting and a closer inspection, I found that it was caused by a cold soldier joint!.
All the pressing of the spacebar over the years caused the joint to crack. I went back and re-soldered every single joint from the keyboard switches to ensure that I don't get any additional issues with them anytime soon.
Here is the keyboard after placing the keys back in, all ready to go for my Apple II Plus.
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