deskthority

I've managed to get a BTC (FCC ID ending in 410). It wasn't cheap, but it was money well spent on a secondary keyboard.



Condition I've got it in. It looked much whiter in the pic the seller sent me. At least it works save for two contact pads on the rubber domes not being flat enough to make a contact confidently making the affected keys feel "membrane"-y (can be fixed either from a donor keyboard or by sanding them to flat), and a broken scroll lock LED.



So much dirt and dust in the keyboard, hopefully nothing some soapy water can't get rid off.



PCB board in it's original condition. The partly snipped off resistor doesn't appear to affect operation, better to leave as is.




Closer image of the board when I swapped the loose domes to less affect keys I frequently use. Some of the keys have alternative contact pads at interesting locations, probably for differently stabilized keys.



Rubber domes from the keyboard. The loose gray one is from the spacebar, it feels a bit heavier loose than the green ones, and seems seems it's both from a different mold and is thicker, but the effect is less pronounced in action, likely due to the heavier weight of the space key.



Keyboard shown reassembled. I've lubed the sliders with Mannol MP2 multipurpose automotive lithium-grease. It doesn't seem to eat the plastic or the rubber domes in my BTC 5139, however it seems there's a break-in period while the keys feel a bit scratchier than originally and uncleaned, but enhances the sound of the keys. Might be due to the amount of grease I've used. Also worked well on the stabilizers save for the spacebar one, which is just so clumsy.

In a few weeks I might be able to borrow a DSLR camera and add the pictures of the keyboard to the Wiki, but that will depend on the current pandemic. If not then I'll use my phone camera in daylight to take a few extra ones. I need to disassemble it yet again to fix a few domes and maybe the LED anyways.

EDIT: Used the wrong way to share images from imgur.

Ouch. It should be inexpensive, especially if it does not work 100%.

One of these days the hipsters with their precious mechanical keyboards will see the Light of the One True Dome with Slider shine upon them. Until that time I'm content knowing that these things are way better than they typically get credit for.

Findecanor wrote: 21 Mar 2021, 22:46 Ouch. It should be inexpensive, especially if it does not work 100%.

Depends on where you are. Profile says Hungary. No idea how many of these things exist in Hungary but if it was purchased outside the country shipping alone would be a nightmare.

They are pretty darn great, I have a Packard Bell 5131C in my rotation that I put some PBT doubleshots on (well, at least the ones that fit since the stabs are incompatible with cherry.)

micmil wrote: 22 Mar 2021, 04:11 Depends on where you are. Profile says Hungary. No idea how many of these things exist in Hungary but if it was purchased outside the country shipping alone would be a nightmare.

"Wasn't cheap" this time means it costed HUF5000 instead of the usual HUF3000 max.

So sub-$20 at current exchange rate. If it's anything like a 5130 I'd take that all day.

All right then. That, it is definitely worth.

Love these things

Love the font on vintage BTC's. Want to use BTC keycaps on my first build. Although they use MX style, the stabs are weird on some of the Shifts and Space bars. Does anybody know the font name on the keycaps?