From Newsgroup: comp.sys.tandy

I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions. I have a TRS-80 model 4 with a membrane keyboard. The ribbon cable has two broken traces. Does anyone have any suggestion on how repair the ribbon? FYI, the ribbon cable is the same material as the membrane in the keyboard, i.e. one big piece.
Thanks
David
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.tandy

On Friday, November 11, 2016 at 4:11:45 PM UTC-6, David Jones wrote:

I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions. I have a TRS-80 model 4 with a membrane keyboard. The ribbon cable has two broken traces. Does anyone have any suggestion on how repair the ribbon? FYI, the ribbon cable is the same material as the membrane in the keyboard, i.e. one big piece.

Thanks
David

I haven't done this, but depending on your skill level with soldering irons and such, it may be possible. it also depends where the foil trace is broken. You could take a x-acto knife to cut the membrane around the open trace and solder strands from a small gauge wire and recover with heavy packing tape. Or you may be able to solder a piece of wire point to point from ckt board to connector. there are more possibles but I am tired of typing with one hand (broken arm). Post a pic and maybe a better suggestion will show up.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.tandy

Well the plastic isn't Mylar so it melts pretty easily. But I'm going to try and solder it anyways and see what happens. At this point, it's ether that or see if I can use a conductive glue and solder a wire down. That is assuming I can expose the conductors and get a good connection. Well my last resort idea is make a PS2 keyboard interface to the existing connector. I'm going to take it slow so I don't make thing worse.
A little more of the story. This was an ebay item that was supposed to be working. It wasn't completely. The video was out of adjustment and the power supply had bad solder joints on the connector. Both easy fixes. The worst was a mouse had chewed on the lines going to the power switch and keyboard ribbon. That last item is the only thing that's been hard to fix.
David
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.tandy

On Sun, 13 Nov 2016, David Jones wrote:

Well the plastic isn't Mylar so it melts pretty easily. But I'm going
to try and solder it anyways and see what happens. At this point, it's ether that or see if I can use a conductive glue and solder a wire down. That is assuming I can expose the conductors and get a good connection.
Well my last resort idea is make a PS2 keyboard interface to the
existing connector. I'm going to take it slow so I don't make thing
worse.

Be careful. My KIM-1 keyboard needed some work, and I tried to solder
around the problem, and melted the plastic or whatever it was. So be
careful.

Michael

A little more of the story. This was an ebay item that was supposed to
be working. It wasn't completely. The video was out of adjustment and
the power supply had bad solder joints on the connector. Both easy
fixes. The worst was a mouse had chewed on the lines going to the power switch and keyboard ribbon. That last item is the only thing that's
been hard to fix.

David

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