About a month ago, or so it feels, I finally landed upon an old Dell AT101 "Kwyboard" with Salmon Alps and and the first generation FCC ID (I'd imagine
). It was a fantastic find for the price, since everyone and their mother seems to be selling old logo AT101s for a killing on eBay, even the black alps versions from Silitek. http://www.ebay.com/itm/151854059864
Originally, I had an AT101 in mind just to use it for its thick (for Alps, anyway) PBT key caps for a separate project, but upon receiving this board, I immediately felt hesitation and sentimental value toward it. Perhaps it's because I've always used Dell laptops, or that it was US made,
the fact it wasn't absolutely tattered, the fact I got it from a GoodWill seller (
), and somewhat rare and expensive nature of the board (at least on eBay in the US), made me settle that I was going to instead restore the board. So I have!I had a little experience in restoring keyboards prior to this, and I did enjoy the process, even if it's a biiit tedious. It was especially for the last board since it involved a hellish amount of hand sanding and painting and all that. FAME TH-5539 (because the full FCC ID is ridiculous and the PCB says "TH-5539" anyway)
For the Dell AT101 though, it had some pretty substantial yellowing, as you can see in the first picture. The plate had some superficial rust spots, which seems far too common on these old boards, and there was a little grime around the contours of the case, but nothing too bad. The switches were also remarkably clean despite the plate condition and in good shape.
So, I desoldered aaaaall the switches, hand sanded the rust off, not as carefully as a I have for my Fame keyboard, since it was going to be painted with opaque paint.
Then I sprayed it with SEM grey self-etch primer, which really came close to the original odd grey paint the AT101 had. I even misted it to leave areas of metal speckling through since this was something distinctive I noticed with the AT101's plate.
I should mention that getting through the EMI shield on the back of the PCB was a bit of a pain, but I managed. I had to do it over again when I noticed I had some cold solder joints which resulted in inconsistent and nonresponsive keys.
So after that, a process which was very quick and easy compared to the days of a painting for my FAME TH-5539, I tried setting up my indoor Retrobrighting station. I had purchased this http://www.amazon.com/Elation-100W-120V ... B000YL5H26 UV wash light for the expressed purpose of retrobrighting indoors. Prior to this, I retrobrighted outdoors with great results, but it's getting colder out and more and more days are overcast, so I figured I might as well move operations indoors.
Originally, I just used my sparkling clean bathtub, but it proved to not work as well as I had hoped. The back panel was deyellowed just fine, but the top cover was not so much.
Sooo, I remembered someone mentioning using a box lined with aluminum foil to reflect the UV and I did the same.
This all worked very well, but because of my skepticism that the lamp was even doing anything, there are a few minute spots that were allowed to dry and thus bleach the case slightly. It's very subtle, but just knowing I messed up a bit annoys me. HOPEFULLY IT DOES YELLOW UP AGAIN SO I CAN REDO IT THE RIGHT WAY!
Good thing is, I hope, that any old logo AT101 case could probably be used to replace the top cover if I feel the need, but I think it's okay.
So, without further ado, here's some pics!
I know, I know. You all must have noticed...
I COULDN'T SAVE THE SMALL PAPER STICKER ON THE BACK!!!
It's terrible, I know, but it just wouldn't peel off. The glue was hardened and not even strong alcohol could remove it. D:
It's the price of wa-retrobrighting, I suppose.
I took a lot of time to carefully keep every sticker on my FAME board intact, but that sticker just wasn't gonna stop sticking.
Still taking a while to get used to everything for me.
