I had to get some help with this one, as these things are a real pain to take apart. I was told that it would never work again, but I've got it back together and it still works. Sadly the most damage occurred when the top buckled. This is how it started out:
- SKFL Lock 01 prior to inhumane butchering.jpg (355.2 KiB) Viewed 960 times
The switch was desoldered, removed and the top removed (not by me!), then reinserted and re-soldered with the top off:
- SKFL Lock 02 opened.jpg (391.12 KiB) Viewed 960 times
With the slider removed, you can see the mechanism, which interestingly is yet again a new take on the idea. A plastic plate with freedom of lateral movement, contains a minuscule brass pin that follows the latch track in the slider:
- SKFL Lock 03 slider removed.jpg (479.58 KiB) Viewed 960 times
This piece comes out, and you can see that pressure is applied to it by a leaf spring:
- SKFL Lock 04 pin plate removed.jpg (488.76 KiB) Viewed 960 times
Finally, that spring is now removed:
- SKFL Lock 05 all parts.jpg (468 KiB) Viewed 960 times
Just as I said to myself that if you ever lost that pin … and boom … well, ping …
Spot the pin:
- SKFL Lock 06 spot the pin.jpg (701.94 KiB) Viewed 960 times
Sometimes, fortunate favours the
bold hopelessly insane, or maybe CSW sent serenity waves my way … but I actually found the dratted thing very quickly. Average seek time for a whole return spring is around 20 minutes.
The switch is nonetheless beautifully designed and made, even if the only people who could assemble them are Borrowers.
The lid didn't go on properly — it buckled in the middle, so now the metal is damaged in addition to the damage to the plastic:
- SKFL Lock 07 worse for wear.jpg (286.48 KiB) Viewed 960 times
The regular linear switch has an LED slot, but under the switch is an open space, and in the case of the NEC PC-8201, is where the diodes live for each switch. The side and rear of the latching version are clearly different:
- SKFL Lock 08 rear detail.jpg (504.7 KiB) Viewed 960 times
- SKFL Lock 09 side detail.jpg (455.11 KiB) Viewed 960 times
No time to add these to the wiki right now, but I will at some point. I also snapped a load more pictures of the NEC PC-8201 keyboard, which I removed completely from the PC-8201 (which inside is in brand new condition).
