Just picked up an Omnikey Ultra. Few Q's: glue, interface and colour

[lancre]

A colleague of mine just described this keyboard as "brittle and sticky. Like typing on bones. Fish bones."

:O

[Chyros]

A colleague of mine just described this keyboard as "brittle and sticky. Like typing on bones. Fish bones."

:O

wat

[lancre]

Well, he's a Cherry MX Red user, so say no more.

But given the age of the switches and the shine on the caps, I can kind of see how he's under that impression.

I now have a mental image of tiny fishes being crunched under each key press.

[fohat]

"brittle and sticky. Like typing on bones. Fish bones."

Oh, I like that!

[alh84001]

Is that because they soldered the screw-heads on the back of the PCB? It's annoying if I can't remove it.

Yes, quite annoying and pointless. I have tried to remove it but quickly gave up.

I got my hands on a board that only had one of the screws soldered, so I couldn't resist doing something about it. I tried using soldering iron, but it wasn't powerful enough for all the heat dissipation on the plate and screw.

I did manage however to make a dent in the soldering tin in the centre of the screw. I used this as a piloting hole for a 3mm bit and bore into the screw head right down to the PCB level. Then I used a burring bit on my dremel to widen that hole a bit, until what was left of the screw head got detached from the rest of the screw, and that was it. Just enough of the screw was left outside of the nut to use pliers to rotate it out, and I used a heat gun to remove the screw head remains from the PCB. Obviously this is destructive to the screws, and you will need new ones after this procedure. And obviously, great care needs to be taken to not damage the PCB.

[Hypersphere]

A colleague of mine just described this keyboard as "brittle and sticky. Like typing on bones. Fish bones."

:O

I do not understand your colleague's reaction, unless your board is in terrible shape or your colleague has become so accustomed to typing on cheap rubber dome keyboards that typing on a good mechanical board is a completely alien experience.

Today I have been going back and forth between my newest acquisitions -- a Leading Edge DC-2014 with blue Alps and a Northgate Omnikey 101 with white Alps. Both boards are in good to excellent shape. I would say that the DC-2014 is in better shape than the Omni 101, based on the lack of corrosion on the DC-2014 plate and scattered corrosion on the Omni plate.

Typing on these two boards reconfirms the notion that the typing experience is derived from much more than just the switches. Although many would agree that SKCM blue Alps are better switches than SKCM white Alps, I am finding that I prefer the typing experience on the white Alps Omni 101 to that on the blue Alps DC-2014.

I've even replaced the doubleshot ABS keycaps on the DC-2014 with dye-sub PBT keycaps from a Zenith black label Z-150 keyboard. The Omni 101 has a new set of doubleshot ABS (Tai-Hao Dolch set). Generally, I prefer PBT keycaps, but I still prefer typing on the Omni even with ABS caps.

Probably my impressions of the two boards are heavily influenced by their sounds. The DC-2014 has a hollow plasticky sound compared to the solid metallic sound of the Omni 101.

[J888www]

....... It's annoying if I can't remove it.

Yes, quite annoying and pointless. I have tried to remove it but quickly gave up.

...... obviously, great care needs to be taken to not damage the PCB.

You've just reminded me of a tool I had purchased a long time ago specifically to remove a bolt due to a Model M bolt mod gone a little wrong, nearly pulled out all my hair and then.....the Engineer PZ-58 screw remover arrived by post.
Made in Japan and top notch quality.

[Hypersphere]

@J888www: It's important to use the right tool for the wrong job!

Seriously, though, thanks for the tip. This gadget could save the day when things go awry.

[lancre]

Weeeeeeeell, turns out around 30 switches had their pins bent riiiight back against the PCB, not unlike the Dell AT101. Anyway, all was going well desoldering, a few light accidental scratches here and there, no problem. Then today came the needle-nosed pliars and the desolder wire and the sucker and the last 30 switches.

All was going well until 3 switches before the end, and lo and behold, the metal contact ring around one drill hole on the space bar half comes away, taking with it a 2mm shard of copper trace, exposing the substrate underneath.

Soooooo yeah. Bummer.

[andrewjoy]

You can fix that, follow the broken trace to where it meets a pin or another switch or similar , you can then solder a jumper wire from the switch pin to where it should be going.

I had to do this with the MX 6.0 keyboard Mµ broke when he was trying to disable the LEDs

[lancre]

Yeah I thought about that. It might be best to test all of the trace to make sure that the others don't have the same problem. I'm a bit reluctant to solder 116 switches and for a dozen to be non-functional or something.

[lancre]

I finally finished my restoration project. Thought I'd share a few pics. It was full of rust and very dirty. Here's what I did:

Cleaned the board, desoldered all the switches, ripped the copper contacts on 2 of them (by accident), sanded the plate, prepared the plate, used Rustoleum primer on the plate, got some clean white Alps, got some keycaps from another Omnikey that were less used and whiter, swapped out those that I could, soldered the switches, put jump leads on two switches, reassembled, tested.

It works first time! I was surprised how easy the soldering was. The desoldering was a pain, but the soldering was perfect, really tidy and fast. Unfortunately I can't be bothered to disassemble the board again to show it off!

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[Hypersphere]

Congratulations!

[mac80211]

The menu key on the keyboard is definitely from an Avant Stellar.

CongratS! very nice and clean.

[alh84001]

I finally finished my restoration project.

Nice! Congrats. What are those F-key keycaps? I don't remember seeing an Omnikey coming with anything other than F# keys. I did not pay that much attention, though.

Unfortunately I can't be bothered to disassemble the board again to show it off!

Nah. Pics or it didn't happen!

[lancre]

The menu key on the keyboard is definitely from an Avant Stellar.

CongratS! very nice and clean.

Yeah it's pretty weird. It had a Northgate padded 'sticker' on top of it, I think someone must have stuck it on, it looked too much of a hack job for it to have come from the factory. So I took the home-made sticker off and left the Avant Stellar badge.

The internals and the case are definitely Northgate though. It's just got the wrong DIP switch cover on it.

[fohat]

I really like the "padded" 3D Northgate labels/badges/stickers.

My experience has been that over half of them have it, but I have sought and bought mostly 101s.

I had one of those Ultras with the BAE a long time ago, I think that it was my first one. At that point, I was not paying attention to the labels. My guess was that the "padded" stickers were middle era. First were the foil stickers and no trap door, then trap doors with padded and flat stickers, and maybe no trap doors at the end? I don't know, I have never had a "late-model" Northgate.

[lancre]

Yeah you mean the ones that look like clear plastic gel? Those are really nice!

Yeah those aren't what were on this one - this one was some laminated plastic stuck on top of a 2mm grey foam pad that was stuck on the Avant Stellar badge.

[lancre]

I finally finished my restoration project.

Nice! Congrats. What are those F-key keycaps? I don't remember seeing an Omnikey coming with anything other than F# keys. I did not pay that much attention, though.

Unfortunately I can't be bothered to disassemble the board again to show it off!

Nah. Pics or it didn't happen!

Not bad for a first-time solder-baron, eh!

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[micrex22]

Will the name of this keyboard be known as 'fish bones'?

[lancre]

Will the name of this keyboard be known as 'fish bones'?

It sounds a lot better.

Before, with the shine on the keycaps, and the brittle, inconsistent, scratchy switches, it had an almost sinister feeling about it, like the keyboard Mr Burns might use.

[andrewjoy]

Not bad soldering for a first time at all. Mod wires are a little long but good job on the nice joints.
I am guessing the pad was already lifted ?


EDIT

One thing i noticed looking closer , there are a few heat marks on the PCB , nothing that will hurt anything however for the future i would turn down the temp on your iron, if it wont melt solder at that temp get some leaded solder (60/40) that is much thinner 0.3 or 0.4 mm and has flux in it. Also add extra flux onto the PCB ( you can NEVER have too much flux EVER just down the thing in that shit)

This will let you use a much lower temp , and do less damage to the PCB.

[lancre]

Thanks for the advice Yeah the PCB on this Omnikey is brittle.

I did increase the iron temperature in increments and started using it when the solder was good to work with (i.e. actually melted) but then again it's a pretty rubbish iron (gets the job done, mind).

I'll look around for some better solder for my next project.

[andrewjoy]

You will also want to make sure you are using a tip thats shaped like this ( if you can change them on your iron)



The ones that are just a point are well , useless. You have to have it way hotter to get the thermal transfer needed.

[lancre]

Oh like a chisel tip? Ok I'll have a look for one of those. The one I have is a point. I believe I can swap them in my iron.

[fohat]

Oh like a chisel tip? Ok I'll have a look for one of those. The one I have is a point. I believe I can swap them in my iron.

My crude method is to file down all of my old tips, and keep filing them until they don't work any more.

[andrewjoy]

Oh like a chisel tip? Ok I'll have a look for one of those. The one I have is a point. I believe I can swap them in my iron.

My crude method is to file down all of my old tips, and keep filing them until they don't work any more.

Don't be teaching new soldering students your bad habits

buy a decent tip and it will last you years and years .


I have a fake hakko with a real hakko tip on , used it for 3 or so years and its still like new

[micrex22]

Oh like a chisel tip? Ok I'll have a look for one of those. The one I have is a point. I believe I can swap them in my iron.

I personally use a desoldering gun:


You have no idea how easy it makes desoldering stuff. In fact, it's even great for soldering the other way around because the 'tip' goes over the joints and heats them up consistently unlike a conventional iron.

Only a good investment if you're doing endless amounts of through-hole soldering; otherwise you'll have an expensive gadget sitting idle.

[andrewjoy]

They are fantastic , i cannot go back to wick and a sucker now .

[XMIT]

Oh, perfect, thanks for providing a great shot of the rear of the PCB. I've been thinking about a modification to this board for a while and it looks like it is very doable.

I *HATE* the Big Enter key on this board. Everything else about it is nearly perfect. I have one here that is in okay condition but could be magnificent after a nice restoration.

If you remove the Big Enter key you'll find a barrel stabilizer right where the switch for the \| key should go. Lo and behold, that stabilizer - and the cutout in the switch plate for it - are exactly the right size for an Alps switch. I confirmed this over the weekend.

Moreover, since the Ultra and the Ultra-T appear to share the same PCB, it looks like there are a number of unused switch positions right around the arrow cluster that we could tie a new switch into.

Finally, even though there are no leads for an additional switch, it does look like the barrel stabilizer is only surrounded by ground plane (on the rear of the PCB). Before actually doing this I would need to confirm what the front side of the PCB looks like to make sure there are no interferences (or at least, nothing I can't otherwise rework).

A photo would help here.

Rework for additional switch.

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If I'm going through this much trouble, I would also replace the controller on the board, and install either Soarer's Controller or (more likely) TMK on the thing. That would let me map the top keys to Fn and the side keys to programmable macro keys.

Hmm... I think I know what my next project is...