Fixing Buttons (Controllers, Keyboards, Etc)

[NayusDante]

A friend and I recently acquired a Compaq Portable, and we need to fix the keyboard. Much like most gamepads, the PCB has split traces that are connected by a conductive pad under a button. In this case, each key has a foam pad underneath, and the pads have thin plastic underneath which were at one time painted silver. The silver paint has worn off of every key, and I'm trying to think of a good replacement contact. I've considered squares of aluminum foil, glued onto the existing pads, but I'm wondering if there's a better solution. Right now, we're using our fingers to touch the PCB and type, which probably isn't the best idea. Anyone have a better idea than the foil?

[RP2A03]

Perhaps a trace repair pen which can be found at Radio Shack would work.

[tpugmire]

Unless I'm mistaken, Aluminum doesn't conduct electricity. Get a automotive rear defroster repair kit from any auto parts store and use the paint in the kit to touch up the pad.

[InsaneDavid]

Unless I'm mistaken, Aluminum doesn't conduct electricity.

Wow. Didn't you ever make a flashlight out of a flashlight bulb, a couple D batteries and some strips of aluminum foil? Aluminum is an excellent conductor.

[jb143]

Unless I'm mistaken, Aluminum doesn't conduct electricity. Get a automotive rear defroster repair kit from any auto parts store and use the paint in the kit to touch up the pad.

Aluminum does conduct but not quite as well as other metals. It used to be used for cheap house wiring but it was a fire hazard. For a keypad trace you won't have that problem and it could work if you can rig it up right.

But anyways, like was mentioned earlier, a trace repair pen should work fine...the rear defroster repair kit might work as well(it's probably the same thing actually).

[tpugmire]

I stand corrected on the Aluminum thing? Somewhere I got the idea that it didn't conduct electricity. Crazy. Anyway, I think the trace repair pen and the defroster kit are pretty much the same thing, but I have yet to see a trace repair pen in a store locally. Defroster kits are everywhere.

And no, never made a flashlight. I just used the ones around the house. I guess I was never that hard up for a flashlight, lol.

[Compute]

Shopping for junk, and I found this over at American Science and Surplus:


Restore Your Remote

Don't toss it and buy a universal remote. (How many things are really universal, after all?) Try this jar of Keypad Fix, designed to clean and restore conductivity to the carbon on the keys and the copper PC board pads that make up the rubber-coated switches on remotes, game controllers, and security keypads. Contains enough to coat over 200 button contacts.
93683 KEYPAD FIX


For $5 a jar, I think it's worth a shot. There is no URL direct to the product, here is the page that lists it:

http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm/subsection/17/start/12/maxrows/11/srch.fp/1