Hi everybody! Been following the Level1News/Tek Syndicate for a long while, and I finally got around to buying a Model M keyboard! And so far, it’s looking/working great! I have enjoyed the tactile feedback of the keys, and am happy with the purchase, except for a problem with the “K” key:
The K key will randomly just activate by touching the key, not waiting until the spring activation/tactile feedback point is reached. This makes typing difficult because I need to keep going back and deleting the spurious K characters from the text I type, and also makes it nearly impossible to reliably use password prompts where the characters are not echoed back. Just touching the key and rocking it back and forth lightly will output (not pressing down very far at all):
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
All of the other keys activate correctly at the click point. I’ve removed the K key 3 times, and placed it back each time, but the problem persists. I also removed and replaced the J key just to test and the J key was/is working fine before and after doing this, so I suspect something else.
I’ve filed a support ticket but not received a response yet, and I assume that I’ll have to do something DIY anyway.
Does anyone (or the Model M master, Wendell) know what I could do to get this rogue key back in line?
Sounds like a defect in the switch contacts. I am not familiar as to how they are assembled but you could disassemble the keyboard and compare the individual components of the K switch with the other keys, see what’s different.
The support team got back to me and said that I should try the “chopstick” method to swap the spring of the K key with the Pause key or one of those that aren’t used much, so I’ll try to give it a try. I don’t have any chopsticks around the house though, so maybe time to order Chinese food?
I think that this process is what they mean by “chopstick” method. Hopefully that’ll work! (or maybe someone can suggest something other than a chopstick to do the deed).
If the K key and the others keys provide the same resistance to the pressure your finger exerts on it then I highly doubt changing the spring will fix it. Unless a part of the spring is where it shouldn’t be and is shorting out switch contacts. I would recommend disassembling the switch or keyboard and taking a closer look.
Swapping the spring of the K key with the Pause key fixed the light-touch-trigger of the keypress that was happening before, but now that key has no clicky feedback, it just triggers the keypress at a certain depth. I’m not sure what can be done to improve that situation, but at least I don’t have to spend so much time removing all the random Ks littered over what I type.