Certain Keys on Think Outside ir kb stop working

spunker88 · 03-20-07, 07:13 PM

I noticed that the -=jkl and a few other keys on my ir kb wont work. I have no caps or any locks like that on. Th ir wand is lined up. It will type other keys fine.

At first, i thought it was weak batts. I swapped them and that temporalily solved the prob. A day later the same keys still wouldnt work. I took the new batts out, and then put them back in, and the keys worked. But then for some reason, the next day they wont work.

Is my keyboard dying? Should have got a bt?

EDIT: Immediatey after posting this, the same eys stopped woring. As u can te, i am typing this from my to ir.

Box · 03-20-07, 07:17 PM

Pop the keys off and check if the is any dirt or anything like that underneath.

spunker88 · 03-21-07, 07:53 AM

The weird thing is, though they work fine for 5-10min if i remove and replace the same batteries. They wont miss a single keystroke.

Then after a while, they stop working, and hitting the key 100 times does nothing.

cravaus · 03-21-07, 10:42 AM

After two years of very heavy use my TO BT key board started missing strokes on the top row "uiop/7890" keys. Nothing I did fixed it (took it apart, cleaned it, air gun the thing etc.) I resorted to the fact that they may only have a two year life span (especially after taking it apart). I bought a new one. No problems! That is an expensive solution but for me it is the realistic one.

spunker88 · 03-21-07, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by cravaus

After two years of very heavy use my TO BT key board started missing strokes on the top row "uiop/7890" keys. Nothing I did fixed it (took it apart, cleaned it, air gun the thing etc.) I resorted to the fact that they may only have a two year life span (especially after taking it apart). I bought a new one. No problems! That is an expensive solution but for me it is the realistic one.

Could be, but pc keyboards last a lot longer than the computer. I used one heavily for almost 8yrs, then the spacebar started to go.
Of course this is a smaller, but much more expensive kb. It would just ashame me, seeing that i preached about how much i love think outside, that their product's quality is that low.

If it is just the keyboard dying, i can tell u one thing, im NOT BUYING ANY THINK OUTSIDE ANYTHING!!!

cravaus · 03-23-07, 10:13 AM

I understand the sentament but I have used several other fold out keyboards and the TO has held up the best and has worked the best and has been the most expensive. They have the best coustomer service too. Did you call them? I think the difference between the desk top keyboard and the fold out ones is that they use considerably thinner and lighter weight products and they need to make these things work consistently while folding up. That is a bit of engineering. So I see them as beeing fragile for these reasons and am not suprised when they crash. Anything that needs to fold up consistently starts having problems after a few years. Ribon cables only take so much flexing. Anything in a compression jack that is being tweaked every time that it is pulled out is going to get loose after a while. Soldered parts also start to weaken. My Jornada 710, which was a nice machine gave out at the ribon cable, both my Psion PDA's gave out at ribon cables and so on. Also things that are portable are suseptable to more dust and other contamination. So, I am a little more forgiving in this respect.

spunker88 · 03-23-07, 07:44 PM

I got it for xmas 2005, so i figured all support is off. Also it was given to me, so i dont have any of the reciepts or whatever. It was bought of of amazon.com

It still works fine, just sometimes i have to take out and put back in the batteries. It has relatively little damage, except for some scratches on outside latch, but the kb itself is mint. It almost always stays at home. I thought to was hq, i did my research.

cravaus · 03-24-07, 04:15 AM

When it comes to this point with products I figure that I have nothing to loose and I start pulling the thing apart. First I would blow it out with air and see what happens. The way the keyboards work is that there is a little rubber pad that pushes on a circuit board. That rubber pad is often painted with a matalic paint or it has a thin piece of metal embeded in the rubber to make a circuit when pressed against the spot on the board. What I have seen happen is with the painted on matalic pad, the paint wares down. I have glued with rubbersement a little piece of aluminum foil in the pads of one key board (a sharp wizard form years ago) and that worked for that. I have also built up the key to push the pad down farther. For example on the old Dell keyboard for the X3 models the space key worked inconcictently and the problem was how the key was designed. I pulled it off and reworked the surface of the key to hit the circuit board more evenly. Other keys started giving out soon after that and I gave up. I have not tried to take apart my TO down to the circuit board but I have pulled off keys. Be careful if you do this because they are fragile little things. Pull firmly but gently then carefully reattach. I borke one of the little hinge portions of one key. I fixed it with some tape and superglue. It is worth a shot if you have nothing to loose and then you learn something about how things work.

spunker88 · 03-24-07, 06:46 AM

Well, its still working as you can see, but i think that may be the problem. If the thing goes up completely, ill try that.