help R2E4 bad period key

[recycleroy]

Help, does anyone know where a replacement keyboard for an R2E4 can be purchased? I have a bad period key.

Thanks,

Roy

[machintek]

Yes, but you may not like it. I remember seeing some at:

http://www.remanelectronics.com/searchresult.asp

You will need the part number to search the site.
I just sold a spare R2E3 keyboard for $600.00 with the LCD.

George

[fredhh47]

If you have the membrane keyboard, and you are adventurous, you can replace the bad button by hardwiring in a small pushbutton yourself. I had to do that on my machine. I had an R2E3 with the membrane keyboard that wore out after a couple years of steady use. We replaced it for about $500 (it was nearly 10 years ago), and the new one started to wear out just as bad. After a while I got tired of listening to the whining about the buttons not working right, so I took the old panel and peeled the membrane off the metal back plate. This is not a project for the faint of heart. The membrane actually consisted of two layers glued together, with little metal disks that were supposed to make contact between two traces when pushed. I separated the layers and traced out the circuits. The circuits are pretty easy to trace out, actually.
I made a new back panel out of 1/4" lexan, tracing from the old metal one (You have to do this. Glass epoxy board would work pretty well, too) and stuck the outer membrane sheet to it with adhesive. I bought a bunch of keyboard switches from digikey and drilled two holes in each button position for a switch. If you position the switches carefully, you can still see most of the legends. The short pins on the back of the switches just stuck thru the back of the lexan. With my circuit diagram in hand, I carefully hardwired all of the new switches. Incidentaly, the heat of the soldering locked the switches into the drilled holes. When I got done I had an all mechanical pushbutton control panel that didn't look half bad. And the important thing is, the switches worked for 6 more years, and not one of them wore out.
If you carefully peel the membrane panel apart, you could try splicing in just one switch to replace the bad period switch, but don't think it will be the last. In a while, the cycle start button will just wear thru and some of the other buttons will become erratic or cease to function altogether.
Good luck.