i found the buttons for the sequencer!

[bosone]

if you need a lot of push buttons, search for an old PC keyboard!!

[moebius]

Surey.. but which "Brand"?! At least Keytronic manufactured are out of question, as those have keyboard membrane, not individual switches..

I got some from an old Teletex terminal, but sadly those are Normally Closed type.

Bye, Moebius

[bosone]

i cannot tell you what kind of keyboard was. it had the old large connector, and not the nowadays ps-2 (?)

i used it with my old 486... and fortunately i never trashed it! :-)

[moebius]

Oh, one thing..

Has anyone taken any old Electronic Typewriter apart?! There are several at our local Recycling Centers shop costing 'bout 3 euros a piece. Buttons have nice touch, but I'm not sure If keyboards are one piece, or constructed out of individual key switches..

Bye, Moebius

(Never trash anything, You're GOING to need it ;))

[bosone]

another hint: the cable of this keyboard can be recycled as a half MIDI cable. just cut and add another MIDI connector at the cutted-side! :-)

[stryd_one]

Careful, Keyboard cables are not shielded :(

[moebius]

Well, this tip is HOT ;)

Some of us save broken, "outdated", unneeded electronic devices.. and recycle parts out of them. But usually just some parts, as desoldering is pretty dull and boring job, when done with "desoldering pump" or wick (not sure if those are the right words?!)

But my friend gave me an advice: Use hot airblower (?!).

Well, I tried: Yes, 10 secs and with some shaking (pulling) components started to fall off - from 2 sided board.

Even 16-pin plastic IC socket droped without deformation.

Then again: I'm not sure what this does for IC, plastic caps, other temperature "sensitive" components. But I'm pretty sure, that all resistors, ceramic caps, diodes ect. manage this treatment allright.

So, PPL. recycle! Moebius

[smashtv]

On very large boards (100+ chips) I used to use a propane torch with a spreader tip, char the board quickly with the torch then knock it hard against the workbench.  All of the parts in the charred area jump off the board into the floor, with minimal (about 2 seconds) heat time.

I have not tried the heat gun approach, I have a couple of boards here that I'll try that on when it's time.  It's got to be way less smelly and toxic with a heat gun!

Have Fun!

SmashTV

[shed]

ive got some stuff called desolder braid that is fairly good for little jobs.  You just bung it on a joint with a soldering iron and ... all the solder is gone!  You cut of the end of the braid and your done.  Its a lot esier to use than a pump and good for little areas like just unslodering one compnent (and tidying up when you f**k up and get solder everywhere)

[illogik]

i 've got them from a broken commodore amiga 500;

you can get them out quite easy with a desolderingpump and a mini screwdriver.

they are "noramlly open"and have four pins on the bottom (wich sadly dont fit 2,54mm rasterplates)

dont know about the quality though..

if you look at/in the caps lock button you'll see it has a built in led(2mm??) and a small plastik "window" in the corner of the cap, to make the light visible.

the other buttons could house (small) leds as well, but you'd have to find a solution for their caps/.

cheers marcel

[Jidis]

Some of us save broken, "outdated", unneeded electronic devices..  

Some of us even have to climb over such devices to reach some areas of our houses  ;)

Thanks for the hot air tip! I've got a Wagner heat gun (for paint) here, and some propane and mapp gas which did a rather crappy job at brazing metal. I'll try them as desoldering tools and see how it goes (if all else fails....use fire)

                               -Take Care

[Sasha]

Drop an eye on my topic about this very good buttons: http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/forum/index.php?topic=4322.0