Ok, let’s get started! As the disassembled PET takes a lot of space on the bench, it will be my first goal to put all parts back into the chassis. Most of the issues this computer had when I got it, should have been fixed during the previous repair sessions (which are not part of this RC entry), but it’s more convenient to perform measurements and/or soldering while the mainboard lies on the bench. So testing will go along with the reassembling procedure, just in case something has been overlooked.
Talking to computer systems of the 70s wasn’t like talking to a modern smartphone – we were forced to use a special device named ‘keyboard’ that looked similar to this one:
As you can certainly imagine, it’s been hard work to use such a keyboard, so blood, sweat and tears build up on the device after a while. In this case ‘a while’ translates to ’40 years’ and I was surprised to find only minor deposit on the keycaps…
… but decided to get rid of it anyway. Tissue, denatured alcohol, time and some more sweat got me to the point where the surface started to shine again:
Unfortunately the alcohol partially dissolved the labelling, so I used it only for cleaning the plastics. And to be honest, the whole process was agonizingly boring! It will take a looooong time to choose a suitable detergent for cleaning the top of the keycaps…
During the cleaning it crossed my mind that arranging things diffently might improve the usability of the keyboard.
I really enjoyed this puzzle although I heard a ghostly voice all the time shouting ‘Give me a Q! Give me a W! Give me an E!’ and so on. Can’t remember exactly where I heard this voice in my youth. Sesame Street? Most likely. Everything went well, except the ‘Q’-key. The keycap did not fit and guess what happened? Statler and Waldorf were laughing at me ‘When a spring sprang in spring! <chrrrrhrrhrr><chrrrr>’.
Glueing the keycap to this other light grey thingy wasn’t an option, but a few layers of flimsy PTFE tape made my day.
I’d like to believe that one can tell the difference…
