FN / CTRL-Key Switch Mod

Hi!

I finally did it. In Hardware. Switched the positions if the FN and CTRL key.
Here's a little how-to:

Things you need:

Silver conductive paint/lacquer
Sharp knive
a little bit of clear sticky tape
small paper clip



The key on the down left should be CTRL/STRG and not FN. Don't know why Zepto did that.

So lets begin... first take out the keyboard from the notebook (use search in this forum, was already discussed)



gently pull out the key caps (just lift em up at the front a little bit - be careful, its just small plastic!), then use a small paper clip to disassemble the key-"mechanics".

i disassembled the following keys: FN/CTRL/Win/ALT/SHIFT/CAPS LOCK/A/Y

reason why i did this is, you need space for lifting the keyboards layers.

you should end like this:


as i am always pissed with hitting the caps lock key by accident (instead of shift) i just disabled this key (i never used this key in my whole life, so what!)



i just sticked a small piece of tape between the 2 contact layers (my keyboard has 5 layers)



now lets go deeper and take a look at the different conductive layers:





as you can see, 2 contacts/keys are going to one circuit path, i call it GND. now take the other conductive layer.



now here comes the tricky part, cut off the 2 circuit pathes, as shown. do NOT cut the plastic itself, just scratch the circuit path off the plasticlayer.



now gently remove the greenish cover, to get to the circuit path itself. once again be careful! do not cut the path itself, just the green protecting paint.



now its time for the silver conductive paint (shake before use!).
draw a thin line of silver conductive paint as shown on the pic (red line).
let it dry. let it dry. let it dry. its only conductive if its dry, if you go on too early you will easily smear the silver around (i know what i am talking about )

then, after drying, use sticky tape to protect the new circuit path (just put some tape over the silver line, to make sure it has no contact to other layers). after that, you'll have to repeat this step with the other 2 conductive pathes (shown as the green line). once again, let it dry and then protect it with a small strip of sticky tape.

do not cover the wholes, you need them for reassembling the keys! i painted the "green" silver line directly on the protective tape of the "red" silver line (not shown).

now reassemble your keyboard and put it back into your laptop. keep your fingers crossed that all neccessary conductive paths have "contact".

turn on your laptop, wait for booting up and if you did not make any mistakes you finally end up like this:



nice and clean, working perfectly, as it should always have been.

note:
i am not be responsible if you destroy your keyboard when trying this!!!

hope this doc is helpful.

this mod should work on any keyboards with plastic layers. its not just zepto related.

if you have any questions, feel free to ask

bye,

Mac

 

Thank you for this update.

I am impressed. I've never gone that far in disassembling a keyboard. However, I don't think all keyboards are build the same way. I have just looked at an old Fujitsu notebook keyboard and that has a plastic layer below the keys which is fixed through holes in the metal base.

John

 

The Fn key in the corner is an atrocity, I think we can all agree. You are a man among men for righting this wrong. I salute you!

 

this trick works on some desktop keyboards too. sure, not ALL keyboards are suitable, but i think most of the el cheapo ones will work.

 

well done,
one day i might....

 

t3K Mac, you are the Mac.
Very well done, you've solved an issue that frustrates many for years.
+rep for the excellent how-to also.
Cheers.

 

I did this with easy software...

 

care to elaborate ?

 

yeah, it could be done in software but in hardware it has only advantages... no need for software, you can easily reinstall windows/linux/whatever. no need to fiddle around with key switching software.
i still don't get it why zepto has switched the keys...

 

its common all around
my gateway is the same

 

I'm used to that button-places but it's quite nice!!

 

I've never seen a laptop where you could remap the Fn key in software. Usually it's a hardwired modifier that causes the keyboard to generate entirely different keycodes, well before software comes into the picture. What model were you able to remap via software?

 

Wow that's awesome! It seems it might not work if the ctrl and fn keys are different sizes like on lenovos though.. well, the circuit underneath can still be modified but the keys wouldn't be able to physically switch positions

 

Google:

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx

And then you would just have to switch the keys, without rewiring your keyboard..

btw: good job!

 

But I thought that the fn key is hardware specific so you can't just change it via software.

 

FN key is often a hardware key, and nothing software can change (It may be possible too!)

You only find out by trying