CF-29 Keyboards

FYI all ya all,

Tonight I received my 29 (mk1) in the mail. First thing I did was to attempt swap out of the standard keyboard with my 28 backlit rubberized keyboard. It worked! All three levels of lighting as well! The bezel is a little difficult to get back in place but its doable. The good thing about the tight bezel is that it pushes the rubber kb forward into the palm rest creating a nice tight seal. the down side is that there is a slight gap on the right side of the kb...however...still...less water is able to penetrate under the kb than with the stock basic black kb.

The cf-27 rubberized kb works as well but the cables are short and you gotta be SUPER careful not to rip'em.

 

pictures please!

 

KUSA... Beautiful post! I have been wondering about this... I know that the "Emissive Keyboard" (Hard plastic, like stock but black illuminated) doesn't work in the 29.. But GREAT SCORE here!!!! I have always read that the CF-29 required the 3 ribbon cable connector to work correctly. YOU have proven that NOT to be the case!

Now... To keep the two connectors in place... THAT is a little tricky! What I saw on a few laptops I have taken apart... (Uh... Yeah... It's been a few.) is that, after the closest cable is tightened by CAREFULLY pushing down on the brown bar... Then some have laid a piece of tape across the board/connector housing/cable/board... And THEN... There is a piece of double stick tape just underneath the next cable to go in... That just slides in and then the connector is pushed into place, thereby locking the ribbon cable in forever... Then you push DOWN the ribbon cable to make contact with the double-stick tape!... If you carefully put the cover into place... Screw in the 5 screws above, leaving the last two screws closest to the keyboard.... When you get to those screws... Lean the keyboard into the laptop slightly (toward the LCD) and then tighten the two remaining screws. (Does everyone follow me here?) Then, after tightening the last two screws... CAREFULLY lower the keyboard and tuck the ribbon cable coverings and cables themselves into the small little space that is meant for them! (How many of you knew they made space for the ribbon cable to be pushed into and under the palmrests?) I have started assembling my laptops this way that utilize the rubber keyboard with the short ribbon cables.

Anyway... That's it....


KUSA.. Again... Great score!!! You asked me and I told you didn't think it could be done... I LOVE to be proven wrong!

 

They actually make a bezel that is properly sized depending on which keyboard you use. I don't remember if it is smaller for the rubber backlit or bigger. But it sounds like you need the smaller bezel.

 

Oooh... thanks for that bit of info - I'm putting a rubber
KB on my Mk3, and after reading this, I looked and sure enough - just enough difference between the 2 to make putting that KB in place a total B!7CH!

mnem
THAT'S IT! *CRACK-FOOOOM!* I'm firin' up the torches!!!

 

TB - I figured that one out today... while cleaning the gunge out from under the KB in my Mk3. There are few parts of a computer NASTIER than the insides of a keyboard...

mnem
*Poke*SQWEEEEK!* Hmmmm... I wonder how long YOU'VE been living in my Toughbook...

 

Ooops.. Forgot to mention anything about the lenght/breadth/width of the keyboard...

YES...There are some differences there... Even between the keyboards that are "Built for the CF-29"... I was asked to get the part number off the "hard plastic chicklet style" (Jeeeeez I wish we had common names like KB1, KB2, KB3, etc.) that I installed on my first CF-29... I will get to that in a few days. The width/length/etc is shorther than the stock black NON-illuminated keyboard.....

 

the keyboards for the 29 from panasonic are as follows.

standard kb. N2ABZJ000033
rubberized kb, N2ABZY000023
emissive kb, (chicklet style) i believe is N2ABZY000013

 

Thanks for th beta!

 

Eh, the emissive is the N2ABZJ000071, not 13