Disgusting Discovery of the Day!

I spent the better part of an afternoon assembling the rest of my CF-28 Emissive keyboards. I made a score about two years ago with a police department out west... I bought a box of 50+ keyboards sight unseen... I just knew they weren't the stock white (or off-white) keyboards... I figured that I couldn't lose.

In the box were 54 Emissive keyboards and two or three rubber keyboards. About half the emissive keyboards were either new in the plastic or used very little. About a 2/3 of the remaining had one or maybe two keys missing. Easy fixes! The rest had several keys missing.

My shop literally has piles of Toughbook parts and I decided I really (finally) needed to start cleaning up and getting organized. I had been working on easy keyboards every now and then as I have them on ebay. But instead of moving the pile... I decided to fix them all, clean them, disinfect them and pre-wrap them in bubble-wrap for shipping...

Everyone knows that stuff falls down in between the keyboard keys... But some of this stuff is DISGUSTING! Everyone is used to the dust... But how about hairs (Of EVERY sort!)... seeds, pollen, bugs, more bugs, several thick gooey gelatinous oozy gross types of crud... Some you could tell was coffee, soda, hot chocolate, Gatorade, etc... Other fluids... I don't even want to try to guess what they were. Dust, powders of all colors... Yes.. White powder too... But I think that was from Powdered Donuts... Not drugs. There was actually more blood than you would think. Apparently there have been a few cops injured on the job and then went about typing in info... Talk about dedication! I'm sure every keyboard has/had a story.

I used to buy CF-28s from these guys too. I can only assume that when a key popped off.. They just replaced the whole keyboard. (DUH!) But this group also used to have both types of rubber keyboards on theirs as well as CF-30 type emissive keyboards. I would rarely see a standard keyboard. If I did... It was spotless.

By the way... These things are pretty easy to clean and get looking new again. I use my "special cleaner" to pretty much soak the keys and underneath... Let it sit for a few minutes... The carefully "woolly" or scrub/buff the keys with a heavy duty paper towel being VERY careful NOT to tear of any keys. You'd be surprised how even the cleanest keyboards will turn your white towel almost black! Then I take the the air nozzle and blow in between the keys working from front to back and blow out the [now] gooey stuff in between the keys. Then I go back and do the same thing with the special cleaner about 2-3 more times, blowing it out each time. Then I top it off by wiping the entire top and bottom with alcohol. This will remove just about anything that the other cleaner wouldn't take off.

I now have 19 CF-28 Emissive Keyboards; Six new or new looking (I couldn't tell) CF-28 Emissive keyboards. Six others in excellent condition and seven more in great or good condition. I also have about 4-5 basket case type keyboards... They are yours if you pay postage! The first contributing forum member gets as many as they want... (Ebay trolls.. Move along!) I may save one just to see if there is any way to make it work with the CF-29/30... Though I doubt there will be... Unless jumper cable are used. (As in going to your car battery!)

So... What gross, disgusting things have you dealt with in the past week/month?

 

I think I would be interested in two of the great to good keyboards - one for the CF-28 I have, one spare because I think I need another CF-28 for my son as I have become addicted to this machine since building it from scratch and am having problems with him playing in my sandbox. Send me a PM if you could. I am thrilled with the HDD I received from you!

Thanks!

 

I don't realy think is free
It took five minutes of my time to read the long post and get to the good part lol


Alex

 

Rick, I will take two of the best ones if I could. Also, do you have any of the rubber ones left (a good one?) Pm me with the costs. Thanks!

 

Yeah! Really used Kb's! Nice!

What is a 'basket case type keyboard' ?

And I will also take 1 for my cf-29 and one for the cf-30 I'm hunting for...coz I think it's better than my bl-rubber-kb But plz without blood and bones...

 

I would love to try a rubber keyboard sometime. Let me know if you run across one in good conition sometime for my 30.

 

any cf-18 emissive? or rubber?

 

all anyone has to do is flip a random keyboard at an office desk upside down, give it a good shake... eeeeeew.

 

Yea your right, it's the dryed up bodily fluids that doesn't come out that's bad!

 

I had a laptop come in with a bullet hole in it recently: http://toughbooktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=223

 

Rick , i'd like to have one of the best also if you've any left please, jst shoot me a msg .. Also, Silver Trooper , i do have a rubber key board in great shape if you want , same deal jst pay the shipping or Rick if you have any use for it we could trade.. Leon

 

I'll trade you for a rubber one if it is in good shape without worn white areas...

EDIT - Actually I'll swap you a NEW emissive keyboard for a rubber keyboard if in good shape. BUT... Remember... You need the inverter and sensor... Do you have them? I do not...

 

The sensor yes , inverter not sure but i think so ,this rubber k/b would light and i could turn it up an down if memory serves or off an on ,cant recall , the conf; showed that my mk 3 came with emissive chicklet but i dont know what all was changed b-4 i got it .
Yes all white area,s are good i,m looking at it now. Rick how can i know if i have the inverter? i remember reading something about a 3rd ribbon is that it?

 

If you open the port cover on the bottom (4 small screws) you can open it up and see if you have a little PC board roughly shaped like Texas. If you do... It should work.

Rick

 

Yep the panhandle is there for sure but my texas is missing Houston, Corpus Christy and Brownsville. That sound about right, also i pulled the keyboard there is a 3rd slot.

I've never seen a new rubber keyboard but this has got to be close it looks perfect to me.

 

Let's go to PM...

 

Rick i typed on this k/b when i 1st got this 28 and i know you're aware it takes more finger pressure,, right,, Sure your more into the pure ruggedness of it. let me know how & where you'd like it shipped

 

PM sent... Yes I know... It is not for me but someone else's...