Dear All,

I have received today a TI1700 that from the pics had chances to be in working conditions.

These are quite rare to be found in working conditions, and I have one that is fully working, so that his was purchased mainly as donor for parts.


I also had another non working unit which I was trying to restore a couple of years ago, and has been useful for learning how to open it and make some tests.

Anyway, I have inserted the batteries in this newer unit and it came back to life. However, only few keys were responsive e no operation could be performed.

I decided to open it and try some basic de-oxidation. Battery compartment was clean, and overall I found no signs of corrosion.
However, once reassambled, I was only able to get a steady "0"
and randomly, some numbers as shown in pictures by pressing the keys.

There are two set of pics, the first set belongs to the old unit, which I have pictired to show the components.

Basically there is a main unit, a zebra connector and the keyboard.
The keyboard flat goes under the zebra and is connected to the back of the module thanks to the zebra.

This zebra is very damaged and also the battery + lead does not make contact anymore with the back of the keyboard, which is why I have soldered the yellow cable.

I'm looking for suggestion, if anyone has ever done this before

I was thinking to replace the zebra with half of a zebra connector from a HP-41, would it work ?

Would it be possible to solder some thin cables from the kayboiard foil to the module without melting the keyboard ??

Secondly, would you suggest to drill the rivets and separate the sheets that make up the keyboard and do some seriuos cleaning ?

Thank you very much for any help, Alberto


Set 1 (older unit):


















Set 2 (newer unit):

ciao a tutti,

I have made a little step further.

Since this unit was non working, I have decided to open up the keyboard and see if a restoration was possible.

I have several pics, so if anyone is interested just write me and I'll be happy to send those to you.

I have ordered a silver pen which is conductive and is usually used for rework on flexible pcbs, to restore the contacts and eventually rebuild the zebra that connect both pieces.

Any suggestion, as always, is welcome !

Take care Alberto