Disassembling a FW keyboard

[suejester]

Hello fellow fingerworks fans,

I had posted an issue under suejester45 about a bad diagnostic I had been receiving (affecting the left side of the keyboard). I had tried the suggestion the moderated proposed, and that worked well. However the same issue is occuring and the suggestion is not always working, and it seems like I am losing the left side more frequently. Once again I have had to put aside my FW keyboard and use the old fashioned keyboard.

There was another suggestion to check the sodering, which it looks like I will need to do that. My question is does anyone have some good advice of the best way to disassemble and reassemble the keyboard. I know that foamy pad on the back can be a bit tricky. I don't want to screw this up considering there aren't many FWKB around anymore.

Thanks!
Suejester

BTW I am so glad this forum is back and alive!

[nomaded]

Sorry, I don't have any hints on disassembling the TouchStream. But one thing to keep in mind, in all the years I have owned my FingerWorks devices, when the weather changes, the static fields on the surface of the device seem to change a bit. I find that I need to do the 5x hand-tap more often, or just completely unplugging the device. The static on the surface will affect the diagnostics. Another idea is to try to keep the surface as clean as possible - oily build up will cause it to not respond as well to gestures/typing, but it shouldn't affect the diagnostics.

[The00Dustin]

I'm not sure how helpful this post will be, but here are some links that might be relevant:

The first is from Minox in helping someone troubleshoot, I link to it because the guy seemed to know what he was talking about:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=627&p=2675&hilit=take+apart#p2675
Incidentally, from the beginning that post is about left half problems.

The second is from a user who did open a Touchstream, and it only links to the original post (which is in the original fan forum, and may eventually be deprecated):
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=269&hilit=take+apart

The third is that user's original post on the new forum (in case the original post in the original fan forum gets deprecated):
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=268&p=1318#p1318

Sorry none of them have pictures or step-by-steps, but good luck if you do indeed require disassembly. If you are capable, posting a writeup could certainly be helpful to other users. Also, for the record, you may want to search some more, I really think I saw some disassembly pictures at some point.

[TorbenGB]

(Just a quick note: the old forum won't be removed, it will stay in place indefinitely.)

[Minox]

The foam pads do not need to be removed... The small clips break VERY easily, managed to open some igestures and not break any clips a few times. On top of that, there is crazy(r) glue holding the case parts together by the ribbon cable and the USB cord. Here is a good take apart write up: http://jan.rychter.com/fingerworks-touchstream-kbd/

- Minox

[suejester]

Thank you everybody who has provided some suggestions, I will in the future give them a try and report back with the outcome along with a step by step of what I did.

[TorbenGB]

Hello Sue, can you share any news about this with us? We're curious!