HP-29C Key has no 'click'?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(04-02-2022 01:08 PM)Tom Flatterhand Wrote:  But no one has yet given a hint whether the button has gone defective by excessive use or whether this can also happen once?

That's very hard to tell without doing an "autopsy" of the calculator. I don't know how many calculators of the Woodstock series I have (between 20 and 30 I guess), and among them there is not a single one which has the kind of single-key problem that you describe. Some of them were used a lot (by their looks at least) and still all keys feel the same. One has a keyboard that is totally "stiff", but this is due to heavy corrosion - as if the calculator had been dropped into salt water some time.

Anyway, I can't imagine that from all keys the minus sign sees the most usage. "Zero" or "Enter" must get many more keypresses (probably someone has done a statistics on that) so these should be the first to fail if all were equal at time of manufacture. Maybe someting heavy dropped on the calculator and hit the minus key, or if got squeezed between other items inside a briefcase.

Personally, I would not attempt to repair that key as the calculator is still fully functional. In my experience, once that you take apart the keyboard it will never be as before. You may solve one problem but in change you get two others.

Regards
Max