How Retro Ranger blows out a Tandy 102 keyboard with BLOWZER mid-repair
Halfway through bringing a 1980s Tandy TRS-80 Model 102 back to life, Jeff of Retro Ranger picks up the BLOWZER X6 and blows the dust out of the keyboard and board while the machine is apart, before reassembling it and getting a working keyboard.
Septandy on the Retro Ranger bench
Retro Ranger is Jeff's retro computing channel, and September is Septandy: a month of Tandy and RadioShack machines. This is part two of his repair of a TRS-80 Model 102, the slim 1980s portable with a full keyboard and a built-in LCD. This one picks up with the machine in pieces on his blue repair mat, shot from above with a small shop camera in the corner.
A repair, one step at a time
Jeff works the way his viewers like it, talking through every step. He pulls a capacitor, checks it on his DE-5000 meter with homemade Kelvin clips and decides it's fine. The new battery is locked in. He sprays DeoxIT D5 into the contrast control and the power switch. Then he finds the real problem: a connector pushed so far out of its socket that he can see the blue insulation sticking out. He presses it back home until the blue disappears. "That's money."
"My little hand blower"
With the case open and the keyboard out, there's one more job before it all goes back together. "While we've got it off, I'm going to use my little hand blower," he says, reaching across the bench for the BLOWZER X6. The barrel with its logo passes right through the overhead shot.
"This is the Sabrent one," he tells viewers, mentioning he has already made a separate video about it, and warns that it's going to be loud for a moment. In the corner camera he holds the keyboard assembly up and works a long nozzle across it, then over the board, blowing out the dust that has settled into a machine built in the 1980s. The whole thing takes about twenty-five seconds.
His verdict comes as he puts it down: "Great great great device, love it love it love it." Then it's back to the cases and the ribbon cables.
The keyboard lives
Reassembly is the hard part. The LCD and power ribbon cables have to be fed in before the board goes down, a plastic tab sticks out where it shouldn't, and one whole side of the case refuses to sit flat until Jeff spots his mistake. He wears an ESD strap around his ankle, wipes the inside of the LCD window and snaps the case together for a test before the screws go in.
Then the moment the episode is named for. He powers it up, types, and the text appears: the keyboard works. Four screws, the battery cover and the ROM cover later, the 102 is back in action and headed for his eBay store.
Why it matters if you restore old machines
Vintage computers come out of attics and closets full of dust, and a repair is the best time to deal with it: the keyboard is out, the board is bare and nothing is powered. Jeff's habit is the one to copy. Clear the dust while everything is open, before the case closes on it for another decade. A cordless duster with five interchangeable nozzles and three modes lives within arm's reach on the bench, and a long nozzle gets between keys without touching fragile parts. As Jeff signs off: "Remember, you don't have to live it to learn it."
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Questions readers ask
How do you clean the dust out of a vintage computer keyboard?
Do it while the machine is apart, as Jeff does: hold the keyboard assembly and blow the dust out from between the keys and off the board with short bursts, then reassemble.
Is an electric air duster safe to use on old electronics?
Used sensibly, yes. Start on a lower mode, keep the nozzle a little away from fragile parts and ribbon cables, power the device off first and blow the dust away from you.
How strong is the BLOWZER X6?
Up to 45 m/s of airflow from a 130,000 RPM motor, with three modes: 40K, 80K and 130K RPM, and five interchangeable nozzles.