Difficulty

Very easy

Steps

4

Time Required

                          20 minutes

Sections

1

  • Toy Piano Bontempi Music Star Unresponsive Middle Keys
  • 4 steps

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  • BackToy Piano

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Introduction

After a quick tear down it was an evident mechanical fault.

It was easily fixed with a piece of scrap wood.

Think twice before throwing away broken toys, they’re often cheap … OK … but:

  • they are usually made with tons of un-recyclable plastic,they are more easy to repair than you may think,you’ll gain large amount of points among your kind.

What you need

Step 1

              The symptoms
  • Only the keys at the extremity are working.

Only the keys at the extremity are working.

1024

Step 2

              Tear down time!
  • 13 screws: they’re all the same size, so you can avoid taking note of their position.
  • Note that the screws in the middle are at the bottom of a 2 cm deep hole. You will need a relatively thin and long screwdriver, as the one in the picture.
  • There is a smaller screw holding the battery cover. You can just ignore it.
  • In the lower part of the picture you see a different screw that I added to hold in place the shim, as explained in the next step. (You can avoid using this screw by making a more precise shim or just using some glue).

13 screws: they’re all the same size, so you can avoid taking note of their position.

Note that the screws in the middle are at the bottom of a 2 cm deep hole. You will need a relatively thin and long screwdriver, as the one in the picture.

There is a smaller screw holding the battery cover. You can just ignore it.

In the lower part of the picture you see a different screw that I added to hold in place the shim, as explained in the next step. (You can avoid using this screw by making a more precise shim or just using some glue).

Step 3

              The Fix
  • So the fix is really simple.
  • The idea is to add a shim between the stripe containing the keys buttons and the plastic pink supports on the bottom.
  • For some reason there is a 7mm gap between the two parts, allowing the keys in the middle to easily bend the circuit stripe, absorbing the finger pressure needed to activate the buttons.
  • I happened to a have a 5mm thick wood scrape, leaving 2mm of slack. I think that a whole 7mm shim would make the key too stiff.
  • The scrape shim I found was only 25cm long and the circuit stripe is about 30cm. So maybe a longer shim would be better.
  • There are some standoffs at the side of the pink plastic supports. So if your shim is larger than 17.5 cm be prepared to cut some hole to the side of the shim to make place for this standoffs.

So the fix is really simple.

The idea is to add a shim between the stripe containing the keys buttons and the plastic pink supports on the bottom.

For some reason there is a 7mm gap between the two parts, allowing the keys in the middle to easily bend the circuit stripe, absorbing the finger pressure needed to activate the buttons.

I happened to a have a 5mm thick wood scrape, leaving 2mm of slack. I think that a whole 7mm shim would make the key too stiff.

The scrape shim I found was only 25cm long and the circuit stripe is about 30cm. So maybe a longer shim would be better.

There are some standoffs at the side of the pink plastic supports. So if your shim is larger than 17.5 cm be prepared to cut some hole to the side of the shim to make place for this standoffs.

Step 4

              Quality Control
  • QC passed!

QC passed!

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Cancel: I did not complete this guide.

Author

                                      with 1 other contributor 


                    pliski

Member since: 02/28/2022

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