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Hello everyone
You can fast forward to the bold numbers and pics is you just want to skip the theory and see how its done 
We all know that the Eee's keyboard isnt the greatest, it has is weeknesses, one being that it often ends up being almost non-responsive when you hit the keys.
But now i have a simple and easy way to make your keybard more responsive and maybe even decrease the CPU temperature by a small bit (only 0.5-1 degree C, dont expect miricals)
One thing i ould like to add is that this will NOT void you warranty, the end result will feel as good as any high end keyboard and you should be able to do this on any Eee 701/900/901/1000 any should be able to do this.
Let me explain why i am doing this:
In the past when ive been typing long pieces of text (more than 5 lines) ive had to double check my work to check for missing characters, in every 2-5 words there was often missing a character, and being a bit of a heavy poster this really bugs me, so i desided to try and improve on my keyboard, and here we are.
In keeping with the spirit of this thread from the Tips and Tricks department:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=34824
Ive been trying to make my keyboard more responsive, with regular clear tape, electrical tape, masking tape omung others, but i found that the most effctive method was using electrical tape, but it had and unlucky side effect, the temperature of my CPU rose to 65-67 degres C (with my Eee running at 60-61 degres normally), but then i aborted and pulled out the tape emidiately in fear of a total meltdown.
But when reading the thread mentioned above once again i noticed this guys reply:
Hela wrote:
i've taken an alluminum paper (that one for kitchen)
i fold it three times and cutted following the shape of the keyboard (so a rectangle) and simply put it under the keyboard
it needed only cutting where there's the connector (beetween the space bar and alt button).
And thinking about it, it made sence!
We have several good heat conductors, with copper being one of the best, only surpassed by diamond, but not far behind we have aluminum, and regular Kitchen foil is made of Aluminium, and the Eee's CPU heatsink, of which the keyboard is a part, is also made of aluminium, which means that regular kitchen foil would transmit heat just as well as the heatsink.
While masking tape, which is made of paper, and Electrical tape, which is made of plastic/rubber, both have poor abilities to transmit heat.
Paper is in fact used to insulate houses, and plastic/rubber is used to insulate power cables amung other things, so using any of these might threat to overheat ones Eee. Not good.
So for obvious reasons i desided to use kitchen foil, just like Hela.
Based on this Fysics leason lets get on to the Mod it self.
Firstly i measured the thickness of the Electrical tape, which was the most effective solution apart from the overheating issue.
It was 0.12mm thick, not much but enough for this purpose.
Next i measured the thickness of regular Kitchen foil, i expected it being 0.5mm, but in fact its only 0.009-0.01mm thick, incredible when you remember that that foil was once a 20cm thick slab of Aluminium.
So with so simple in-head mathamatics i claculated that i needed 12 layers of Kithchen foil to get the same thickness as the Electrical tape, but i desided to go with 10 layers since its easier to remember.
With this knowledge in mind heres how you do it, i will be adding pictures later, since im just to tirred at this moment.
1. make sure that you have the following:
A roll of Kitchen foil
A hard, level and clean surface to work on
A sharp knife, hobby knife or a razorblade, anything will do as long as it can slice through the foil
A ruller or other straight piece of material
A small flathead screwdriver or needle to slot the keyboard pins out of the way
and lastly you need and Eee, you cant do this without it 
2. Shut your Eee down, remove the battery and remove the keyboard as shown in this thread: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=6036
3. Roll out the kitchen foil so that you have a square, you will need to keep this square at all times. 
4. Roll out double the length of Kitchen foil as before.
5. Fold the kitchen foil back to roughly the same size as your initial square. You know have two layers.
6. Repeat the last step untill you have 10 or 12 layers, or anything in between, you chose how many layers.
7. After achieving the desired amount of layers, now place you keyboard on the foil with the keys up. 
8. With a fair amount of on the keyboard, in order to keep it in place, trace the edges of the keyboard with you sharp object/knife, but be VERY carefull around the ribbon since one cut might render your keyboard useless.
9. Remove your keyboard from the foil and trace your marking once again using your ruler, or straight object, to make sure that the lines are straight. 
10. With a high amount of force on the ruler, to keep the foil in place, begin to cut the layers of foil all the way through, you will have to press hard with your blade to achieve this since you are after all cuttin through metal, do a few passes on each line to make sure that youve cut all the way through.
11. Now gently release the pieces of foil that youve just cut, from the sorounding foil, but be carefull since any uncut areas will casue a rip in the foil.
12. With the cutout foil in front of you discard the rest, you wont be needing it any more. 
13. Sit down and relax for a moment and admire your work for a moment, and dont be jinxed by this being the 13th step
14. Look at your Eee and remember where the whole for the keyboard connector is located.
15. Place one of the pieces of foil in the keyboard area, and trace the edge of the whole for the connector with your finger, you should se a visible edge forming.
16. Place the marked piece of foil ontop on the other and align them so that their all excactly on top of each other.
17. Cut along the edges that youve just created, keep preasure on the stack to keep the pieces aligned.
18. With this whole now cut, you can now place all of the foil pieces into your Eee's keyboard area.
19. Reconnect your keybaord and your done, the pins that hold the keyboard in place should slot in as normal, if not you can ease them out with a needle.
20. Slot your battery back inn, power up your Eee and try your new and very responsive keyboard out.
As a final remark i would like to point out that i have done some tests on this before posting, im not stupid
After instaling the foil myself i found that my Eee was acttually running cooler than normal, it normally lies at 60-61 degres C, with the foil inn it runs at 58-60 degres C, not much of a difference but enough to open my eyes.
This might be due to the keyboard not fitting to well in the first place, but with the foil in place it fills any gaps that would have been there before, thereby creating a slightly more effective heatsink, at least thats just the theory.
So now any Type-O's are not due to my keyboard, more likely to be my lack of language and typing skills 
Enjoy 
Last edited by coninsan (2008-08-08 8:04:38 am)
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Thanks coninsan!
) : http://www.yooouuutuuube.com/v/?rows=18 … tartZoom=1Offline
interesting. waiting for the pictures.
- Mods - 2gb of ram | Black Keyboard from Fido | Samsung 80gb HS082HBOffline
great info. thanks.
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There, the guide has now been updated and the pictures loaded.
Enjoy
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Your all welcome, im only glad that i could help
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Wow, I might be taking some time this weekend to try this... Looks easy and not strictly voiding my warranty 
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ok, So I have completed this mod and I must say it's very nice. The keyboard feels less "soft" and seems much more responsive. No comment on the heat as of yet... Let's wait for a while as I leave it running. One thing I would like to say however, is it's good if you make more than the 10-12 layers (eg; 14-16 layers) so if you stuff a couple up (as I did) you have some factor for that error.
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Just a thought, in order to avoid cutting off the connector/ribbon of your keyboard, couldn't you use a marker, pen, or some other writing utensil that would show up on foil instead of using a knife? With enough force, a pen could probably cut through aluminum foil anyways... I'm just thinking of a way to keep people from messing up their keyboards.
Other then that, good job coninsan. That was a very good, informational guide (it's idiot proof! ) This will be the first "mod" my Eee is going to have!
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I used a pen to mark it
Forgot to mention it before though.
After about an hour of running I can conclude that it has indeed assisted with the cooling. My EEE sat on 57 degrees for ages until it eventually climbed to a comfortable maximum of 60. This was on native fan speed (34%) and seeing as I usually run it at +70% this is an excellent result.
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Im a very glad to hear that someone, Polarbear in this case, has done this mod and succeded with the same good rsults as i did, which means that my results wasnt a fluke accurance
These good results should also encourage others thinking about doing this, You will get a good result from this mod, and you Wont void you warranty, so its more of a safe mod, no soldering to internal components needed lol
But do remember to remove the foil if you plan on sending your Eee back for repairs
Only thing we need now is for some 701, 901 and 1000 owners to confirm that it works for them also, which would make this a universal mod, for all models.
Oh i almost forgot to ask, Polarbear, which model is your Eee?
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I've a question and some observations ....
Question first: what is the principle by which adding a 0.12 mm thick padding beneath the keyboard it becomes more reactive ?
Observations:
The heat sink above the components and the keyboard have holes to let some (but not much) hot air come trough the keyboard ... blocking these holes will not help heat sink capabilities of eeepc.
Aluminum is a good heat conductor but the surcafe contact between 2 good condunctors is generally not a good conductor (and has a thermal resistance that is generally reduced by the use of a feat conducting paste) ... I'm pretty much sure that 10 such junctions would pretty much void anything good done by the conductor itself.
So over all I thinks that in terms of heat dissipation this mode makes barely any difference.
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coninsan wrote:
Next i measured the thickness of regular Kitchen foil, i expected it being 0.5mm, but in fact its only 0.009-0.01mm thick, incredible when you remember that that foil was once a 20cm thick slab of Aluminium.
I just wanted to say that the block is not 20cm think, but normally about 14ft length, 5ft width and 18inches thick and finally produces 8 miles of aluminium foil!
I got my aluminium foil out and having a go - mine is terrible at leaving the odd letters out when i use the keyboard!!! will post results soon
Check out this video for the manufacturing process! i love 'How its made' (a true geek)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W4Ca7x7Z7s
nat
Last edited by Roboteernat (2008-08-10 6:59:37 am)
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louigi600 wrote:
I've a question and some observations ....
Question first: what is the principle by which adding a 0.12 mm thick padding beneath the keyboard it becomes more reactive ?
Observations:
The heat sink above the components and the keyboard have holes to let some (but not much) hot air come trough the keyboard ... blocking these holes will not help heat sink capabilities of eeepc.
Aluminum is a good heat conductor but the surcafe contact between 2 good condunctors is generally not a good conductor (and has a thermal resistance that is generally reduced by the use of a feat conducting paste) ... I'm pretty much sure that 10 such junctions would pretty much void anything good done by the conductor itself.
So over all I thinks that in terms of heat dissipation this mode makes barely any difference.
From stock, the keyboard doesnt fit just right, it is after all a cheap machine, and this loose fit makes the keyboard not respond some times - if you hit a key it wont react one or multiple times, this is due to the fact that the keyboard flexes up and down when you hit the keys, and adding these 0.1-0.14mm of padding or extra material eliminates the flexing and thus the keys react very time you hit the keys.
And if you take the keyboard off and examine those whole you will see that all of those whole have a function except for two, those wholes gains you acces to either screws or connectors, so i am pretty shure that the have noting to do with cooling and this is because:
The heatsink and keyboard acts as a Passive heatsink (which cools by having a big surface area that heat can radiate of off, therev=by cooling the component its connected to), and to many peoples disbelief the fan has nothing to do with the cooling of the CPU, the fan is there to cool the components on the underside of the motherboard the Ram, SSD and Wifi, and not the CPU, this becomes evident when you look at how snug the motherboard fis inside the case, it has only a mm clearence around the edges, not enough space for air to surculate.
Only the 901 and 1000 was designed with a whole for air to surculate under the heatsink, and yes i would recommend that you do cut some wholes in the Foil layers in order to get the air surculating, but the 701 and 900 has no such thing and their CPU heatsinks are passive.
Also the reason why some of us are experiencing and improve in cooling is bacause the screw and connector wholes remove surface area, maybe as much as 4-5 square cm, that could otherwise be cooling the CPU, but by introducing and additional layer of heatsin and covering those wholes gives the heatsink a bigger surface area therby increasing its effectiveness enough to cut a degree off the max temperature.
And for the heatconductivity between layers, it is true that one layer of aluminium would be better than having ten layers, but using one layer would only improve by 4-5% which ends up at one tenth of a degree, unless you have air trapped between the layers which would act as an insulator, but with there being constant preasure on the foil there is no way that there could that much air trapped between the layers.
Other than air there is nly one reason why one layer would be better than several, and that is becasue Aluminium is a reactive metal, it reacts with the air around it to form a layer of Aluminiumoxide that protects the metal from further exposure to the oxygen in the air, this layer is less heatconductive than the aluminium it self, and with there being 10 layers of foil there is also 20 layers of Aluminiumoxid but each layer is only a thousanth of a milimeter thick so all in all it only decreases efficiancy by 0.002% which is a miniscule amount, not even enough to care for, heatconductivity loss between the layers of material decreases efficiancy by far more with its 4-5%.
But if you dont believe me, do it your way, cut wholes in the foil, use one layer instead of ten, i wont stop, it is ofcourse your PC and you chose what to do with it.
And i am not here to try and educate people in my belives and knowledge, i am just trying to show people a way of improving the usability of their Eee's, there being more efficiant ways to do this i am sure, yet this is a easy way to do this, and with only using household apliances it should be availible for everyone to do.
Last edited by coninsan (2008-08-10 7:06:05 am)
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Roboteernat wrote:
coninsan wrote:
Next i measured the thickness of regular Kitchen foil, i expected it being 0.5mm, but in fact its only 0.009-0.01mm thick, incredible when you remember that that foil was once a 20cm thick slab of Aluminium.
I just wanted to say that the block is not 20cm think, but normally about 14ft length, 5ft width and 18inches thick and finally produces 8 miles of aluminium foil!
Check out this video for the manufacturing process! i love 'How its made' (a true geek)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W4Ca7x7Z7s
nat
The slap being more than 45cm thick (18inches*2.54=45.72cm) only makes it mre incredible to think of, and to think that we take normal Kitchen foil for granted, when it is in fact a feat of human engineering in it self
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First, thank you very much for the detailed information and it seams a great idea! However, I did read the whole post as I was trying to figure out what was the reason for the problem in the first place so that I ca appreciate the solution. Why was the keyboard not responsive in the first place? I never faced that on my Eee! The post implies that heat is causing this so does that means that the keyboard would be responsive when Eee is cooled? also what made you think to put Electrical tape under the keyboard at the begining when you were trying to solve your problem? Electrical Tape does not make the Machine cooler! 
now sorry if it seams that I missed the whole point or something but I am just trying to understand.
Thanks Mate
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HeartBeat wrote:
First, thank you very much for the detailed information and it seams a great idea! However, I did read the whole post as I was trying to figure out what was the reason for the problem in the first place so that I ca appreciate the solution. Why was the keyboard not responsive in the first place? I never faced that on my Eee! The post implies that heat is causing this so does that means that the keyboard would be responsive when Eee is cooled? also what made you think to put Electrical tape under the keyboard at the begining when you were trying to solve your problem? Electrical Tape does not make the Machine cooler!
Thanks Mate
To make a quick summary of the problem, on some of the Eee's sold the keyboard doesnt respond very well, my Eee was one of them so i desided to fix it and came up with this, this can be caused by the build quality or the keyboard not fitting quite right, but this method fixed it for me.
Fr one i only tried out electrical tape to se if it would do the job, but the reason why it was a bad idea is because it insulates to well, this could fataly overheat the Eee so i switched to Aluminium foil instead since it disipates heat much better.
And just to make it clear, i was not trying to make my machine cooler, i was only trying to fix my keyboard, the heat diffence was just an added bonus
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So we are talking about a keyboard that is not fitting well and affecting responsiveness!
Usually there is a kind of sticky double sided clear tape under the keyboard that will eventually be ruined every time you take off your keyboard. May be that was the reason!
However, you came up with great cooling solution
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Yes you are right, but if you have a Eee with a perfectly working keyboard just be glad that you have it, since you wont have to tinker with it to get the keyboard responding
There wasnt any sticky tape under my keyboard when i got it, so maybe the lack of it could be causing to lack of respons, but after the scare i got with the elctrical tape i wont be putting anything but Kapton tape inside it, but not under the keyboard
This is a solution to a problem that not everyone are experiencing, but those who have it can now solve it pretty simple.
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I dont see any double sided tape under my keyboard.. and I don't think it ever exist. I've opended up my eee countless times and never see anything as such.
Have anyone's eee comes with this double sided tape(clear) by default??
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farsight wrote:
I dont see any double sided tape under my keyboard.. and I don't think it ever exist. I've opended up my eee countless times and never see anything as such.
Have anyone's eee comes with this double sided tape(clear) by default??
Mine has it and if you dont believe me I can show you a picture
It is a new generation probably and I got it directly from Hong Kong. Not only this but I found that evern the memory chip and some empty spaces where covered by a black insolation tape. check picture 2 and picture 6 in my post http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=39102
I have not seen anybody else having these also!
I think Asus figured few things out and they are doing these minor final neat touches!
Last edited by HeartBeat (2008-08-10 10:08:03 am)
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Well done. I look forward to trying this as my A key has always been dodgy and my right shft key is pretty much useless for normal typing now. Thanks.
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I've had mixed results. My A key seems to be perfect now, but my right shift key doesn't seem any different. It's given me hope though so I'll keep playing aroud with it, and I've now got a working A key, so thanks.
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Lots of good feedback ... ill give this a go tomorrow.
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