Thread by @swartz_de

My friends, a thread! I managed to bag a #casio #fa10 with case, a #pb700 and 2 RAM modules from a friendly chap in Switzerland. The unit was not in the best condition when it arrived. 1/8 #ポケコン

I did the case cleanup first, because easiest. It was mostly dirty & the metal parts very rusty with quite a bit of pitting. I used car cockpit cleaner to scrub the case & removed the rust with a wire brush. 2/8 #ポケコン

After polishing it doesn't look half bad. The metal parts are still pitted, but other than grinding off a lot of material, I don't see how to get rid of that. Next on the list, the #fa10 itself. Amazingly, there was no corrosion and the NiCd is ok! 3/8 #ポケコン

And last, the #PB700. The battery compartment and RAM slots showed no corrosion, but someone had managed to get something behind the LCD window. This sadly meant I had to open the unit. I normally love opening Pocket Computers, but not the PB-700 / 770. 4/8 #ポケコン

Opening the case of the unit is easy. Remove 1 screw in the RAM compartment & pry the case apart with a spudger. Now it gets fun. There are 3 PCBs, the mainboard on the bottom. LCD daughter board(in blue) & keyboard pcb in the top half. That's what I had to remove. 5/8 #ポケコン

To do that, remove 3 screws on the LCD pcb, & another 13 on the keyboard pcb, carefully! pull the PCB/ribbon cable assembly from beneath two plastic guides. This step can go horribly wrong, you're juggling with 4 ribbon connectors at the same time... 6/8 #ポケコン

...as well as trying not to screw up the multipart keyboard assembly or rip off the speaker. If you manage to get everything out, pop out the aluminium screen mask & display window, clean everything and put it all back together. Easy. 😑
Well, it seems to work. 😊
7/8 #ポケコン

Taking the PB-700 apart isn't an easy task, and I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it unless you absolutely have to. That said, I'm extremely happy that I got a working FA-10 relatively cheap. The case, PB-700 and the rest was icing on the cake. 8/8 #ポケコン

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