I now own a computer I've been wanting since the '80s for no reason other than it's as utterly cheap in price and quality as a fully functional home computer could get: A Timex Sinclair 1000. The picture quality is delightfully crappy. Unfortunately, half the keyboard doesn't work, which probably means its super-cheap ribbon cable kinked & broke.
It's so tiny that my 2007 netbook has a larger footprint.
On the membrane keyboard, it's definitely something you don't want to do a lot of typing on, with barely any feedback at all. I keep expecting it to beep like a microwave's keypad. But to be honest, the keys that work feel better than any smartphone's on-screen keyboard I've ever touched.
Oh, wow, fantastic ideas if I can't repair the membrane keyboard, made all the better by the fact that I work next to an indy Radio Shack dealer.
A DIY ZX81 Keyboard Period Document: http://www.zx81keyboardadventure.com/2018/06/a-diy-zx81-keyboard-period-document.html
This both complicates things and explains why so few keys worked. Both ribbons were almost completely separated at the connector, & the bits still clinging on snapped right off while carefully lifting the board out. Bits of keyboard are still in both connectors.
@arielmt Wow, I guess age really embrittled it, huh?
@arielmt I guess the tensile stress from the kinking exacerbated it. o:
@pettancow Kinda looks that way. What I find most surprising is that the entire rest of the ribbon is in excellent condition for its age, and that there isn't any heat-related aging anywhere along its length, let alone where it rested directly on top of the chips.