IBM Displaywriter Model F Part No. 2684674

seebart · 29 Apr 2016, 18:20

DT wiki:

In 1982, IBM made a Model F keyboard available for the Displaywriter, marketing them as "low profile, ergonomic" alternatives to the original beam spring keyboards. It was available only in the 84-key, 96-character layout, and not the less common 82-key, 92-character layout. The Displaywriter Model F used the same two-stage risers as some of the terminal keyboards, and had an all-white key colour scheme.

I got this recently as part of a Model F mini haul. I have not seen this particular Model F here at DT. This one is in pretty good condition with a few dings on the case, very little dirt on the barrel. I have not seperated the plates at this point. The plate shows the exact same gunk as I had on my 3104 which is also from the same seller. All the flippers are intact from what I can tell.I'm not a fan of the ugly stickers on many of the keycaps but I thought since that's how it came I'll leave them on for now. The IBM badge still has the transparent foil on it. The keycaps are regular one piece IBM Model F caps. This is a keeper.

- 52cm wide
- 22cm deep
- 4cm tall at the back (6cm with extended feet)
- 2cm at the front
- weighs 3508 gramms

seebart · 29 Apr 2016, 18:20

Reserved.

Chyros · 29 Apr 2016, 18:28

Fuck. That's excellent. The main block layout is much more modern, too, although the rest is rather terminal-weird. Very nice find!

So it's made in the UK, USA and Italy? xD

Touch_It · 29 Apr 2016, 18:29

Definitely a keeper. Layout-wise obviously not the best, but 100 percent usable. I love thinking of model f keyboards as low profile. Different times for sure. I wonder what people thought about beam spring vs model f back in the day. I can easily see people liking the "low profile" nature of the F better.

seebart · 29 Apr 2016, 18:32

Chyros wrote: ↑Fuck. That's excellent. The main block layout is much more modern, too, although the rest is rather terminal-weird. Very nice find!

So it's made in the UK, USA and Italy? xD

Yes quite international I guess. It's all terminal weirdness.

Touch_It wrote: ↑Definitely a keeper. Layout-wise obviously not the best, but 100 percent usable. I love thinking of model f keyboards as low profile. Different times for sure. I wonder what people thought about beam spring vs model f back in the day. I can easily see people liking the "low profile" nature of the F better.

They are actually pretty low profile. I bet IBM used that quite a bit in their marketing back then.

Chyros · 29 Apr 2016, 18:35

Keyboards before the 80s were taller than fullsize laptops are now. Early-to-mid 80s keyboards like this were low-profile for sure.

seebart · 29 Apr 2016, 18:44

Well if you considder this is from 1985 it's pretty low profile. Impossible to compare to today's stuff though.

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terrycherry · 29 Apr 2016, 19:24

Everything looks beautiful. You took the great variant of model F.
I love this transparent yellow PCB.
First to see the Italy made IBM keyboard!

seebart · 29 Apr 2016, 19:30

Hey thanks Terry, you know I have to take what I can get with these old rare ones.

XMIT · 29 Apr 2016, 19:44

For posterity, I'll post the key layout I use with my Displaywriter beam spring board. Mine has a different Enter key, and a latching Caps Lock key. I tend to use this with a Mac. I personally almost never use LShift.

The layout is very usable. It comes quite close to a TKL board with F-keys on the left, kind of like what I would want an AT Model F to be.

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seebart · 29 Apr 2016, 20:09

Yeah almost the same.

fohat · 29 Apr 2016, 21:02

The country of manufacture conundrum is amusing.

From the wear along one edge, it looks like the top shell is metal, but the shot of the leg looks different. Also, I have never seen legs like that.

seebart · 29 Apr 2016, 21:56

fohat wrote: ↑The country of manufacture conundrum is amusing.

My guess is that it was assembled in Italy with parts from the UK.

fohat wrote: ↑From the wear along one edge, it looks like the top shell is metal, but the shot of the leg looks different.

The top part of the case? Is thick plastic.

fohat wrote: ↑Also, I have never seen legs like that.

Me neither!

alh84001 · 01 May 2016, 01:24

So you got it. Nice to know it's someone here. Do you mind sharing what the accepted offer was?

I love that spacebar legend

snuci · 01 May 2016, 01:27

She's a beauty! Nice acquisition.

Mattr567 · 01 May 2016, 08:06

Wow! Thats awesome. Never seen such an early F.

Redmaus · 01 May 2016, 08:27

That one key, all alone by itself...

Really nice find btw. Was this the one with all the XT's and the 122 key?

alh84001 · 03 Sep 2016, 20:45

Mine arrived earlier this week

It was quite dirty, with one of the dirtiest keycaps I've seen. This is a pic after their bath with a dental tab. Ones in the back have been cleaned with isopropyl alcohol

However, it's insides were really clean. I just brushed off the dust, and decided not to touch anything else. There are just minor rusts spots here and there

This board is B I G. It's bigger than a bigfoot, and almost as big as F122. Here is the pic of the two for comparison. This is after the board has been cleaned and keycaps swapped around. This was one of the BS boards with easiest to remove keycaps, but yet with enough force to keep them in place. Also, there is still some dirt left on the case. It's more like someone pressed a black paint spray can for a millisecond and some of the paint particles fell on the board, it's engrained so hard.

Back plate is amazing (pic is terrible)

Some stickers, outside and inside

Controller is separate from the PCB. It uses the same 2x15 pin cables other model Fs use. I don't have a spare xwhatsit, but there is a chance that it might work. I will test this sooner or later.

My board has an achilles' heel

It prevents the leg from working at all. And the leg mechanism is really interesting. It's spring loaded, and quite different from other model F leg designs. I am a complete n00b when it comes to the matter, but would it be possible for me to take a mould from the non-broken leg clip, than cast some plastic and epoxy it to this stub? If yes, I would appreciate if anyone would do a bit of hand-holding and guide me through it. I've never done anything like that before.
In addition to that, a bit of paint is chipped on the right side of top casing. It would be nice to touch it up, but it's not that noticeable in general

Finally, all-white keycaps look really awesome. I don't know if this was a Europe only product, but I know I've seen only ones with German layout. Those all-white Ambras were Europe-only as well. In any case, if someone from Germany, some time in unforeseeable future, get's his hands on US or UK one, and would like a German keycap set, I'm always willing to trade

Chyros · 03 Sep 2016, 21:03

Made in ITALY? Oo

seebart · 04 Sep 2016, 00:18

As you might know alh84001, these are quite rare. You should be happy to have found one at all. Yours looks to be in good condidtion. Just like mine, made in Italy. Quite nice. I recently saw a complete system that sold for way more. Let us know if your xwhatsit controller works in any way.

https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_i ... on_7102845

https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhi ... /pc_8.html

http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttga ... _Feb83.pdf

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Parak · 04 Sep 2016, 04:04

Yeah, I'd kill a cute woodland furry creature for one of these, personally

alh84001 · 04 Sep 2016, 07:45

@seebart trust me, I am happy beyond words.

This board caught my eye way back, when I still didn't have my first model F even. Seeing how rare it is, I didn't expect to get it, at least not this soon, and before some other more common boards I like. In person it looks even better than I thought, and it's weight....I wasn't prepared for that

And thanks for the links.

@parak you just became prime suspect if anything happens to seebart and me

alh84001 · 23 Nov 2016, 02:11

So, I did a quick continuity test today, and it seems that GND pins on the controller are in the same position as in other model Fs. That makes me almost certain that xwhatsit model F controller will work with it. I think I'll catch some time this weekend to install it and see for sure.

seebart · 23 Nov 2016, 09:10

alh84001 wrote: ↑So, I did a quick continuity test today, and it seems that GND pins on the controller are in the same position as in other model Fs. That makes me almost certain that xwhatsit model F controller will work with it. I think I'll catch some time this weekend to install it and see for sure.

Sweet, looking foreward to it.

alh84001 · 24 Nov 2016, 00:08

Aaaaaaand, it's working! Typing on it right now

seebart · 24 Nov 2016, 10:24

alh84001 wrote: ↑Aaaaaaand, it's working! Typing on it right now

Great news, so I should be able to use a teensy or my Arduino then right?

Wodan · 24 Nov 2016, 10:29

Unless there is a protocoll converter (Soarers ?) available, you'll need a replacement controller like the xwhatsit (Model-F version) to get it running.

Teensy/Arduino are unable to do the cap sensing

alh84001 · 24 Nov 2016, 12:07

Yeah, thats what I'm thinking too.

But it just occurred to me that Soarer's controller is used in conjunction with native controller on IBM Bigfoots, and perhaps it can be done here as well? I'm not home right now, so I can't check, but it seems to me from a pic above that there are 14 wires in the connector, which might make displaywriter protocol similar to bigfoots.

If it's possible at all, it begs the question if it can be done with beamspring displaywriter as well. I can't see why it wouldn't and that would be pretty sweet.

Wodan · 24 Nov 2016, 12:11

That makes a hell lot of sense. I just recently FINALLY converted a Bigfoot and actually used the original connector, just soldered the leads to a Teensy.

The pinout should be identical if these keyboards are compatible ...

Just imagine there was a beamspring keyboard that could be used without an xwhatsit controller.

seebart · 24 Nov 2016, 12:16

We have been using Soarer's for IBM F's for a while now...

keyboards-f2/weirdness-with-soarer-s-co ... t6219.html