deskthority

What happened to imgur? Everything is appearing in giant size, as if it was rescaled for smart phones or something?

edit: nevermind, I must have left it zoomed in from a previous view. Beautiful keyboards, GLWS!

I don't know if I would call it a fully reversible mod, since it requires drilling into PCB and sanding off solder mask. But if I managed to find a black Avant Stellar, I would consider doing something like this, since a black double-shot BAE with Northgate guidepost does not exist. But for white/b...

It looks like even some Win-keyless ones had the dual wire-stabilized BAE. The ones you had, with guide post stabilizers, must have been from the very earliest ones, which were somewhat close to FK-555. Which means that if I want to get a double-shot BAE for my Avant Prime, I will have to find BAE ...

I would replace the R1 backslash with the other backslash they have (R2 or R0), and Menu key with Fn key. They won't be a perfect match because of the row, but in practice the difference is barely noticeable (I did this experiment on my Avant Prime; I will try to upload some pictures this weekend)....

But that still leaves the odd keys in the bottom row and one or two others (the original backslash and the + and = in the numpad). TaiHao's new set has all these odd bottom row keys and the split shift/backslash . The other ones, yep, they would still be a problem. Hmmm, when I looked at the new Ta...

Some or all 101P from Gen4a (with Northgate label) definitely have double-shot keycaps (well, except for up arrow and Windows/Menu keys). For left side F keys I would take these relegendable keycaps and spray paint them with black paint (doesn't have to be perfect, since the clear cover would prote...

Thank you, that's what I suspected. Switchplates probably won't matter, but the springs might. The ping is tolerable, I am slowly getting used to it, but it was strange to hear it in a complicated Alps board. I just dug it out and the remaining white switches are pingy too, so it must be the case.

I never found replacements for the left side F-keys and a few other special ones. That's part of the reason I never finished that project. But it's close to my ideal keyboard too. I believe some of the Gen4 Northgates and beige Avants might have come with double shot caps, but I'm not quite ready to...

So, I just finished restoring a DC-2214 with blue alps. After top cleaning, the switches feel smooth and they have that characteristic blue Alps click and thock. But... that pinging. I have never heard a complicated Alps board ping this much, only some boards with simplified Alps. Is this something...

The serial EEPROM is a 24C16 (8 pin DIP, not SMT). Looks like they're readily available. I haven't tried replacing a bad one, so I'm just assuming it stores only the settings, and not firmware. And that swapping in a new one would fix the programming issue. But I may be wrong about that. I have only...

Actually the early 8 pin serial EEPROMs were notoriously flaky, and were good for a very limited number of cycles before they would no longer rewrite correctly. But they're easily replaced, as long as you can find a new one of the same type.

101P just popped up on ebay (not mine)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304691578641

Might be old news, but I found this article on a Chinese typewriter interesting:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-uncanny-keyboard?

apastuszak wrote: ↑

01 Nov 2022, 02:12

Muirium wrote: ↑

31 Oct 2022, 22:28

MX *is* mech keyboards. The rest of us are stupid weenies.

I think it's "meh keyboards." I prefer Model Ms and ALPS switches to MX style switches.

MEHchanical. You're both right.

Maybe I am not understanding, but ebay fees are roughly 10% and Paypal fees are roughly 3% - depending .... Taking the sale local and paying cash still obligates the seller to ebay for the transaction fee but a cash payment avoids the Paypal fee. If I am remembering correctly, ebay now takes a cut ...

Hopefully he stuck with it until Hipsters rewound the clock on Turkish Barbers! :lol: The only futures I've seen imagined where typewriters make a comeback are by Terry Gilliam and his fans . There was a barber's (?) chair in that film too. Sounds like I need to pass on the Canon. Someone will undo...

Fair enough. Sure you’re not starting down the slippery slope of extending into typewriters? Like pre-digital SLRs, they’re plentiful, often very well built, still work as intended, and almost nobody wants them. Beware! I met a guy once who collected antique barber's chairs. Completely useless, plu...

I am baffled by low serial number and variant (D) of my keyboard so I am asking : Did I find something good and rare or .. ? Wow, that appears to be the real thing. Here are a couple more examples with similar labels: https://www.ebay.com/itm/313567053827 https://www.ebay.com/itm/384363279293 There...

Are you going to flip it, or is that a collector’s cry for help? “I don’t need it for my collection but, you know…” I would resell it at cost to someone here, or failing that put it on ebay if there was a good chance of it selling (none currently on there). Shipping cost would probably kill both of...

There's a Canon AP-400 typewriter available locally. An online search suggests that it has SKFF Alps switches? I'm not really interested for myself, but am wondering if I should grab it? Price is $68, possibly negotiable.

A seller who is not familiar with keyboard switches and caps might be afraid that he would break one of the parts and render his item worthless, or nearly so. A seller who understands the keyboard market knows that a buyer wants to see the switch. Exactly right. But it's also common knowledge in eb...

There are some active (i.e. literal) USB to PS/2 converters out there. Someone was asking about a year ago and ultimately found one, not for this use, but for connecting to an old PC as I recall. ... I didn't mention that thread because it seemed like a dead end after the last few post(s). https://...

... I wonder. Can you plug a USB keyboard into a USB to PS/2 adapter and then plug that into a Soarer's converter? That would only be possible on the small subset of keyboards that internally support both PS/2 and USB. And even then I'm not sure the Soarers would sense it correctly. To test you nee...

Right Alt is just right Alt. I believe Alt Gr is a national layout thing. You’d need to set the keyboard to US ISO or International English or some such: in the OS. This is not a converter thing. Not a Windows user myself though so only recalling what I’ve heard others say about this. Right. In the...

Any chance regular alps caps would fit? I found a picture of Alps SKFL with a key cap and it looks very similar to alps mount caps. ... I wouldn’t throw it in the bin just yet… There might be hope! The discussion here would suggest that normal Alps caps will indeed work; at least some of them: http...

I bet they're related to Oberhofer boards which are white alps. Right you are, you can see the Oberhofer name on the second one. I did a bit of searching, and the Oberhofer stuff (keyboards, mice, monitors) were very limited production. Slap a wooden case and a Beverly Hills address on some otherwi...

jsheradin wrote: ↑

14 Oct 2022, 17:12

I bet they're related to Oberhofer boards which are white alps.

Right you are, you can see the Oberhofer name on the second one.

I found some interesting keyboards with wooden cases that might either be alps or a BTC dome with slider? ... Does anyone know what these might be? I know I’ve see an orange legend alps keyboard before that was black alps but I can’t remember what it was… The wooden cases are interesting and I can’...

Thanks all for the suggestions :) @Polecat, your suggestion seems to be correct. I'm not familiar with Futaba switches, but I don't think it feels quite an Alps. I no longer have an Alps kb, but from memory it feels different. Here's the black version on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/254786446460 ...

Datacomp DFK-171. Slider-over-something, not discrete switches. This shared the case styling with the DFK-121 (Futaba) and DFK-191 (Alps/clone).

edit: actually DFK-172 since it's the ISO version.