deskthority

Amusingly, out here in the mundane world where numpads are ubiquitous and numeric entry is still sadly common: I encounter regular office staff punching in numbers several times a week, always on the number row. Phone numbers , order numbers , the works: even bar codes! (Even now an unsolved proble...

Now to just cross my fingers for a beige (Pearl/Pebble) version of the Mini M and New M

Too little and far too late. What a Great Idea releasing this style NOW when it's a full on recession, who's the idiot that came up with that idea instead of FIRST designing and making a standard 104 keyed model, from the very beginning? Bloody useless Einsteins who sit around and then decide to re...

It seems the Model F project has unveiled some new versions in the form factor of the Model M (104 and SSK) but using the F mechanism. https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/brand-new-model-f-major-launch-full-size-and-other-models-march-april-2023-update/ This is quite interesting as this represents a muc...

I'm just glad that they seem to have reached a solution in production, and hopefully once the New M backlog is cleared they can resume selling the Mini M and get out of the pandemic hangover crisis mode (and to be clear not blaming them for any of the pandemic triggered disruptions they've had to de...

Interesting development. If this really is the new controller for the New M then I expect it will be for the Mini M as well as it sounded like both were affected by the same chip supply shortage. Nice side effect that this fills the long time ask for a reprogrammable/customizable controller by the c...

So pretty! Yeah the SSKs seem to fare poorly with their rivets. My SSK needs a bolt mod despite still being new/sealed in box when I found it (hooray for poorly named eBay listings flying under the radar so while not cheap I got a great deal on it considering it was NOS). Biggest mistake was opening...

That's a spectacular find!

Think most of the industrial SSKs I've seen pictures of have been the Mopar version.

Tha does seem to be an entirely different bottom from the standard. The longer feet have already been mentioned, but it also has the cable coming out of the original left center (when viewed from typing position) like the original SDL cable instead of the top right like the later fixed cable Lexmark...

If it really is more tactile than brown but without being too heavy it could be a good compromise or standby switch. Something easy to get or build to give you adequate typing feel for something like an office keyboard, especially given it's tactile but not clicky. I've never really been interested ...

I think this would be a good opportunity for Unicomp to design a new board that works with QMK and is flashable. How much money did Unicomp waste mailing Mini-Ms back and forth to fix the issues that it had with some keys not working? I know I sent mine back to them 3 times. Having the ability to f...

Guppy, According to the last news posts from Unicomp the unavailability of the M122 battlecruiser was temporary due to shortages/long shipping times in the supply chain for the case resin. Sounds like they just got the new M122 cases and the model should be back on sale soon. Also looks like they ha...

The IBM branded Model M boards can vary quite a bit by new old stock or used, or date/location of manufacture. Shelby of Tech Tangents on YouTube found a Unicomp classic to feel comparable to a NOS IBM board and much crisper than a worn IBM board he had at home. I have one new Lexmark made IBM board...

The latest necro spam being of an old post by the previous DT owner about selling the site really takes the cake. Can a spam bot have a sadistic side?

It's really sad seeing this forum slowly fall apart. Haven't been here long, but even before joining the DT wiki was one of the best places to look up info on a keyboard. Seems like nexthority got off to a rocky start but just made an account there in case it takes off and the decline here proves to...

Unicomp posted an update on their Facebook page a few day's ago and it sounds like they've fixed the Q problem with the Mini M

Parts supply problems continue to be a problem and between that and squeezed production no progress has been made on CE certification to sell in Europe

A few years ago I would have said the Keytronic E03600, but sadly Keytronic seems to have exited the keyboard market and it's impossible to find those boards new (used ones are always filthy too) While not the best feeling rubber dome the Best Buy house brand wired keyboard (Insignia/Best Buy Essent...

This has been amazingly helpful! Probably saved me a few hundred in experimenting with different keyboards as well. I really want to like the Unicomps, they are buckling springs and as far as click/tactile is actuation Unicomp still has that in spades. But yeah, it leaves some to be desired. I'd re...

I believe https://www.clickykeyboards.com/ offers a bolt/screw modding service that has been recommended in the past. I have an SSK I got new old stock that the rivets have sadly failed on. Like you I don't feel confident about doing the mod job myself so I am actually planning on reaching out to th...

Wow! That system cleaned up beautifully! So glad you have the complete system including that box that I'm assuming has the documentation in it! You should definitely upload the disk images to Archive.org and possibly other places like Winworldpc, historical oddities like this need to be preserved, e...

It happens in every niche enthusiast community. The Model M is widely known, cheap-ish and easy to obtain, and pretty darn good. All those are reasons cause certain kinds of people to feel a powerful urge to prove their superior knowledge, taste, resources, blah blah blah, by demonstrating conspicu...

I think the original plan was to keep common parts with the other boards like the space bar. Older pictures show the right keys as having the same order as other Unicomp boards with the alt key on the 1.5 (and I believe that once the 86 key option becomes available that key will be alt on those vers...

lhutton, I think the bleed on the Classic comes from the lock light openings in the case being larger than the transparent window/section of the lock light sticker. On my pearl Classic with green lights I get that little bit of bleed two shadowing where the opening continues a bit under the sticker

Just an update for anyone finding this thread in the future looking for SSK repair advice. I reached out to Unicomp support and they said that they are unable to repair SSKs as they don't have any parts available. Based on this response they would have replaced the barrel frame if that was an option...

Oh that's a really nice find! The Personal Typing System seems like such an odd product, a general purpose PS/2 turned into a dedicated word processor. Hope you make a thread showing the whole thing set up!

Not to mention the practical reasons why the lock lights aren't all the way right, above the nav cluster, looking inside an old SSK that's where the post holding the barrel plate in place and a case screw are. Not really much space there for a bank of lights and not like those things can be easily m...

How did you manage to get your hands on the prototypes? Unicomp approached me to critically review the Mini M to find any outstanding issues and review from my perspective. You mean help them promote their forthcoming product. If they wanted substantial input, they’d ask earlier! I mean, that botto...

Ah, to be clear I don't think I need a new barrel frame. Rather my assumption was that if I were to send it to Unicomp to repair that they would replace the barrel frame to do so rather than do a bolt/screw mod on it. That's just one option I'm considering and I was curious if anyone had experience ...

Thanks for the input/advice everyone. The only tool I have right now is a screwdriver/drill combo. If I was going to do it myself it seems a dremel or better precision drill is the way to go. I wouldn't be able to do that anytime soon as I currently have no space to use as a workshop. I'm still cons...

Thanks for the kind words. Yes you're absolutely right that I don't have any reason to rush things. I suspected that most of them were just broken from age (and any jolts the box got on it's near 30 year journey). I'm just bummed that I gave in to the temptation to open it and ended up making it wor...