deskthority

I really like the way Zenith's old numpads look. They have these fat 0 and . keys at the bottom which I personally find very useful.

I got the keyboard fixed and the issue was caused by a lifted pad on this solder joint. Using a multimeter I was able to tell that this circuit was not fully connected and managed to repair it with a wire. This is not the first time I had to repair a lifted pad on an old keyboard. Pardon my horrendo...

I'd look for corrosion between traces or for leaked electrolyte from capacitors. Either of these can connect parts of the circuit that shouldn't be connected and could cause this kind of failure. The fact that you have some functionality sounds to me like it can probably be salvaged. If you can't f...

My Apple M0115 got messed up over night after using it for a year at my main PC. I can't see anything wrong with the PCB here, all the joints look good and all the traces are intact. After turning on the PC today for some work the entire bottom two rows appeared to have stopped working except for th...

ntv242ver2 wrote: ↑

06 Jul 2021, 10:26

triple check the pint out i guess, that is the only thing I really could think of. Otherwise, buy a pro micro and make another converter for this one only, I would.

Yeah that might be my only option. It could be that the keyboard doesn't like the reset pin.

TNT wrote: ↑

06 Jul 2021, 09:32

Do you have any way of testing the keyboard on a genuine XT port?

I don't unfortunately. I have lots of vintage computers but no XT class ones.

I tried it with the Hasu firmware but it still didn't work.

Maybe you can give Hasu's software a try? (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=103648.0) I've only used Orihalcon's Soarer's converter so far and I always thought you needed Hasu's firmware to make for example the Z-150 work. Didn't even know the trick with the two pullup resistors worked with soa...

I built my own Soarer's converter a while ago to use my Zenith Z-150 and Leading Edge DC-2014 keyboards with and it works perfectly with those. This converter uses a Teensy 2.0 and Soarer's firmware 1.12; and it has the 5th reset pin wired in. I recently got this Model F XT hoping to use it with thi...

I actually just got an XT Z-150 myself and made a converter for it for my first time like two weeks ago. Here is what I did. Hope this helps! What I did was purchase a Teensy 2.0 and some female MIDI din sockets, then I flashed the teensy with this hex file here: viewtopic.php?p=355792#p355792 You c...

Newest pick-up that I thought would make a nice addition to this forum. This is a ZKB-2, but unfortunately with the ugly Bull badge rather than the lightning Z one. The chassis is awesome though. This one has Yellow Alps.

I've retrobrighted key caps but never a full chassis, for the keys I used the submersion method. As for the electrical issues it might be the AT/XT switch as others said. It could also be a leaky cap, those can cause problems but as long as they don't ruin any traces it's an easy fix. Excellent pick...

Tritian wrote: ↑

13 May 2021, 20:38

Some more pics:

I love seeing vintage keyboards at their matching computers. They just look so... at home! Beautiful pictures.

These are my favorite boards that I own. That Focus 2001 was actually the first keyboard I ever owned, my dad hooked it up to my 386 when I was a kid and It's a really nice keyboard, Pine White Alps! :) I use an Omnikey at my 386 and 486 now, I really love those things. The KB-5161 I use at my Penti...

I have one that's in need of a little TLC if anyone's willing to put in the love. It got picked on by a beamspring over the Atlantic one time… Oh, there's a project going on to make custom metal cases for these keyboards. That's when I last had mine out: for measurement . That sounds like an awesom...

Nice work on that battery mod! Those NiCd batteries are such a pain. Had one of my vintage computers wrecked by one.

I've actually never come across any buckling spring keyboards other than IBMs and I'd love to try some of these Cantech ones someday. How to they compare?

I got this keyboard recently and I wanted to share the restoration project on here as it was a lot of fun and I learned how to use a Teensy for this keyboard thanks to previous forums on here. 20210506_172729.jpg I received the keyboard a few weeks ago and it came with Green Alps, this keyboard was ...

Greens.

I've got this AT-101 here and it's rusted to oblivion. I've managed to scrape off all the bad spots with a flat screw driver but it's still badly pitted. What are some of the better ways to clean these plates without desoldering all the switches?

I think I got it! Just need to solder everything together and find a box to put everything in.

you will need to use a special firmware that is written on the forum somewhere with the reset like and some pull up resistors its been over a year since I have done this keyboard, Ah cool, thanks! I've got the resistors, and the 5 wires with me and am waiting on the DIN socket. Also found a firmwar...

I got this classic Black label Zenith Z-150 a while ago and gave it a decent restoration, I can't wait to use it! I'm currently building a converter box for it based on a Teensy 2.0 since this is one of those keyboards that don't like the Soarer's converters. I am new to this whole process of loadin...

I know the Omnikey isn't the sexiest one but personally I love it! The Focus is by far my sexiest one though!