deskthority

Although I actually really dislike the concept, some of the details you’ve laid out are right. [...] A checklist is good. I just don’t like a full on reduction to a single dimensional score. It forces false equivalence. It's primarily a checklist. If it helps enforce some consistency across my revi...

That out of the way, I like this idea to a degree. I do like like having someone with experience having values like that. Reminds me of the "Whisky Bible." To me as long as its a single person doing the rating, it does give a good idea as to the general qualities. I would like to keep the points tot...

Cant... resist....

Ah wow! I really appreciate this everyone, thanks. Thanks for doing this matt3o as well as all you do for the site. karlmartin95 your project was super cool. As well Snacks the Cat continues to do excellent work. I'm honoured and really appreciate this. I have some updates to the thread as well comi...

matt3o wrote: ↑

02 Dec 2019, 09:06

sorry for the delay in announcing the winners, inlaw has been hospitalized and we are making turns to stay with her. I'll wrap up the results as soon as possible

Hi, hope everything gets better and your inlaw is okay.

I finally got around to posting photos of the Bay Area Keyboard Meetup! Several DT members were in attendance, including myself, HaaTa, obra, mcmaxmcmc, ohaimark, wcass, DMA, and MMcM. If you see any favorites please feel free to grab them from the album and post them here! I'll be sure to do the s...

For a long time, it was due to the issue of integrated LEDs. With Alps keyswitches, you either had a clickleaf, or an integrated LED, while Cherry's design allowed both a clicker and an integrated LED at the same time. Combine this with the rise of the rise of the cheap keyboards, and that the aver...

JP! wrote: ↑

01 Dec 2019, 19:53

Not sure of the switches but looks familiar.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Decision-Data- ... SwhYNd5AfG

Those feet look amazing

Boo yeah! That’s a keeper. How is the spacebar? The stabs can be iffy on Micro Switch, as they can indeed on Beamsprings. I wasn't planning on taking it completely apart but the keys have a thin layer of dust so they all could use a quick wash. Overall it feels like a new Micro Switch keyboard. :D ...

Hi, I am not sure why the stems are not as angled as other beamsprings. Perhaps due to the typing arrangement with the embedded desk keyboard they felt it not necessary to angle them. Other beamsprings are on-top of desks and much higher so it would make sense to angle the keys a bit. I am just spec...

ZedTheMan wrote: ↑

25 Nov 2019, 18:47

It is a tough choice between snacksthecat's microswitch conversion and SneakyRobb's Beamspring work.
I think I'm going with SneakyRobb.

Hey thanks appreciate it. Your triple restoration thread was cool as well.

I just noticed the angle on your stems is flat. The stems on mine are angled. Neat.
*mine are like from this Orihalcon photo

I haven't updated in a while and its a bit pre-mature but Id nominate my own Beamspring construction/reconfiguration of layout thread.

I would nominate this for project or on-going project because I think its cool

viewtopic.php?t=21851

Hi, So I have scanned the manual and also sent it to the IBM archives. I am unsure if it will allow us to search for new terms but perhaps some new eyes on it may help. I have attached it here. ibm 9001 troubleshoot manual.pdf As well here are some images from the a manual that relate to the keyboar...

very impressive work!

Hi, TBH the 9001 manual is not that helpful for our purposes. It is many hundred of pages long so I will scan it for the IBM archives and the community for our discovery of keyboard excellence.

Model F and Model M are switch types that exist in a variety of keyboards of various layouts.

HHKB is synonymous with a layout just as much with switches tbh. So the comparison is a bit odd. Regardless the Model F is Peak human and will never be surpassed.

Seems logical and perhaps the best family tree I've seen so far. The only potential issue that might invalidate our Escort Carrier -> Unsaver hypothesis is that one of the systems known to feature the Unsaver, the IBM 3290, was announced a year earlier (1983, Q1) than the 9002 announcement letter. ...

I just came across this unfortunately there does not appear to be a keyboard. Awesome find! So at this point, we have confirmed the 57-key pad is reprogrammable, it was developed into the Unsaver instead of being a variant of it, and the actual keyboard part is XT/Set 1-compliant. So, the video. Th...

Sorry to bump this thread up, but I think I might have stumbled across some evidence of part numbers for these from IBM's archives. Apologies if this has been shared on another thread before - I've been trying to find some better photos of the 9002 one for a blog post. If any exist. #1: https://www...

Thanks for sharing all this. Now we have more questions than answers! Hey no worries. It is strange, I wish I could get one of these! I am basically thinking if the 9002 membrane is of a similar sort of size/scale to the IBM 3278 A02 upper button area. As seen in monster toys restoration thread. ht...

Hi, Further speculation. One obvious other thing to wonder is how the keyboard case relates to the Unsaver and the F122 keyboard. Obviously the large upper function key area is seemingly identical on the Unsaver/F122 . For the Unsaver, aside from the plastic that divides the nav cluster and goes aro...

Hi, Here is another image and reference to this board. Page 8 https://s3.amazonaws.com/ieeecs.cdn.csdl.content/mags/co/1984/04/01659114.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2Z6GPE73DMBXQRM3&Expires=1572963872&Signature=HRhZ%2F5HC8lexde7CuWsz3ZgJuX4%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEEYaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCI...

Hi, I am waiting to hear back from the ibm archives about this board. I do find it very interesting and hope they can find some info. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to search for info about this keyboard but so far have found little. It seems to have been extremely niche, extremely expensiv...

When you are blasting air into the barrels it may not be removing the offending material from the barrel. It may just be moving it out of the way temporarily and then it can drift back into the line of fire. So even if you put cleaner in there, the stuff will still slosh around inside, or move aroun...

Would you have guessed in 1988 that your cheap-ass import "Omnikey" keyboard that was a fraction the cost of your American made Top Shelf IBM keyboard would be extremely sought after? I agree with most of your comments, but I remember buying a Northgate in the late-1980s-early-1990s and it was, eve...

I know we live in an open-sourced and open-standard world and those were the old days. But what human beings are supposed to gain with these standard corporate secretive behaviors? It is very hard to predict what future historians, fans, or the curious will find interesting or valuable. Take any of...

Hi JP! this is great. I really enjoy this sort of detective work. if anyone happens to be interested in this topic. Also if anyone has any questions for him feel free to share. Some question ideas to ask if able. I assume you are going to ask for the pictures, so could he also take pictures with the...

And everyone said the old moulds and toolings for complicated Alps were lost. But since when and under whose hands were they lost. Could they be under someone's possession but they're not into make switches or that they don't like the design for some reason? And how about the research notes or meet...

I think this is a proprietary (?) connector as made by Fujitsu for their "FM Towns" line of personal computers. https://ancientelectronics.wordpress.com/2019/04/04/fm-towns-ii-se20/ You can see it on the front of the computer here. https://ancientelectronics.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/fmtse1.jpg?w=...