deskthority

Is there any way to squelch certain threads from the spy view? Sometimes uninteresting but wildly active threads trump all over what I'd rather see. Yeah, I'd love to not see the politics threads in the spy. The only pointless bickering I want to see on Deskthority is about input device preferences...

Very cool-looking board. Shame the switches don't feel very good.

Man, they sure were stingy with the soldermask in East Germany.

congrats, that's stunning! Reminds me that I need to check ALPS out someday, never found an good deal for any kind of ALPS board Really? Try looking in second-hand shops. I've found two Alps boards for $1 each that way. Also try looking in old relatives' basements. You might get lucky like I did an...

Also, beam spring controller when? 8-) Should be a trivial change - but I don't have any beamsprings around and probably won't ever - so can't test that hypothesis. Is there any real need in that though? Every month or so I have to open my Displaywriter and re-seat the Xwhatsit controller because o...

Great to hear news on this project! I'm impressed to hear that it's working so reliably even in such unfavorable circumstances. Keep up the good work.

Also, beam spring controller when?

In the green forums, the post icons indicating read/unread posts are harder to distinguish than the icons in the other themes. Could we possibly get a green unread icon ( https://deskthority.net/styles/deskthority_green/imageset/icon_post_target_unread.gif ) that has a bit more contrast from the gre...

Lenovo tried this exact thing with the Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 2. Everyone hated it.

Now Apple "invented" it (or so people will say), and everyone will love it.

"IMB" XT model F : http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-IMB-F-K ... Sw8gVX~p6V

I swear, if you read the whole thread, at least up to that post, it'll make more sense!

This one: photos-f62/ibm-3277-beam-spring-keyboard-t14016.html

The Displaywriter controller has the same connector, but a different pinout for its matrix. It looks like the controller on this board is on the same PCB as the pads, which would make using an Xwhatsit controller very difficult. Just a note: the second sentence in that quote was about a completely ...

chiptea wrote: ↑Oh wow, two beamsprings.
I'd kill for one, but you're probably not letting them go

Why does it matter that he's not letting them go? You already said you'd kill for one! Pry those keyboards from his cold, dead hands!

Oh, I just remembered something that invalidates the "K means keyboard" theory. Alps SKQG switches are just little surface mount pushbutton switches that have nothing to do with keyboards. I guess this leads us to "K means keyboard, except when it doesn't". Alps were more than inconsistent enough w...

Oh, I just remembered something that invalidates the "K means keyboard" theory. Alps SKQG switches are just little surface mount pushbutton switches that have nothing to do with keyboards.

Chyros wrote: ↑Potentiometers all start with an R, presumably because P was already taken.

My guess is that the R stands for rheostat. Back when Alps started, that was a more common term than it is today.

y11971alex wrote: ↑http://m.ebay.com/itm/New-Amkey-Capacit ... 2298850206

Eh, doesn't have enough F-keys for my needs.

XT enter is 1u wide; ISO enter is 1.25u wide for the bottom half, 1.5u wide for the top half.

pomk wrote: ↑6/ If you are willing to solder SMD components on your host PCB, you can probably have this component there as well? I don't really get the point.

If you're willing to solder SMD components on your host PCB, you don't need an Elf board at all.

If there's bare metal connecting a pad and a via, the via will wick up the pad's solder during reflow. This keeps solder away from the component, resulting in a poor connection, a tombstone, or generally something that could make boards not work. I really can't see an easy way to move that via though.

All in all, that looks like a pretty nice board layout. One note though: it's generally a bad idea to put vias in the middle of pads (except thermal pads/vias–go nuts with vias there!). They suck up solder, leaving too little for the component itself and creating a poor joint. For a component with b...

PLA has a huge problem of not dissolving easily, so solvent bonds are near impossible You must not be using the right solvent. Dichloromethane dissolves PLA readily, so glues such as Weld-on Scigrip 16 work great for PLA. Be warned though, DCM is not a solvent to be taken lightly: it's much more ha...

The port is rock solid now, but I will add .05-1mm to the peg diameters. The fit is almost too tight. Ah, now that I look at your models, I see what may be part of that problem. Making holes in OpenSCAD by difference-ing out a cylinder always results in a hole that's slightly too small, since you'r...

If you want some first hand advice for the Ultimaker: Get some Kapton tape for that glass plate. Platform adhesion has never been an issue for me since I did that. First patch still in place after 50+ prints. If you can, very wide Kapton tape so you can cover the whole printable area in one piece a...

My gut feeling is that if we make a new controller with new capabilities, we shouldn't keep using 8-bit MCUs. ;) I'd love to redesign xWhatsit's controller with a shiny new ARM microcontroller, USB, and Bluetooth. I'm honestly not sure I understand the desire to make a modular keyboard controller, t...

citrojohn wrote: ↑Well, the ZX81's from about 1983... if that can be called a keyboard. Of keyboards not hard-wired to a computer, a 1997 NMB.

Yeah, I don't think I could call a microwave oven keypad a keyboard, so I don't think the ZX81 has a keyboard.

Paste Stencil (would be a horrible prototype soldering session if this didn't exist) Oh, it wouldn't be that horrible. Some fine solder, a decent soldering iron, a lot of flux, and a fair amount of patience is all you'd need. I just hand-soldered a board that looks like a similar level of difficult...

Oh, also, the shot of the PCB from the bottom should have the connectors on the opposite sides, but if it's just a mock up for us that shouldn't matter. It's pretty standard for EDA software to show the bottom of the board mirrored, as though you're looking through the top. That's what's going on h...

If I had to choose between the two, I guess the scaled lizard would be better as long as there's a vector version of the scale pattern. If you want my complete and honest opinion though, I think they're both pretty cheesy. :mrgreen: Not cheesier than IBM logo! :) Yeah, an IBM logo on something IBM ...

If I had to choose between the two, I guess the scaled lizard would be better as long as there's a vector version of the scale pattern. If you want my complete and honest opinion though, I think they're both pretty cheesy.

Yes, it's definitely possible. You can buy solenoids pretty much anywhere that stocks electronic parts. Make sure you get one that's cool with the voltage of the keyboard's microcontroller to make your life easier. To wire it, you'd need an extra output on the keyboard's controller, and the ability ...