deskthority

Personally I had my beamers bottom plate painted by a professional. With proper equipment he was able to replicate the color and also the texture.

IMHO beam springs are so rare that they should only be restored to original condition. And so far you have done an excellent job at that!

Wait, these were NOS? Real shame that I had missed this GB If there are many extras I'd be interested in ~70pcs.

'Tis a thing of beauty Really nice that it still has the original texts under the clear tops to indicate the original functions.

My first contact (no pun intented) with plate springs :D These are super weird as they feel so, delicate, yet the actuation is crisp. I sure have a lot of work to do for figuring out the layout for conversion. As of now there is no "Ä" to be found, instead there is "ö" and "Ö" where "ä" and "ö" shou...

Thanks! The fade in the dial looks great on that one. Were you thinking of a leather strap or something else?

New Seiko on a 5251

It's funny how Seikos are so popular on all the computing related forums I use, yet most average Joes see them as "just seikos"

Sumo on rubber:

Just one, my phone doesn't take good pics so I decided to not go hm on photo taking. The new one piece key caps were quite nice, basically perfect texture. The keyboards are MUCH heavier then they look. It is hard to explain how heavy they are even the compact. Typing on it was, dare I say, better ...

Now that the meetup is over, does anyone have pictures of Ellipsesavers from there?

Your welcome! Also the pro micro clones from china work well. No need to spend 20USD for the sparkfun one

It is actually quite easy especially in Linux enviroment (physical or virtual). Step 1: Get a pro micro, the 5 volt 16MHz variant. Step 2: Design a keymap here http://www.tmk-kbd.com/tmk_keyboard/editor/unimap/?ibm4704_usb_rev1_alps and press the download button to get a .hex file. Step 3: Check the...

Feels good to have the beast back at home :D I had really missed the beam springs as it has been over three months since it was last in use. I also took my first collection shot. From top to bottom: IBM 5251 (beam spring), IBM Pingmaster (Alps SKCC Green), IBM Model F XT (capacitive buckling spring...

Feels good to have the beast back at home :D I had really missed the beam springs as it has been over three months since it was last in use. IMG_20180208_181455.jpg I also took my first collection shot. From top to bottom: IBM 5251 (beam spring), IBM Pingmaster (Alps SKCC Green), IBM Model F XT (cap...

And now that the case has been washed it was assembly time. The top case sure adds a lot of heft to the typing sound when using the solenoid. This project has also taught me that beam springs are very very sensitive switches. When I assembled the switches I noticed that not all of the springs which ...

And the last info. Switchplates are long(?) and white and top housing has markings "X" and "5P", no logo.
The slider is also way lighter color than the loose one I have laying around. The loose one says "F" and "36" and has a gray switchplate.

The one pansku has is definitely 1:1 with a KB101/102A. This case is very similar but slightly different, mostly in the feet on the bottom and the protocol dip switch. Do you know how the dip switch works? I find it strange that it has 3 positions labeled 1/2/3, when often there is 2 labeled AT/XT

What was also odd is that the keycap (Esc) which I pulled out was not doubleshot unlike the KB-101A pictures in the wiki. I can't pull put other caps before sunday evening to confirm if this is true for the rest of the caps like Ctrl or Å.

This is what it looks like after a puff of some compressed air: IMG_20180126_183016.jpg The ICs date it to 1989: IMG_20180126_183026.jpg Curiously the PCB says KB-101A: IMG_20180126_183035.jpg I'd say that for my first find that I didn't buy from someone in DT or the Pingmaster I did pretty well :mr...

Appreciating some Blues

And oh yea, it was local (<15km) and has SE/FI caps!!!!

Not to mention it cost 20€ and the Blues are in better condition than my greens!

Apperantly Blue Alps version of Acer KB-102A exist with finnish/swedish keycaps Secured myself quite a deal and I'll be picking it up next week. If anyone has a flipout foot for an Acer KB-101 or KB-102 I'd like to buy it to fix the keyboard.

Well well well, what do we have here? The bottom part now has a fresh coat of paint :D I couldn't resist putting it all together. Also now it has a solenoid driver too :lol: I just hope the sound gets better when it is fully assembled with feet. I still need to clean up the case top and try retrobri...

digital_matthew wrote: ↑5251!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-5251-Vinta ... SwXtNaXC4Y

Aaand sold!

I would be interested in a top printed set. Do you know how the stabs and such are positioned and are the standard 1,5u Alt and 1,5u Ctrl available?

It basically stirred itself as when the tempereture and concentration changed the keycap moved between stages of sinking, floating somewhere in the middle and floating on the surface.

Sigh, the retrobrighting sure didn't go as planned. Test methodology: 1 litre of watee, 2 capfulls of H2O2 at start, 1 capfull at around 1h, 1 capfull at around 2h. Grey one sunk at 00:00:00 as water hit 70°C, black one at 02:00:00. Water tempereture 70°C ± 5°C whole time. Results not so good. IMG_2...

Babysteps:

Bottom plate left to get a fresh coat of paint. Derusting in progress and retrobrighting test going on

At the moment it is galvanized with zinc. I will consider getting it chromate converted if I happen to come across another company that is willing to do it for cheap. When the business only has 2 guys and the other one didn't even have a clue what needed to be done despite the first one agreeing on ...

Time to cook some keycaps this weekend. Who woulda thunk that the cheapest source of hydrogen peroxide I managed to find would be a plant nutrient