deskthority

I never use the numpad to enter numbers, and my NumLock is never on; however I find it very useful for navigation. To me, the combination of Home-End-PgUp-PgDn keys arranged in a Ｘ shape and superimposed over the arrow keys arranged in a 十 shape is much more convenient than what you have on a tenkey...

If you overdo it: http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/Problems+and+Pitfalls

Depending on how strong the UV is, retrobrighting may take days or weeks, but you'll get the desired result eventually.

I hear you, where I live we get maybe 2 or 3 days each year which aren't fully overcast. But clouds don't block UV completely, the retrobright process will still happen, at a much slower speed. If you don't absolutely have to have the keyboard ASAP, this is arguably a good thing, as there's almost n...

HaaTa wrote:I'd say similar. Topre is snappier, but really only on the depress.

I agree. The RT is smoother, which I actually like, but this is a matter of personal preference, and somebody else may like the crisper feel of Topre.

What's the geography of the people defaulting on their orders? Mostly geekhackers, or Koreans?

Very valuable advice here by hoggy, all true. Also, without a reference grey card in the frame, it's difficult to rate any potential discoloration of the plastic. Flash doesn't produce bright spots like that unless the surface is quite smooth to begin with, so they must be quite shiny. I'd say condi...

For future reference, and for the sake of keeping information in one place, I'm going to quote the relevant section from the comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt FAQ ( http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~shadow/ibmrt/faqs/hardware.txt ) ------------------------- H.12 - What is the pinout of the 6150/6151 Keyboard port...

If you make a USB converter for this, you'll be my hero. Like I said, this keyboard is built extremely well and feels great to type on.

Which way are you planning to go with the converter: reverse-engineer the protocol, or build a converter that can poll a capacitive PCB?

This is the IBM RT PC workstation keyboard. We had a few at the uni, 26 inch monitors in the 1990s, pretty cool stuff. I still have one of the keyboards, which I picked up when they were throwing it all away. The keys feel GREAT for rubber dome, too bad it isn't compatible with modern computers. Thi...

Well this is the Cherry Font. I'm rather partial to it myself to be honest.

Here's a better pic of a NIB G80-3000HAV. It looks like Cherry was nice enough to include a key puller too.



(Originally from http://wwwyspro.blogspot.com/2006/03/ch ... hav02.html)

You are right, in that photo it is configured for the Russian layout. However there must have been a few extra keycaps, which the seller probably lost a long time ago. The peculiar thing about these Ukrainian (G8x-3000-xxV) keyboard is that they shipped with additional keycaps in the box, with which...

woody wrote:'V' for the Russian variant?

Ukrainian, as in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. It would have been 'U' except that 'U' had been assigned already to the United States.

Russian layouts are marked, quite logically, with 'R'.

I should also mention that you got the windowed version of the Caps-Num-ScrollLock keycaps, i.e. with LEDs under the key. They are somewhat rare. Your other keyboards probably have the LEDs in a separate cluster.

The keycaps are whiter than standard Cherry 'white' and are not 'hellgrau' either. It's good to finally know this, but disappointing. I had thought these 1838 boards could potentially be donors of white modifier keys, but it turns out they aren't really compatible with anything if you're picky abou...

Those are MY switches all right. The "+" shape and the color match, but the body of the switch looks very different from MX. This is MX: http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/eddie84/OCN/Mech%20keyboard%20club/Leopold/DSC06380.jpg Not to worry though, if you want to learn about mechanical keyboards ...

I'm sorry to say that your keyboard does not have MX Clear, but instead MY switches, which are semi-mechanical (plunger over membrane). MY switches are often cited among the worst-feeling of them all, described as "typing on wet newspapers." This keyboard won't give you a good idea of what mechanica...

If a keyboard is really dirty, I spray it with dishwashing liquid through a Karcher high pressure washer, then vacuum the water out. If a keyboard isn't really dirty, I don't bother. It's a tool that's meant to be used. Granted, I'm not a collector. The aforementioned thorough cleaning about once in...

Something has just occured to me about this ISO to ANSI mod. The ISO board should have one less stabilizer: the short left Shift is without a stabilizer, but the long ANSI Shift needs one. So, you'd have to find a spare stabilizer somewhere, is that correct?

I've managed to finally get my hands on a G80-3000HPMRB, and noticed right away that the keycaps aren't really white, like in that nix.ru picture which evidently has had somebody play with its white balance. They are in fact somewhat greyish, exactly like on my G80-1853 which has the same albino col...

I'm very intrested in G80-1838 HFU if it is not too much. You're aware, of course, that it's not a 1838, but a Dolch PAC (G80-1813) PCB (or maybe only the keycaps, with a different MX Blue PCB) in a G81-1800LPAUS case? I'd say over half of the Cherry keyboards on Taobao are frankensteined together ...

That photo is by a Japanese collector. Sadly I don't own one. IMO the 1800 is the best layout ever invented, it just didn't get the marketing exposure it deserves in the USA, hence its lower popularity. And now we have the Americans paying big bucks for IBM M Tenkeyless, of exactly the same compact ...

It is good news that the stepped Caps Lock is available. Inclusion of the 3 keys specific to the 1800 layout: short right Shift and small numpad "0" and "+" would be very welcome. If you are making an all-white set, those are not easy to source, being only available in white on the Compaq G80-1838HP...

BTW it appears that even genuine Cherry dyesub keys, despite their reputation of durability, can get quite worn with heavy use. Here's what a Cherry keyboard I recently encountered looked like: (GB/RU layout, 3000SAG)

Do you plan on including keys for the 1800 layout, or 3000 only?
Albino or standard white-gray?

The by now classic quote by Xsphalt on geekhack described MY switches as "like typing on wet newspapers." I personally think that's exactly what it feels like. Though I find the sensation less than pleasant, somebody else might love it.

I want to sell/trade how much is a compaq 11800 worth? Not much. You can get one in the US layout from ebay.com for $1 + shipping if you're lucky; otherwise they sell for $10-30. DE and UK layouts, I've seen them go for about E20 and L20 on their respective ebays. Essentially, if you want to sell y...

Soarer, how much are they charging you to make the PCB? I researched some companies a while ago but they all were quite expensive for small runs.

This makes sense. I recall reading something to the effect that our trained eyes recognize entire words, a word at a time, exactly like the Chinese or Japanese do with their hanzi. Since words in all lowercase occur much more frequently, we're much better trained to recognize them. We don't normally...

I've had very good results shipping sets of keycaps in wide-neck PET bottles. They weigh nothing, and protect the keycaps quite well.