deskthority

Cliiiiiiicky

That's not a Beamspring, sounds more like Selectric but it's something else, we've had posts on this machine before here. I wonder if those pretty keycaps are Selectric mount...

other-external-f66/great-interesting-fi ... ch#p372205

seebart wrote: ↑That's not a Beamspring [...]

I never said that it is ...

Slom wrote: ↑

seebart wrote: ↑That's not a Beamspring [...]

I never said that it is ...

True, it's loud alright, probably louder than any selectric. I'd love to own just the keyboard. Nice video.

page 68
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/IBM029-F ... -Man-r.pdf

Slom wrote: ↑page 68
http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/IBM029-F ... -Man-r.pdf

Makes Beamspring look simplistic...

Alas, there's no way to tell what the switches themselves sounded like from that video. The card puncher is just too loud.

It's interesting too that the alphas had black legends while the modifiers had white legends. Oh, IBM, you and your wacky keyset designs...

That mechanism definitely looks like it has a lot in common with the Selectric, though in a different way.

Those keycaps are delicious. Wish I could get them for my beamspring. Hunting for those ultra rare blue selectric caps is practically impossible.

zslane wrote: ↑Alas, there's no way to tell what the switches themselves sounded like from that video. The card puncher is just too loud.

Here's a video of the IBM 129, which according to this maintenance manual (page 26) has the same keyboard mechanism. It has a internal 80 characters storage, so that mistakes can be fixed before the card is punched. This has the side effect that one can hear the switches
But thinking of the card punching mechanism as one big clicker is just way cooler

Chyros wrote: ↑That mechanism definitely looks like it has a lot in common with the Selectric, though in a different way.

Well what I understood from your review of the Selectric was that the whole ball positioning was mechanical?! I need to watch it again, and compare the manuals.

The Theory of Operation manual for the 029 has a very detailed description starting from page 27.

This one has electrical contacts, but the whole key to "scancode" conversion seems to be mechanical. The interlock (mechanical anti ghosting) seems very similar to the Selectric indeed. One interesting thing (from the way I understood it) is that the spring under the key is only responsible for the return of the key itself, not the contact mechanism. That part is done by a magnet it seems, a solenoid with a purpose one could say ...

This machine gives me typo anxiety.

webwit wrote: ↑This machine gives me typo anxiety.

With the noise it emits, it probably gave a few people typing anxiety

LCM in Seattle has one of these on display, if you ask nicely they'll turn it on and let you play with some punch cards. The typing experience reminds me of a teletype, what with the whole machine vibrating each time you press a key. The key-feel was similar to a Selectric mostly, if I recall.