AEK64 Keyboard build log

User avatar
lucar

24 Dec 2018, 16:55

I finally got it done!
Merry Christmas

Luca
Last edited by lucar on 24 Dec 2018, 18:41, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
matt3o
-[°_°]-

24 Dec 2018, 17:10

those japanese caps are lovely!

... but let's talk about that Apple in the background!

User avatar
lucar

24 Dec 2018, 17:22

Hello Matteo,
it's my personal Apple II , I bought it myself in New York in 1984, I still have the original invoice: it's equipped with a 16k Ram Card, 1MB Apple II Memory Expansion Card, 80 col Videx , 6809 OS/9 card, Softcard II, floppy controller, serial card , Mountain CPS card and Sanyo 4509 B/W monitor .

:)

User avatar
lucar

24 Dec 2018, 17:26

I've got some little problems with the editing of the video, if You don't see it , just come back later on youtube...it never gets right at the first trial :)

User avatar
matt3o
-[°_°]-

24 Dec 2018, 17:31

lucar wrote: Hello Matteo,
it's my personal Apple II , I bought it myself in New York in 1984, I still have the original invoice: it's equipped with a 16k Ram Card, 1MB Apple II Memory Expansion Card, 80 col Videx , 6809 OS/9 card, Softcard II, floppy controller, serial card , Mountain CPS card and Sanyo 4509 B/W monitor .

:)
you are officially person of the day on Deskthority! And Buon Natale!

PS: don't be a stranger and can back on DT more often :P

User avatar
lucar

24 Dec 2018, 17:33

matt3o wrote:
lucar wrote: Hello Matteo,
it's my personal Apple II , I bought it myself in New York in 1984, I still have the original invoice: it's equipped with a 16k Ram Card, 1MB Apple II Memory Expansion Card, 80 col Videx , 6809 OS/9 card, Softcard II, floppy controller, serial card , Mountain CPS card and Sanyo 4509 B/W monitor .

:)
you are officially person of the day on Deskthority! And Buon Natale!
Thank You Matteo,

I really appreciate that!

Buon Natale a te
Merry Christmas to You!

Luca

User avatar
lucar

24 Dec 2018, 18:42

Video is back online, I apologize for the problem, when You spot an error in a video , it then takes about 1Hr to have it newly rendered and published again.

Luca

User avatar
kakan

25 Dec 2018, 17:21

So beautiful! I've always wanted the JP legends, but I struck gold before christmas and found an NIB AEKII with the Swedish layout that I've been wanting for a long time. Do you feel that the metal plate is to harsh with the white dampened alps?

User avatar
lucar

25 Dec 2018, 18:08

kakan wrote: So beautiful! I've always wanted the JP legends, but I struck gold before christmas and found an NIB AEKII with the Swedish layout that I've been wanting for a long time. Do you feel that the metal plate is to harsh with the white dampened alps?
Sincerely, I've built custom keyboards using only stainless steel plates, and the vintage keyboards I own have all steel plates so I don't know the difference against plateless or fiber plates .
My AEK64 is firm on the desktop , weighting 1415 grams, as is the bottom out of the keypress.
The only thing I notice is that the keycap wobble looks to me a little worse than that of the vintage , unmodified, Cherry mx blue equipped Dolch Pac 64 keyboard I'm using now to answer You for example.
This is a little suprising for me after having followed Chyrosran22 videos about ALPS switches, anyway it' s a really enjoyable keyboard to type on.

Luca

TicTocTom

02 Jan 2019, 04:44

Great build vid. I built mine from an Irish board and the same case, albeit with less care and expertise. Mine would benefit from a proper cleaning as you demonstrated. Did you lube the sliders? Also, where did you get the plate and insulating strip that you adhered to the case?

User avatar
lucar

02 Jan 2019, 09:29

TicTocTom wrote: Great build vid. I built mine from an Irish board and the same case, albeit with less care and expertise. Mine would benefit from a proper cleaning as you demonstrated. Did you lube the sliders? Also, where did you get the plate and insulating strip that you adhered to the case?
Hi, I did lube the switch sliders using WD40 ptfe dry lube

https://www.wd40specialist.com/products/dry-lube/

I had the plate laser cut from a local factory, but you can have one cut from lasergist:

https://lasergist.com/

starting fro the original dxfs in the aek64 github page :

https://github.com/tmk/alps64_plate

The foam is an insulating stuff used in windows shutter boxes. It's supposed to be somewhat soundproofing. Being sticky, it should prevent aluminum pinging.

Luca

ccl

05 Jan 2019, 22:39

Hi lucar,

congrats to the great video and new board.

Still hoping, considering your careful work, as well as keeping the original invoice of the AEK II and using your own original board, I do have hope to some day see your AEK II Rebuild Log as well:). I am pretty confident you kept the remains/pcb/chassis of the old board in tact..

Personally I love the sound of the AEK64 boards, but I crinch everytime thinking another AEK bites the dust.. Personally, I think AEK boards are just (or almost) as great by themselves.. I have one AEK I with orange alps in the office, and (another)one at home:). I also have a AEK II with dampened whites, but I don't like the sound at all. The keycaps however are maybe the best in the world, indeed. More texture than on the older AEK keycaps. So maybe I will linearize and undampen them some day, maybe some green like Sprit springs in, and lube, but in the original case/plate/pcb etc. Should be all undoable as well.

Cheers and happy typing.

User avatar
lucar

06 Jan 2019, 10:34

ccl wrote: Hi lucar,

congrats to the great video and new board.

Still hoping, considering your careful work, ....

Cheers and happy typing.

Hello,

thank You for Your kind words that I really appreciate. In reality I ask myself the same questions whenever I'm in the position of changing, replacing, hacking something that has an history behind.

For example , I recently found, in a local demolition center (Italy), an IBM 5296 terminal, with its bigfoot keyboard still connected, that was about to be demolished in a matter of minutes; I was not in the position of carring the whole terminal home since I was there with a small scooter but at the same time I did want to salvage something so I decided to cut the cable an take the keyboard.
I still feel the bad sensation of florilegium while cutting the cable and see that beautiful piece of design separated and gone forever.

About Your note, YES , I did keep the original AEKII parts apart, as I did with my Dolch Pac 64 Project for example, so the process is reversible.

Thanks for Your interesting post :)

Luca

ccl

06 Jan 2019, 16:51

Hey Luca,

yeah, also have a Performa 200 in the mail which I don't need (if anybody wants that, please pm me), was just keen on the M0118. But yes, it is also sad to separate them.

Shortly after my last reply I was curious about any other videos of yours, and to my delight I saw the Wyse restauration video there, which I had seen months before already. That and snackthecat's comments here on deskthority keep the Wyse desire alive for me, while my G80-1000 HAU keeps whispering, you don't need that, strange layouts, and conversions needed.. But they for sure look sturdy..

Cheers.

User avatar
lucar

06 Jan 2019, 20:57

ccl wrote: Hey Luca,

yeah, also have a Performa 200 in the mail which I don't need (if anybody wants that, please pm me), was just keen on the M0118. But yes, it is also sad to separate them.

Shortly after my last reply I was curious about any other videos of yours, and to my delight I saw the Wyse restauration video there, which I had seen months before already. That and snackthecat's comments here on deskthority keep the Wyse desire alive for me, while my G80-1000 HAU keeps whispering, you don't need that, strange layouts, and conversions needed.. But they for sure look sturdy..

Cheers.
I strongly suggest You grab one Wyse PCE somewhere and convert it. I have three, they are solid, metal plate, double shot thick keycaps, vintage blacks and they are usually cheap. if You can desolder the switches , lube them and bandaid the stabs, the keyboard is superb in my opinion once converted.

Luca

User avatar
ZedTheMan

06 Jan 2019, 21:10

lucar wrote:
ccl wrote: Hey Luca,

yeah, also have a Performa 200 in the mail which I don't need (if anybody wants that, please pm me), was just keen on the M0118. But yes, it is also sad to separate them.

Shortly after my last reply I was curious about any other videos of yours, and to my delight I saw the Wyse restauration video there, which I had seen months before already. That and snackthecat's comments here on deskthority keep the Wyse desire alive for me, while my G80-1000 HAU keeps whispering, you don't need that, strange layouts, and conversions needed.. But they for sure look sturdy..

Cheers.
I strongly suggest You grab one Wyse PCE somewhere and convert it. I have three, they are solid, metal plate, double shot thick keycaps, vintage blacks and they are usually cheap. if You can desolder the switches , lube them and bandaid the stabs, the keyboard is superb in my opinion once converted.

Luca
I did this sans the lubing and I thought it was great, still. Very smooth. Though, vintage blacks are too heavy for my as far as linears go and bring my finger strain, so I ended up selling mine.

ccl

07 Jan 2019, 20:50

Oh, the Wyse lure..

ZedTheMan - too bad. I use my G80-1000 with vintage blacks also unlubed. Terrific. But it was easy to swap the springs with the ones from an unloved MX Blues board, as the Cherry keyboards have no steel plate and without the plate the switches are trivial to open and exchange..
Well worth it. Alternatively springs from Kbdfans are also easy to come by..

Cheers, later

User avatar
abrahamstechnology

08 Jan 2019, 04:05

I love my Wyse WY-60. I have gotten very used to the layout and like the control key on the home row.
The only thing I dislike about it is it only has a Home and pagedown key, but I could easily remap the 4 extra function keys or reconfigure the Soarer's converter for multiple layers.

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