Lament for the pingmaster.
Posted: 06 Jun 2019, 05:04
The pingmaster is the ultimate "meme" keyboard for enthusiasts like us: vintage yet with NOS units still available, NOT expensive, with ready options for both conversion and remapping, marries IBM and Alps, weird yet highly usable layout even with modern sensibilities turned on, great switches, cool keycaps with a wacky profile (a mixed profile, at that), and a sound so pleasant it gives the keyboard its official nickname, for which is quite better known than its true name (... if it even has one, instead of just the part numbers 5954339, 6112883, 6112884 and 6113442).
So of course I had to get one... ok, I got three (one Chinese, one of each of the known Japanese variants). And don't get me wrong, I really like these keyboards and I will NOT get rid of them... but I can't really use them. Why so? These are the three main reasons for it (and remember, this is my particular experience - YMWSV):
1) The lack of an F row is too much to bear. I have Esc and the F1..F12 keys mapped in the Fn layer, both under the top row and the numpad, but they're just not comfortable to use like that, especially when combining them with other mods (Ctrl-F5 being the most common one).
Yes, there are other oddities to the physical layout (the extra column on the alpha block screws with the muscle memory when reaching out to the nav cluster, for example), but I have been adapting to that without too much fuss. But the F row is sorely missed.
2) After decades of using exclusively Model M keyboards, with Model F units a relatively recent arrival... and one keyboard with Ergo Clears put into service out of necessity... the Alps SKCC green switches come off as exceedingly light! Typing properly is difficult, as I keep making typos because I touch the keys surrounding the one I meant to type. Pressing the same key twice also happens frequently, and it's definitely not the keyboard chattering.
3) The keycaps feel "small", even though I know it's not the case (it's an effect of the wacky profile, as far as I can tell), and that, combined with the absence of homing bars or scoops or whatever on the F and J keys (oddly enough, the numpad 5 key does have a nipple), makes me continuously lose my "orientation" on the keyboard, forcing me to frequently stop, reset the position of my hands and start again. I've had to do that three times just while writing this paragraph. I wish I could chalk this up to a momentary annoyance, expected to disappear after my hands have accumulated some practice, but I don't really expect that to happen.
I intended to use this keyboard for my experiment in rightshifting the alpha block (given that the F AT that was the first option for it still hasn't shown up), but I had no choice but to cut short the experiment, as the keyboard and I just... don't agree. Once I've posted this article, I'm going to unplug it and rotate it away in favor of my F122, which has been off-duty for long enough already.
I can't help but wonder how things would have been if I had had a pingmaster with my first PC and kept at it over the next years. Habit wouldn't be the issue that is being now.
So of course I had to get one... ok, I got three (one Chinese, one of each of the known Japanese variants). And don't get me wrong, I really like these keyboards and I will NOT get rid of them... but I can't really use them. Why so? These are the three main reasons for it (and remember, this is my particular experience - YMWSV):
1) The lack of an F row is too much to bear. I have Esc and the F1..F12 keys mapped in the Fn layer, both under the top row and the numpad, but they're just not comfortable to use like that, especially when combining them with other mods (Ctrl-F5 being the most common one).
Yes, there are other oddities to the physical layout (the extra column on the alpha block screws with the muscle memory when reaching out to the nav cluster, for example), but I have been adapting to that without too much fuss. But the F row is sorely missed.
2) After decades of using exclusively Model M keyboards, with Model F units a relatively recent arrival... and one keyboard with Ergo Clears put into service out of necessity... the Alps SKCC green switches come off as exceedingly light! Typing properly is difficult, as I keep making typos because I touch the keys surrounding the one I meant to type. Pressing the same key twice also happens frequently, and it's definitely not the keyboard chattering.
3) The keycaps feel "small", even though I know it's not the case (it's an effect of the wacky profile, as far as I can tell), and that, combined with the absence of homing bars or scoops or whatever on the F and J keys (oddly enough, the numpad 5 key does have a nipple), makes me continuously lose my "orientation" on the keyboard, forcing me to frequently stop, reset the position of my hands and start again. I've had to do that three times just while writing this paragraph. I wish I could chalk this up to a momentary annoyance, expected to disappear after my hands have accumulated some practice, but I don't really expect that to happen.
I intended to use this keyboard for my experiment in rightshifting the alpha block (given that the F AT that was the first option for it still hasn't shown up), but I had no choice but to cut short the experiment, as the keyboard and I just... don't agree. Once I've posted this article, I'm going to unplug it and rotate it away in favor of my F122, which has been off-duty for long enough already.
I can't help but wonder how things would have been if I had had a pingmaster with my first PC and kept at it over the next years. Habit wouldn't be the issue that is being now.