Lament for the pingmaster.

User avatar
depletedvespene

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. :|

User avatar
zrrion

06 Jun 2019, 06:26

A lot of these are good points TBH. I would recommend trying SKCC creams if you think greens are too light. I have a few cream boards and I make way fewer mistakes on them.

I would also recommend moving f-key related hotkeys to their own keys. Macros are super useful for stuff like that.

User avatar
matt3o
-[°_°]-

06 Jun 2019, 07:41

what's the matter with the pingmaster lately? I thought we settled on "it's cool, but it's shit" years ago but I see it everywhere lately.

Anakey

06 Jun 2019, 09:31

i guess its just because the huge stack that was available has now mostly being sold though i would find it terrible if the pingmaster was so far a users only experience of alps and IBM but i suspect if a warehouse full of Model Fs was found and sold for cheap then you would see them everywhare also

User avatar
kbdfr
The Tiproman

06 Jun 2019, 10:18

depletedvespene wrote:
06 Jun 2019, 05:04
[…] 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. […]
This also happens with much heavier switches.
For example, every time I hit "J", my keyboard types "J" even if I meant to type "H". :mrgreen:

User avatar
Chyros

06 Jun 2019, 10:28

I type very quickly on my Pingmaster, it's ibe of my fastest typing boards... but not that accurately xD . It's the profile that does it for me.

Still really like it, might rotate it in again soon :) .

User avatar
depletedvespene

06 Jun 2019, 13:21

zrrion wrote:
06 Jun 2019, 06:26
A lot of these are good points TBH. I would recommend trying SKCC creams if you think greens are too light. I have a few cream boards and I make way fewer mistakes on them.
I do have a couple Apple M0110* keyboards and those are fine (switchwise, of course - their layout is still lackluster). Then again, I spent a lot of time back when I was in university using Macintoshes, so perhaps there IS muscle memory on my fingers helping me out whenever I pull in one of those nowadays.

User avatar
depletedvespene

06 Jun 2019, 13:24

Anakey wrote:
06 Jun 2019, 09:31
i guess its just because the huge stack that was available has now mostly being sold though i would find it terrible if the pingmaster was so far a users only experience of alps and IBM but i suspect if a warehouse full of Model Fs was found and sold for cheap then you would see them everywhare also
It's important, then, to emphasize that SKCC switches are rather different from the SKCL switches that followed. Or, for that matter, from APS (which are pretty nice, BTW).

User avatar
depletedvespene

06 Jun 2019, 13:33

kbdfr wrote:
06 Jun 2019, 10:18
depletedvespene wrote:
06 Jun 2019, 05:04
[…] 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. […]
This also happens with much heavier switches.
For example, every time I hit "J", my keyboard types "J" even if I meant to type "H". :mrgreen:
I know you're joking ("hoking"?), but this IS a serious issue for clumsy gits like me - I hadn't really noticed until now just how much physical contact with the keys surrounding the one I meant to type I do make... something that gets a pass with heavier switches, as a light bump won't actuate them. Come to think of it, this could be taken advantage of: use the pingmaster as a trainer board, so the fingers will learn to move more precisely and avoid this problem (but the pingmaster's wacky profile might also be a factor to take into account, too).

User avatar
Dingster

06 Jun 2019, 22:07

Just in case if this thread makes anyone want to sell their pingmaster, I kindly direct you to my WTB ad over in the marketplace :lol:

Red_October

09 Jun 2019, 02:46

I've got the F keys over on the rightmost block with the numpad in pretty much its original location and layout. What screwed me up when I was using it as the "main" keyboard was the single-unit backspace key. But what cemented it as a "non-primary" keyboard for me is the exceptional lightness of the switches, the resting weight of my hands that has grown from a similar decades-long stretch of Models F and M is simply too much for the feather-lightness of the SKCC switches.

User avatar
depletedvespene

09 Jun 2019, 03:04

Red_October wrote:
09 Jun 2019, 02:46
I've got the F keys over on the rightmost block with the numpad in pretty much its original location and layout. What screwed me up when I was using it as the "main" keyboard was the single-unit backspace key. But what cemented it as a "non-primary" keyboard for me is the exceptional lightness of the switches, the resting weight of my hands that has grown from a similar decades-long stretch of Models F and M is simply too much for the feather-lightness of the SKCC switches.
I didn't even bother with the 1U backspace - I went straight to the HHKB-style backspace, with the 1.25U key below mapped as a TIE Enter... and that didn't really pose any problems. I want to test this kind mapping for longer when I get either a modded F AT or the F77 (but I do understand TIEs aren't for everyone).

Post Reply

Return to “Keyboards”