A new Model F setup issue you haven't seen before
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- Location: US
- Main keyboard: New Model F
- Main mouse: SteelSeries Rival 310
- Favorite switch: Too soon to say
Getting my new Model F setup was quite a task. The two barrels for the return key had springs in them, so I had to break the inner assembly apart and swap one with the blank for a stabilizer one row up. Then four keys were stuck on. Then three keys had a small input delay. My goodness the tolerances on those springs is small... Then the function layer wasn't registering, so I edited a QMK layout and reflashed the board, but windows didn't like the board in bootloader mode, so I eventually figured out how to install drivers for the bootloader USB device. After all that, I put the new Model F on my desk and the thing wouldn't stop spamming keys. As if compressing and decompressing springs a half a millimeter wasn't making me crazy enough, this is what I was dealing with:
https://i.imgur.com/7YE1UPk.mp4
The keyboard's working great now. Actuation force is low, volume is vociferous, and aesthetic is rad. This was a bigger DIY project than I expected, but I got to learn with my hands how buckling springs work, and it's a really cool thing.
https://i.imgur.com/7YE1UPk.mp4
The keyboard's working great now. Actuation force is low, volume is vociferous, and aesthetic is rad. This was a bigger DIY project than I expected, but I got to learn with my hands how buckling springs work, and it's a really cool thing.
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- Location: US
- Main keyboard: New Model F
- Main mouse: SteelSeries Rival 310
- Favorite switch: Too soon to say
Ha, yea, I banished the stupid ThinkGeek trinket to the closet.
Yea, I kind of wish I'd gotten to assemble the whole thing myself. Starting with 400 naked parts and the expectation of a leisurely weekends work would have been more enjoyable. Whoever built it made a small mistake during assembly. There was no way to make a layout work with the keycaps I had, so I had to swap the two left barrel assemblies: (before picture)
- Palatino
- Location: England
- Main keyboard: Fluctuates.
- Main mouse: Of no interest.
- Favorite switch: Too early to tell.
It's tales like this that put me off ordering one of these directly. I know I'd be awful at fixing any issues, of which there seems to be quite a variety. Mind you, if anyone is already bored of theirs (!) or in need of the cash, I'd be interested in buying a ready-to-use one with all the bumps ironed out already...
- Muirium
- µ
- Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
- Main keyboard: HHKB Type-S with Bluetooth by Hasu
- Main mouse: Apple Magic Mouse
- Favorite switch: Gotta Try 'Em All
- DT Pro Member: µ
Quality Assurance: one of the Achilles heels of small batch productions like this. Understandable but annoying.
Mind, I don't own a Model F that I haven't been inside to move things around, but that's the vintage experience, too! Wasn't when they were new, though.
Mind, I don't own a Model F that I haven't been inside to move things around, but that's the vintage experience, too! Wasn't when they were new, though.
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- Location: US
- Main keyboard: New Model F
- Main mouse: SteelSeries Rival 310
- Favorite switch: Too soon to say
Yea, having one other keyboard build under my belt was pretty crucial. A similar fear put me off buying a vintage model. I can figure out how to fix things when everything is new, but well worn parts add an additional layer of difficulty. The manual for the new Model F makes clear that each spring has to sit in one orientation with the end of the spring's coil at the 12 o'clock position. That probably doesn't matter until the spring has been buckled in one direction for a few years, but getting that orientation right on a used spring would add another layer of difficulty to correctly compressing springs to sort out stuck, pinging or laggy keys.Palatino wrote: ↑06 Apr 2022, 15:28It's tales like this that put me off ordering one of these directly. I know I'd be awful at fixing any issues, of which there seems to be quite a variety. Mind you, if anyone is already bored of theirs (!) or in need of the cash, I'd be interested in buying a ready-to-use one with all the bumps ironed out already...
I kept thinking about how old world this keyboard is while I built it. It's like an old car with points and a carburetor. Fixing it isn't an exact science. I imagine it was like this when they were new, each board just spent a good chunk of time in QC before getting boxed. I'm a newcomer, though, maybe I'm totally off.
- Muirium
- µ
- Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
- Main keyboard: HHKB Type-S with Bluetooth by Hasu
- Main mouse: Apple Magic Mouse
- Favorite switch: Gotta Try 'Em All
- DT Pro Member: µ
You're not wrong. They had a few minutes of QC each, as I recall from some IBM promotional video of the process in Greenock; shared here many years back so I can't remember where to look. This was done by well trained humans who gave every keyboard (and everything else they made) a specifically crafted sequence of tests before initialling the sticker and sending it on. It's a very, very hands on kind of industrial process!
As for diddling around inside the oldies, here's my first time inside one back in 2015:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9791
I don't recall being so fussy about spring rotational symmetry, though! But yes, there's a lot of shuffling and shoogling these beasts.
As for diddling around inside the oldies, here's my first time inside one back in 2015:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9791
I don't recall being so fussy about spring rotational symmetry, though! But yes, there's a lot of shuffling and shoogling these beasts.
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- Location: United states SC
- Main keyboard: IBM Model F 122/AT
- Main mouse: model o
- Favorite switch: Model f buckling spring
this just shows that ellipse is lieing about his QC standards what he says makes shipping take forever as this would just not pass QC
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- Location: Sweden
- Main keyboard: IBM F122
- Main mouse: Logitech MX518
- Favorite switch: IBM Buckling Spring
There are many reasons for the "shipping taking forever", QC is just one of them. It's not like he had a warehouse filled with ModelF's for 5 years and just had to QC and ship them.
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- Location: US
- Main keyboard: New Model F
- Main mouse: SteelSeries Rival 310
- Favorite switch: Too soon to say
Very cool! Your experience sounds like cracking open a sarcophagus.Muirium wrote: ↑06 Apr 2022, 16:40You're not wrong. They had a few minutes of QC each, as I recall from some IBM promotional video of the process in Greenock; shared here many years back so I can't remember where to look. This was done by well trained humans who gave every keyboard (and everything else they made) a specifically crafted sequence of tests before initialling the sticker and sending it on. It's a very, very hands on kind of industrial process!
As for diddling around inside the oldies, here's my first time inside one back in 2015:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9791
I don't recall being so fussy about spring rotational symmetry, though! But yes, there's a lot of shuffling and shoogling these beasts.
I mean, as Muirium pointed out, this is guy is running a group buy, not a company. I'm grateful for his efforts jumping through so many hoops to get these things remade. While I waited 11 months for my F77 to arrive, I certainly wondered how someone could maintain their sanity building thousands of keyboards by hand. That's the challenge. To your point, though, two of the four screws that hold my case together had partially stripped heads. That's a very novice mistake to make on something you've done a thousand times. Maybe he's getting help.Jacobalbertus1 wrote: ↑06 Apr 2022, 17:09this just shows that ellipse is lieing about his QC standards what he says makes shipping take forever as this would just not pass QC