deskthority

Hi! Since that's my first post, hello!

I've recently acquired the beautiful terminal keyboard with hall effect switches, PCB manufactured by Micro Switch, in July 1975. The keyboard is missing the controller PCB, I intend to reverse engineer the thing, and revive it. (The Model M from the photos is my daily driver!)

Full album (40 pics) - http://imgur.com/a/PCgbh















If anyone could provide some hints on reanimating that behemoth, I'd be grateful

Cheers!

Welcome to DT! Impressive first post! Honeywell Hall Effect, one of my favorite switches. Very impressive keyboard you got there. That color combination, WOW.

Are these linears?
Does their feel justify their size?

Yes.
Like Honey, of course.

Edit: That's another matter.

Oh the feel is amazing. It feels like there's no physical posibility for a keyboard switch to be smoother than these.

They are as linear as a switch can get I assume, and of course, their size and weight is justified by their feel

The keytops are amazing, heavy, double shots of course, and look like new after 41 years. You can see that the operator(s) were using the num block mostly, the qwerty set is still a bit matte.

A fellow Pole

I got me one of those, without the fancy magnets in the top left though..

The location of that Ctrl key!

Hi!

Does your specimen have the controller PCB? I'd die to get some insight on how to revive mine. I see you've relocated the 'Send' key on yours I was thinking of relocating a whole switch, and 'adjusting' the steel top plate.

I assume that the magnets are not the model designation, but a terminal ID, to make the operator's life easier.

Hi!

I think none of the lot they originate from had a controller, and given the usability of an old terminal without a keyboard.. they might be gone already. But I've heard of one guy who adapted a Honeywell numpad to work with modern computers via USB with Teensy. Here's the link to the topic

If you didn't get this one from the Utensilia guy (or aren't him yourself), that's the second one with VT10 magnets.

Also I relocated even more keycaps

Sad to hear that the controller's gone on yours as well... I did get mine from Utensilia, as well as my Model M (he restored it beautifully). I'm quite sure that it's not impossible to get that board to work, but it would be amazing to get the original bubble display (missing in the top right corner). I'll test the LCDs in mine tomorrow, but they probably work just fine.

By the way, is your missing the backplate as well? I'm wondering where were those used back in the day.

It's just like yours, so no plate and no bottom of the case, but the PCB's got no visible damages. And the cable was so rusty and smashed I removed it (but still have it). The cable's marked "M20". Be sure to update us with the LCD

They all originate from one guy with allegro account. He had no idea about it, I think. It was stored in bad conditions for many years.

Welcome to DT! That's an absolutely beautiful board, congratulations!

That's nice to post the 1970s vintage on your very first topic.
Could you pull out all of the keycap? I'm wondering there are different variant on that keyboard.
I mean different variant have the different pressing force.

Great find, congratulations!
Here's a thread where we talked about how to convert these to USB, and while it has a lot of information on the switches and schematics, I haven't heard of anyone yet really going the full way:

workshop-f7/converting-my-wang-t12379.html

Please revive that thread! Interested in detailed photos of the PCB.

Thanks!

These are some tough cookies, aren't they. Mine is a little different than the wang you linked, first of all I have no logic to analyze, which I gives me more room to work with. Also, I've bought another gem, the Bunker Ramo terminal keyboard, also based on Micro Switch hall effect switches, and that one is fully assembled. I'll wait for it to arrive, document everything, post it as well, and then I'll start to reverse engineer both of them.

Regarding the switch variants, there are three variants:

- Regular switch (standard stem, full actuation force)
- Support switch (different stem - visible on one of the photos in the album - half of the actuation force)
- Double top size switch - (standard stem, half of the actuation force)

Quick update ( I know it's been a while) - I've finally found out where did that board come from. First of all, VT stands for Video Terminal, number 10.

I've had a long chat with a guy at my office that had been working for ICL for some 13 years - and he immediately recognized the keyboard. It came from an ICL 7561 workstation



Working as a terminal for ICL 2966:






He's going to reach out to his old pals from ICL, hopefully they've got some treasures to ship to me

Welcome!

If you are serious about getting this thing working you might read through some of the notes I had on a WANG keyboard conversion thread earlier:

workshop-f7/converting-my-wang-t12379.html

tl;dr: If your switches only give you a pulse when a key is pressed, instead of holding a low signal level when pressed and a high level when released, it will be very difficult to get this working meaningfully with a modern system. I've all but given up on using the original sensors for my board and may just make a new PCB using modern sensors at some point.

Great find!

Is this the PCB


[/img]

auroray wrote: ↑

01 Jun 2016, 21:13

Hi!

Does your specimen have the controller PCB? I'd die to get some insight on how to revive mine. I see you've relocated the 'Send' key on yours I was thinking of relocating a whole switch, and 'adjusting' the steel top plate.

I assume that the magnets are not the model designation, but a terminal ID, to make the operator's life easier.