I hope you had great Xmass celebrations !
After many years of observing and learning it is time for me to participate.
As some of you know, I recently acquired probably the last keyboard of my collection.
It is a Beamspring IBM 3278 Model A02 in German version.
First of all some pictures :
Spoiler:
First of all I'm surprised by the general state of the keyboard, honestly it's not my first beamspring and if the first one deserved all my attention and a complete restoration, I'm at the stage where I wonder what I'll be able to do on it (expect maybe the switches and the assembly following the darkcruix's guide).
The exterior paint is immaculate, not a single trace, no wear marks or UV damage on the paint.
All the markings look like new, if not too new...
And I come to my first concern, could someone confirm that nothing is wrong? I mean, it's so clean that I doubt it's even been used before, the plastic sheet is certainly old and came easily without force, but it was almost as good as new, almost as when it left the factory.
The back is unmarked, the pads have had little or no use and even the small plastic slot on the underside of the keyboard is practically new. The booklet is new, the ink on the stickers has not moved.
- Backside plastic slot
- IMG_4519.JPG (412.1 KiB) Viewed 1950 times
Spoiler:
In short, either it's the discovery of the century or someone has gone to a lot of trouble, I would like your opinion.
Second concern, the part that is a bit more annoying. The keyboard cable is actually composed of two cables, one directly connected to the main PCB and the other one goes to another PCB under the upper part of the topcover with the diodes and square buttons.
My first idea would have been to cut it for cleaning and reassembly, but it's probably not the best idea in the world
. Now what am I supposed to do?
1) Ideally I would like to be able to connect these buttons and even the diodes but I have no idea how to do it. If anyone has an idea
2) Is it a crime to restore a keyboard in such a good condition?
3) Theoretically I would dismantle the whole assembly to clean all the switches and replace the foam but there close to no wiggle on the keys but some are out of alignment.
In advance thank you very much for your help, please don't hesitate to pm me for more details.
