First I want to give a huge thanks to @listofoptions and @pandrew.
As of writing this I’m using the keyboard that was brought back from the dead twice now.
If you just want a PCB and how to set it up just skip this section:
Spoiler:
A couple of 5251s popped up on ebay around two years ago that were in absolute terrible condition. Out of the two keyboards one was able to be saved more than the other but was still in poor condition. After all the old foam and dust protection was stripped away from the keyboard was pretty rusty.
The barrel plate had to be stripped and repainted due to the amount of rust. It was powder coated in a nice matte black finish.
Once I have received the board from listofoptions it became apparent that the PCB was too far gone. The water that this keyboard must have sat in ate away at the PCB.
Therefore, listofoptions was able to recreate the PCB for version 1. Upon receiving these PCBs from the factory the modifier keys were the only ones that operated.
It seemed like the pads which the keys use the sense a press were slightly off. Afterwards, another revision was created to see if version 2 of the PCB would work. After getting the second version of the PCB is was a bit better but also some keys were not working 100%.
After posting the question on the DT discord pandrew mentioned that I should try the QMK repo for IBM keyboards. After flashing the xwhatsit with QMK it was able to detect all keys and the keyboard worked as normal.
This keyboard has risen from the dead and thankfully operational.
Final keyboard, USB cord is just not plugged in:
Spoiler:
Here is the 3D rendering of the PCB
Spoiler:
Here is the physical PCB it's 1.6mm thick
Spoiler:
Since these PCBs are new the xwhatsit capsense software really doesn't like the values that it gets from the PCBs. Therefore, you must put QMK on the xwhatsit instead.
