first look at F107 and F122

[alh84001]

I just got these two delivered a couple of minutes ago, and I already added some model M keycaps.


I thought model M was heavy when I first got it. Next to F107 it feels like feather. Even F122, although bigger, feels light next to it.


This is how they look right now, as I have no time to play with them now. Later today hopefully.


Surprisingly, at least to me, F107 has stabiliser wire under right shift key. I didn't know that when taking off the cap. Luckily i didn't break the tabs.


Time to finally get that F77 and Unsaver



Some more pics later. Probably.

P.S. Apologies to Germans for misusing their dictionaries/thesauri in such a way. Kind of a nod to the previous owner

[shreebles]

Brutal! So you got those from a german then? The keyboards, too, or just the dictionaries?

[alh84001]

Dictionaries are from a friend of mine who is a translator from German/English to Croatian and vice versa. He currently works only with English so he doesn't mind

Keyboards too are from Germany. From a member here actually.

I forgot to comment on pinginess of F107. I don't think any other F board I have is as loud. The caps lock key especially stands out. I will try and capture it on camera, although a mobile phone mic probably won't do it properly.

[shreebles]

You have to try an FSSK without any rubber mat then

[need]

really nice hacksaw

[alh84001]

You have to try an FSSK without any rubber mat then

Well, I'm waiting on a PCB to arrive, hopefully next week. After that it shouldn't be long for me to compare, probably by next Saturday . Although, mine will be on a very thin backplate, taken from a membrane model M, so it will probably be different than others.

really nice hacksaw

It isn't mine, but it's tradeable


BTW has anyone ever found a way to clean those clear caps for relegendable keys?

[alh84001]

Some more pics from the inside of F107


The xwhatsit is connected directly to the buzzer. Is that supposed to work? Shouldn't there be a driver board inbetween? Looking at pr0ximity's restoration thread that should work.



There's a schematic in this post, but I'm not sure which way the cable should be oriented. Looking at pr0ximity's setup here, it seems that controller 5V was connected to the buzzer GND and vice-versa. Could that have killed the buzzer? I tried twisting the knob on the buzzer from one end position to another and typing, but there was no sound coming out of the buzzer.

Edit: I just probed the pins on the controller header and it seems that indeed 5V and GND were switched (and DVR wrongly connected). I rotated the cable connector and connected it back to the header, but still no sound :/

I also probed the buzzer controller and got the following (pic for reference; same color denotes same potential)


- when DVR is 0V (to GND), output of green pin on the controller is around 0.55V
- when DVR jumps to 5V, output of the green pin on the controller is around 0.62V
- on the resistor that connects green trace and orange trace there is never any voltage measured, so the orange is always following the green
- three pins below the trimmer are always on the same potential, two of them go to the buzzer, and one I guess is connected to that orange trace, because voltage also follows orange/green trace

[vivalarevolución]

Good to see you are buying more Model Fs. You can never have enough.

[alh84001]

I am starting to really fear that is the truth

[Redmaus]

Dude nice. I really need to buy my F107 from Orihalcon but alps keeps distracting me. I love my F122 and will have my Unsaver complete soon. (with cut case ofc )

Is anyone selling solenoid drivers? I have a blue switch board solenoid as well as my Unsaver buzzer.

Enjoy your full metal keyboard!

[pr0ximity]

You won't need a driver for the "solenoids" on the F107's (they're actually piezoelectric buzzers), the drivers are only necessary for beamspring solenoids which require extra juice.

alh84001: The pins look different on my board because the diagram xwhatsit posted in his thread is looking at the controller right-side-up. When installed on my board it is flipped over If you arrange them relative to the 5V squared pin it should be correct.

To turn the buzzer up, turn the dial counter-clockwise. There is more movement in my dial than there is volume range, so at a certain point at either end there is about a half-turn or so where it is either fully off or maxed out.

EDIT: Also, I'm assuming you have indeed set the expansion header setting in xwhatsit's configration utility to SolenoidBuzzer with an appropriate extend and retract timings. If not, you'll never get it working

[Redmaus]

Hey proximity, what about the ones that come in the blue switch boards? Do those need a driver? I think these are actually solenoids btw

[alh84001]

Thanks for the info.

I noticed the wrong pinout that was there and just rotated the cable connector, but as I said, it's the same, no sound at all. I guess switching GND and VCC fried the controller on the buzzer board. Not an issue to go crazy over, but still, it would've been nice to get it going since it's already there.

[pr0ximity]

Hey proximity, what about the ones that come in the blue switch boards? Do those need a driver? I think these are actually solenoids btw

Don't think I've seen one of those, not sure

[alh84001]

Hey proximity, what about the ones that come in the blue switch boards? Do those need a driver? I think these are actually solenoids btw

Yes, they are actual solenoids, so I would imagine they would need a driver.

As for my buzzer problems, I connected the buzzer directly to 1.5V battery and it produced a weak scratchy sound. I suppose if I connect it directly to 5V, the sound would be OK. So i guess that the chip is definitely fried. I wonder what the purpose of the whole buzzer board is. Why can't piezo be directly connected to DVR and GND?

[alh84001]

I finally made an adapter for my F122 today, and connected it to my mac. The keyboard feels great, but immediately I observed that some keys are not working. In the end it seems the whole third column is affected. From top to bottom, the following keys don't work:
- Cmd15
- Cmd3
- alpha 1
- Q
- Left caps lock
- Left shift
- Left enter (ctrl)

Did anyone else encounter a similar problem? What is the likely culprit - PCB trace, controller, something else? Depending on the issue what are my options to fix it?

Edit:
Looks like someone else had a similar issue, and it turned out to be a faulty controller - workshop-f7/issues-with-2wasz-keys-on-a ... 10621.html
I will have to take a look tomorrow, too late/early here right now.

[andrewjoy]

it could be grounding , make sure that controller is properly grounded

[alh84001]

Well the cable is grounded to the case, just after it enters inside. And controller is screwed with two screws to the case. I cant remember right now if there was any other grounding, and I'm away from the keyboard right now. Should it be grounded in any other way?

[andrewjoy]

The controller should come with a grounding strap , as long as its screwed in it should be fine

[orihalcon]

I have solenoid drivers if anyone needs them. $25 shipped to the USA, or $25 plus a flat $10 International shipping no matter how many you buy. Also have F107's with Xwhatsit controllers pre-installed. PM if interested.

In regards to the above, the main thing to keep in mind is that the 2x3 DuPont connector has to have some pins switched to match how it connects to the xWhatsit as some of the above pictures show. The Square solderpad on the xWhatsit is +5V. Those above pictures probably explain that better, but I think there is potential to damage things if you plug it in upside down. I usually solder the piezo buzzer directly to the xWhatsit myself since the volume can always be turned all the way down from the outside if you need a break from the buzzer

[alh84001]

Thank you on that info Orihalcon. I guess I'll try and solder the xwhatsit directly to the trimmer. Hopefully nothing will explode

[alh84001]

The controller should come with a grounding strap , as long as its screwed in it should be fine

Comparing with pics in https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48786.0, seems nothing out of the ordinary.


Update:
It seems the issue is in the PCB. I probed the controller with multimeter, and voltage on all column pins alternates between 0,19V and 0,29V. When quickly pressing a key in one column, voltage can briefly jump to 0,4V-0,5V on all column pins but the third one. This leads me to believe that there is a problem with continuity on the PCB.

Next step is, per idollar's suggestion, to scratch the sensing pad of a key in the column and check continuity with the corresponding controller pin. This can be done without disassembling the whole keyboard. However, I'd first like to make a visual inspection of the PCB, and for that I need to take apart the whole assembly. Unfortunately, I can't do that now, since I don't have proper tools to put the board back together.

If I discover where a trace is interrupted, is it fixable? What are my options?

Update 2:
Well, what do you know, it seems to be working! All by itself.

I opened the board, took out the PCB, and scratched top and bottom pads in column 3. Using multimeter I found out they had continuity with controller. Then I assembled the board again, connected it to my mac, and what do you know, every key is now working. I don't know why it happened, but it works. My theory is that maybe the ribbon cable inside got bent during transport and that I (unknowingly) bent it into place. Hopefully, there will be no more issues.