Yesterday i found 6 Olivetti typewriters at the recycling center and i was able to take them for free. 4 of them are Olivetti ET 121 and the other two are Olivetti ET 111.
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I took a keycap off one of the ET 111 and at first glance i tought that it used alps snap action switches
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But it didn't sound clicky at all, and unlike what i read about these switches, these were actualy quite tactile. So i opened the typewriter and took out the keyboard module. There were no Alps logos anywhere, only Olivetti logos, which meant the switches were most likely not Alps. So i removed the pcb and found out it used some sort of slider over domes with conductive rubber pad over pcb switches.
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The keycaps are not very thick, but they are still really nice ABS doubleshot keycaps with spherical top.
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The pcb was connected to the typewriter with a 21 pin connector of wich i desoldered the part on the typewriter motherboard, to later use it to convert it.
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To convert it i used a QMK firmware which i made for a Teensy 2.0 using
https://kbfirmware.com/, because it is much quicker than using the actual QMK program and it works just as well.
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After finishing the firmware and figuring out how to connect the pcb with the Teensy 2.0, i started wiring the keyboard.
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I soldered the Teensy with the connector i desoldered earlier so that i could connect and disconnect the microcontroller from the pcb while working on it, to avoid damaging it. After a bit of troubleshooting, i was able to get it to work partially, since the two blocks of keys on the sides work in a different way compared to the others: while all the alphas, numbers and modifiers correspond each to the combination of a row and a column, just like pretty much any keyboard that works with QMK, those keys on the sides correspond to the combination of two columns. i still have no idea how to get them to work, but for now i guess i'm satisfied. Another thing i couldn't get to work was the caps lock key, wich unfortunately doesn't work.
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Overrall, i'm quite satisfied with the result, and i really like the switches: they feel quite similiar to topre, but the sound is overrall more deep pitched and better, except the spacebar, wich squeaks and rattles a lot (nothing a little bit of grease can't solve).
I uploaded the .hex file i made for this keyboard in case you need it and the .json file you can open with kbfirmware if you want to modify it on google drive, so you can download them.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
I will soon post a typing test and later i'll start converting one of the Olivetti ET 121 i have, and i will update as soon as i can.
