deskthority

I haven't thought about it much before, except that I generally have an interest in older technology, such as fountain pens, letterpress printing and vintage mechanical keyboards. I dream of owning a vintage Heidelberg letterpress machine, but probably never will.

I only realized now, when reading ...

This is such a great project. I've been meaning to offer my help if proofreading could be of any assistance.

Chiclets (turtles) all the way down to the early eighties? A bit depressing despite the good looking keyboards.

I'd certainly appreciate that too Redmaus.

I'll have to check again whether it is properly grounded. I sort of just gave up on it, thinking that that is the price of ignorance.

I tried it with one of Orihalcon's XT converter cables and none of the keys corresponded with what keystroke was received. Would that be caused by the modifications and would it be fixed if the extra grounding parts were removed?

I also got an "XKB-3" from the same seller last year. At the time I wasn't even aware that such modifications existed. Can it be undone, or is the only option an xwhatsit controller replacement?

You're probably thinking of Sangdrax's post: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=19788

No, looks like one of the Japanese 5576 keyboards, possibly a 5576-A01, although I am no expert.

http://ps-2.kev009.com/sandy55/5576/5576.html

There's also this thread by snacksthecat of the restoration of a 5576 in the gallery: viewtopic.php?f=62&t=21171

I've never seen any space invaders over here, especially not the cursed kind. A beautiful board. I'd just hope that it goes to someone closer, since shipping anything large or heavy here is quite costly.

I always thought that being in Africa sucked for finding any mechanical keyboards. We have a charity shop walking distance from home, where I found two model M's in a week, as well as some white Alps boards. They sold for next to nothing, so perhaps I should be more optimistic that I'll find a blue ...

I also have my work cut out, but thankfully also with the assistance of orihalcon, I should be able to restore it. The foam is shot though, it just disintegrated when I removed it. Cleaned up what I've got so far and hoping to have the barrel plate sandblasted and powder coated in the coming week ...

You can. I use an Imperial 1/16" drill bit which is just a tiny bit undersized for a 2mm screw, but it cuts it way into the plastic very nicely.

It is even possible/easy to do a "screw mod" with a 1/16" drill bit and 2mm screw and no nut at all, for example in that first row below the space bar ...

I use M2 machine screws which have a shaft diameter of 2mm.


Thanks fohat. I have the M2 screws and nuts. Mine have a hexagonal depression in the head, so I'll have to get an allan key that fits. I'm looking for a 4mm nut driver or socket here.

Does one use a 2mm drill bit for the holes in the ...

Thanks fohat, I have a small enough phillips screw driver, but don't even know what size socket would fit the nuts. It looks like something like 2mm, but it would not be generally available over here at least.

As a relative novice, I really find Hypersphere's post useful. Although the forum probably has all the answers one may be looking for, finding the right post depends on selection of keywords to get there. I wish we had a sort of "recipe" topic, with a parts list, e.g. what parts and which tools are ...

Thanks Muirium, that makes sense. Although I would expect that one can ameliorate some of the strangeness with key remapping (to a point).

swampangel wrote: 16 Jan 2019, 16:56 Model F AT for $225 USD

I'm too new at this to know, but why are AT model F's somehow more desirable (and expensive) then XT ones?

Not a great find necessarily, but cheap from the local charity shop up my street: $ 3.74 for the three at the current exchange rate.

Two NTC boards and one Ortek MCK-101FX. All appear to have either white alps or clones. The NTC with the diagonal navigation keys seems peculiar.

I agree that the thread is an interesting read. I'm also wondering about the growth in people interested in vintage keyboards over time. With sites like this and youtube channels like Chryrosran's, more people are introduced to the pleasure of using vintage keyboards and demand grows. With growth in ...

Non-expert opinion this, but I think a model M is a great start. They're easily available, with clean ones going for a decent price if one must buy them. They're often just found.

Thanks mxgian99. I tried that with the same result. hid_listen does not register any key press. I'll check the wiring to the pro micro again.

@Darkshado, that's what I was expecting too. I am stumped, since I don't know why the board gets identified as code set 1, which I suspect is why I don't get any keys to register.

I'm using the converter I believe (Soarer_at2usb_v1.12_atmega32u4.hex). Good for you St0ckz, I'm hoping to also get this to work, without knowing enough yet about what I'm doing.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Adding the Soarer tools folder to the path, allows one to address the contents of the folder from any other folder. I'm ok with the command line and don't really need that to execute the Soarer tools.

I was under the impression that there is a default key mapping when ...

@St0ckz: So far, I have flashed the Soarer hex file to the pro micro and then soldered the wires as you said I should. The original cable of the keyboard was forcibly removed, leaving behind the little black connection box that connects the cable to the pins on the pcb. I soldered the wires that ...

@Hypershere No I haven't. I thought those were only needed when one uses a long cable. I'm testing with a very short one.

@Hypershere Yes, the loading of the hex file was my first hurdle. I checked the wires that I soldered to the pro micro and they correspond to the advice St0ckz gave.

One step forward, soldering the wires to the pro micro successful. Fired up hid_listen:

Waiting for device:....

I connect the keyboard to a usb port:

Listening:
wEE

remaining: FFFC

Keyboard ID: 0000
Code Set: 1
Mode: PC/XT

R05

And then nothing happens when I press a key on the keyboard ...