Another photo from Cindy
warning: Here be potato pics.
I'm bad with "before" photos, and this is the only one
The board had some 12 keycaps missing, but Cindy found replacements for most of them, which i appreciate tremendously. If you look closely at the legends you can tell a difference, and some keys don't have front-printed legends, but that's nitpicking. That missing PA3 key, though, that's annoying
If anyone has an (incomplete) Unsaver keycap set they don't need, shoot me a PM.The barrel frame was corroded a bit more in the middle left, so i took it out, sanded it with 60 grit sandpaper, than 120, and finally 180. I ended up removing what I assume is primer coating at one part of the board, so I sprayed the board with a rust inhibtor:
That removed a lot of the primer but not all, so I took out the plastic stabiliser hooks and took the frame out for sand blasting
Finally I had it powder coated as well - primer + matte black
It's a thick coat, so serial number on the plate is barely discernible
After returning the stabiliser hooks
I considered painting them as well, but I don't mind them showing their age, and it was already a tight fit after powder coating
Interesting thing about PCB is that there are extra pads in the nav area, and between left ctrl and alt, but none of them are connected
Bottom casing and back plate are both unicorny, rainbowy, amazing
Back plate had some oxidation, but it's just too nice to sand away. I brushed it away with cloth, so it's cleaner than it was. I wonder what rust inhibitor would do to it, and if it would work at all, since this probably not iron oxide. Zinc perhaps?
Foam was in nice shape, so i decided to keep it
Springs are looking nice as well
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the case before I cleaned it. It was somewhat dirty and with some markings. I first cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol, then I used a pencil erasers on some markings, then I used bleach water, and finally I did another pass with IPA. Here are some pics of the problematic parts of the case. If I'm not mistaken, this case is dyed, and this is probably just the paint cracking. I wish there was some way to fix it up quickly. It's not that noticeable in common usage though
I also put barrels and keycaps into dental tab solution and followed that up with IPA as well. I also sprayed leg springs with rust inhibitor. The only thing left is to clean the cable. Finally, today, I made everything ready for reassembly
One spring was missing, so I took a spare, and put it into ANSI left shift position. Once I ANSI-mod it, this will be gone
While on topic of ANSI modding, I have a keycap set on its way. I would like to get version of stabilised keys with wire stabilisers, and I actually have some from a spare AT set. However there is no Backspace there, and they have text in legends, as opposed to OG Unsaver ones, so they don't match fully. A new full set of pebble keys is what would be ideal. It's also interesting to note that the barrel frame has plastic stabiliser hooks for ANSI keys as well, but, and correct me if I'm wrong, Unsaver (and F122 and M122) only came in ISO layouts.
Ghetto clampin'!
And after a bit more work, lo and behold
I forgot to which pins DIP switch connects, as I disassembled the board a couple of weeks ago and didn't note it (note to self: must. take. before. pics.). If anyone can look it up, that would be great. It's not a big deal, however, since I don't know what any of those settings do
I assume it is something terminal related and wouldn't be exploitable with a regular PC directly or through Soarer's converter.If you made it this far, thank you on your interest and patience. Finally, special thanks go to Cindy and HAL for making it possible for me to have this awesome keyboard, fohat for his tips about plastic stabiliser hooks and idollar for his detailed F122 disassembly which was of great help with the Unsaver as well.
