IBM SSK club!

[grave00]

20130714_203510 (1280x960).jpg (397.17 KiB) Viewed 9188 times

I think this thing has cursed me because I don't use it as my main. Now I constantly bang my mouse into my WASD during FPS.

[Muirium]

The TKL's revenge!

It's not the SSK's fault, of course, but the idiotic place we insist on putting numpads:

http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/doe ... t6289.html

The simple way around it is just to mouse with your left hand instead. But not especially FPS friendly while learning a new mouse hand, of course!

[tinnie]

Can...can...I join the club?..

[snoopy]

can't wait...

[Muirium]

Jackpot.

[litster]

Can...can...I join the club?..

Nice! They all look the same. Did you find a stack of old stock?

[GeorgeK]

They all look in good condition

[ne0phyte]

Got a blank set of keys today. It looks really good

Spoiler:

[webwit]

Looking good!

I watched the first season of Breaking Bad and really liked it, but gave up in the second because I ended up finding the serial nature insufferable. Hope they managed to end it well.

[002]

You really ought to give it another shot. Season 2 is probably the weakest but if you can get through it, the rest is pretty good.

[Halvar]

Thanks to a pointer from Muirium in the "why not us" thread, I was able to get a terminal SSK from a seller on ebay UK. It originally had an RJ45 connector and a fixed cable. I was lucky, the keyboard seems to not have seen a lot of use -- the springs feel great, and there are no broken rivets, bent springs or other problems. Sorry for the somewhat poorly illuminated pics.

Terminal SSK

terminal_ssk (Custom).jpg (110.49 KiB) Viewed 8811 times

Spoiler:

Terminal fixed cable

pfropf (Custom).jpg (91.31 KiB) Viewed 8811 times

Sticker

sticker (Custom).jpg (76.67 KiB) Viewed 8795 times

I originally planned to use a Soarer converter to connect it to my PC. However, when I took a closer look and opened it I found that the key layout is identical to a PC SSK, and the two membrane cables that connect to the converter look the same and have the same positions as in a normal PC Model M.

Fortunately, I still had this old wreck lying around, with a broken case and missing key caps:

Spoiler:

Wreck

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So I worked up the courage to just try and use the controller from the wrecked full size Model M in my "new" SSK. Which also has the advantage of a detachable cable.

Spoiler:

Original controller

termcontrol (Custom).jpg (102.73 KiB) Viewed 8811 times

PC Controller

pccontrol (Custom).jpg (150.62 KiB) Viewed 8811 times

PC connector

pcbuxe (Custom).jpg (100.12 KiB) Viewed 8811 times

And what can I say -- it works like a charm! The matrices seem to be just the same between the Terminal SSK and the classic fullsize PC Model M. All keys and also the membrane contacts that are not used in the ANSI layout work flawlessly.

Since I'm used to the German layout, the next step would be to convert it to ISO. I have shied away from that so far, because I would have to bolt mod the SSK to do that, and given the nice condition of the rivets, I am not really inclined to rip it apart at the moment.

What I did do was exchange the keycaps for ones with German layout. I was lucky to have gotten a German set of IBM caps from matt3o a few months ago, and together with the stems from the wrecked Model M I now, for the time being, have an SSK with a mixed "German ANSI" layout.

Spoiler:

Keycaps from matt3o (THANK YOU!)

büddel (Custom).jpg (114.51 KiB) Viewed 8811 times

ANSI German layout

ansideutsch (Custom).jpg (106.96 KiB) Viewed 8811 times

I'm using it every day at home at the moment, and I love it. Buckling springs FTW!

I wouldn't have found and got this keyboard without the community. So thanks again to Muirium for tipping me off, to Matteo for the keycaps, and to the admins and club members for bringing us all together here!

[Muirium]

You're welcome, Halvar. Good to see the controllers and matrices are just as universal as the caps. IBM could be pretty smart sometimes.

The mixed layout you've got now is the best of both worlds: the way the German layout should be, I'd say! Give it a while and see if we can turn you to the dark side! Better keyboards on the ANSI side of the divide.

[LaCap]

Hey tinlong117 could you sell me one of this beauty??
Really intersting by joining this club!

[Game Theory]

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but engraved

ssk-4.jpg (260.27 KiB) Viewed 8662 times

[Muirium]

Evil, but not nearly as bad as scrawling on the top.

Just imagine the computer lab where there were 25 or more of these! It would be like visiting Webwit's place.

[litster]

I think this is one of the ones from Bryan_Twizzle on GH maybe 1.5 years ago. He had a bunch for sale from his dad or a relative. I bought a couple of SSKs from him. He even threw in a silver square lab Model M when I bought the second one. They were all dirty but after a clean up they all look like new now.

[Josh]

My 87'

gorgeous!!!!!

[nourathar]

recent arrival:

ssk_diag.JPG (245.31 KiB) Viewed 8312 times

Looking at the other picts in this thread I wonder if there's a difference between those with black logo's and those with blue logo's ?

ciao,

J.

[Muirium]

Blue labels are the later Model Ms. Of all sizes. I think grey label was the one before that (where the logo is grey on beige plastic) and silver labels are the oldest of the three (where the logo is on a shiny silver square). Today's SSK (from the same batch as yours) is my first blue label IBM. I've several grey labels now, and one silver label PC/XT Model F.

Don't think there were SSKs back in the silver label days, but this is exactly the place to guess out loud and have someone show a picture as proof of the opposite!

[7bit]

At least, they exist with black labels ...

[snoopy]

the first ssks were made in 87, so there will sadly no ones with silver square label or something like that

/edit there are only the lexmark ones with a square label

[Muirium]

Goddamn industrials! That's the industrial version of a grey label, I think. Needs to be darker to work on the industrial background colour.

[snoopy]

I like the ones with blue label more then the one with the grey/black. don't know why.

But this thread reminds me that I need more blank keycaps from unicomp

and I should convince my gf to use a ssk

[Halvar]

The blank set looks really nice.

@Unicomp: this set in two shades of blue please!

[snoopy]

The blank set looks really nice.

@Unicomp: this set in two shades of blue please!

dolch style would be nice too

[nourathar]

aha, but if I look at the clickykeyboards.com ssk pictures-repository it is true that the oldest are greylogo ones, but nevertheless the oldest blue logo is already from 1989, so it seems that for some years they were being produced at the same time ?

and yes, when I saw one of Webwits SSK's with blank caps I realized i needed those too; they look particularly good on SSK's I find..

Only thing I am discovering now is that the 'v' key is less reliable than the other ones: sometimes it triggers twice and sometimes not at all. Does anyone know what might be causing this behavviour ?? (there it went again...) Don't think it did that yesterday, so I havev the feeling I caused it with my opening of the case, pulling of keycaps or floss-modding attempts. Removing the floss did not help..

It seems as if it is actuating also on my release of the key.

J.

[Muirium]

Try reseating the cap by taking it off again and putting it back on. They can be a bit tricky on buckling springs. If you keep getting a lot of repeats (or no shows) then it's bolt modding time. I did that on a huge 122 key terminal Model M recently. Better off avoiding it if possible.

@Halvar & Snoopy: Unicomp never listens to us. We need to pretend we're one of their corporate clients and submit our suggestions in a "req", and maybe attach an unbearable, random buzzworded PowerPoint to catch their attention.

"Our enterprise requires new colours on our keyboards. For standards compliance and best practices."

[snoopy]

and even if they would listen to us and say yes to something, it would take about 10 years until we see some prototypes and another 5 for the final product

[Halvar]

Now that we are a club, we need to make the step from group buy to corporate procurement!

[nourathar]

Hi Muirium, putting another cap on seems to improve things, so thanks for the hint !

and I'm all for corporate procurement !