IBM Wheelwriter System/40 keyboard
Posted: 05 Dec 2016, 02:46
Now this is quite an interesting keyboard, and this specific one had it quite rough.
It's a Wheelwriter board, but completely detachable from the main unit, and in full AT layout (with added Code key). Here's a pic of the full system (that's that specific board in the pic)
It would not had been reasonable to ship the whole thing from US to EU, so I had to split it up, and had only the keyboard part shipped. Here's the back of the board
You'll notice there are no riser feet. That's because it has an unconventional system of propping itself up. There are two levers, one on each side, which you rotate horizontally, and the keyboard assembly slightly rotates vertically around the front. Unfortunately, the screw hole that holds one of these in place had broken off and I tried glueing it with epoxy, but as soon as pressure was exerted on it, it let go. That's why you can see it beside the keyboard in the pics. Here's the board, propped up, with just one lever, and you can see how it is not level.
You can also notice the screen part hanging on one side. That's because there was probably something on the right side which held it in place, but what has, at some point, broke off.
Unfortunately the screen itself is not working. Either it's fully broken, or it needs some commands from central unit to turn it on. The keyboard itself speaks an unknown protocol. It connects to the main unit via a 6-wire cable with SDL connector. It's strange seeing an SDL connector on the other side of the cable, instead of going into the keyboard. I tried connecting a PS/2 cable straight to the controller, and I think I made some proper guesses as to where VCC and GND go, but there was no response from the keyboard. Running hid_listen, if what I assume were DATA and CLOCK lines were connected, I got one R05 (or something similar, I can't remember right now) from Soarer converter's log. Otherwise, there was nothing after the protocol got "detected". In both cases, pressing keys resulted in no output. Through all of this, screen stayed dead. Here's a (blurry) pic of cable connection to the controller
There are six wires, but two of them actually point to the same pin in the end, so there are five lines. The controller is also interestingly fixed to the assembly, with one plastic holder on each side
The board was also losing most of its rivets so I did a screw mod. I ran out of conical screws the other day, so I used flat-head ones. To me, they look quite nice on the chromate back plate.
The cable is fixed to the bottom case in a rather peculiar way. There's a block of rubber on the cable which slots in the back case, and is then tightened with a screw washer directly.
In addition to all the damage mentioned above, there's a crack in the case...
...and one of the tabs holding the outer top case to the bottom case is broken
So, the poor thing has been through a lot. I'll still try and make a teensy-based controller for it, sooner or later. I'll have to figure how to connect the mylar ribbon cable to teensy first, though. I tried connecting the board to a model M controller, but as with other Wheelwriters, it didn't work. I'll post an update if I make some progress. In the meantime, I'll just have to enjoy looking at those wonderful keycaps.
It's a Wheelwriter board, but completely detachable from the main unit, and in full AT layout (with added Code key). Here's a pic of the full system (that's that specific board in the pic)
It would not had been reasonable to ship the whole thing from US to EU, so I had to split it up, and had only the keyboard part shipped. Here's the back of the board
You'll notice there are no riser feet. That's because it has an unconventional system of propping itself up. There are two levers, one on each side, which you rotate horizontally, and the keyboard assembly slightly rotates vertically around the front. Unfortunately, the screw hole that holds one of these in place had broken off and I tried glueing it with epoxy, but as soon as pressure was exerted on it, it let go. That's why you can see it beside the keyboard in the pics. Here's the board, propped up, with just one lever, and you can see how it is not level.
You can also notice the screen part hanging on one side. That's because there was probably something on the right side which held it in place, but what has, at some point, broke off.
Unfortunately the screen itself is not working. Either it's fully broken, or it needs some commands from central unit to turn it on. The keyboard itself speaks an unknown protocol. It connects to the main unit via a 6-wire cable with SDL connector. It's strange seeing an SDL connector on the other side of the cable, instead of going into the keyboard. I tried connecting a PS/2 cable straight to the controller, and I think I made some proper guesses as to where VCC and GND go, but there was no response from the keyboard. Running hid_listen, if what I assume were DATA and CLOCK lines were connected, I got one R05 (or something similar, I can't remember right now) from Soarer converter's log. Otherwise, there was nothing after the protocol got "detected". In both cases, pressing keys resulted in no output. Through all of this, screen stayed dead. Here's a (blurry) pic of cable connection to the controller
There are six wires, but two of them actually point to the same pin in the end, so there are five lines. The controller is also interestingly fixed to the assembly, with one plastic holder on each side
The board was also losing most of its rivets so I did a screw mod. I ran out of conical screws the other day, so I used flat-head ones. To me, they look quite nice on the chromate back plate.
The cable is fixed to the bottom case in a rather peculiar way. There's a block of rubber on the cable which slots in the back case, and is then tightened with a screw washer directly.
In addition to all the damage mentioned above, there's a crack in the case...
...and one of the tabs holding the outer top case to the bottom case is broken
So, the poor thing has been through a lot. I'll still try and make a teensy-based controller for it, sooner or later. I'll have to figure how to connect the mylar ribbon cable to teensy first, though. I tried connecting the board to a model M controller, but as with other Wheelwriters, it didn't work. I'll post an update if I make some progress. In the meantime, I'll just have to enjoy looking at those wonderful keycaps.
I forgot to mention that also, one of the nubs on bottom case, which holds the inner top case in place was also broken off, but I managed to fix that successfully with epoxy. You win some, you lose some.