Great/Interesting Finds

[Wingklip]

And $50 shipping. Nice.

I'll console myself with this: "No power cord and the unit has not been tested - see pictures for details and condition."

That's SUCH a cop-out. That's a butt-standard power cord that still comes on stuff today. So MAYBE it's not working and they have plausible deniability. Maybe they're too lazy to find a cord.

Will look for the follow up...

I bought it for the keyboard. If it turns out the PC is actually in working order, it'll be a bonus. I'm fairly sure I have a copy of PC-DOS 3.3 around here somewhere...


I'll look up Soarer's converters and teensies for this keeb tomorrow. Now I need to get some sleep (while my wallet spends the night crying).

Can't say I'm not jelly, what a bargain! For only <200USD?????

[depletedvespene]

Can't say I'm not jelly, what a bargain! For only <200USD?????

Hey, it was MY turn to get lucky for once!

[Jarofmolasses]

Aaaaaand sold! I have one but the prices are way lower than I expected when I was researching. They seem to go for less than a Model F keyboard... And they comes with a Model F keyboard.

Different connection but seems odd to me.

And on top of that, the connection is just a different plug. Still speaks XT protocol, so it's dead simple to convert if that's what you want to do!

[Keybug]

An apparent flood of nine Nixies model keyboards this morning, rather cheap in comparison:

http://m.ebay.de/itm/SIEMENS-NIXDORF-Ta ... Ciid%253A5

The question remains how trustworthy the seller is. So far he has only denied my bid of 150€, while not sending any photos of the switches as I requested. I hesitate to offer more as the switches may have been swapped.

Any news from others trying to find out would be very welcome...

[hansichen]

Swapped switches would be a reason for eBay's buyers protection. But without PayPal and as these boards can come with other switches I personally wouldn't risk it too. At that price it's not worth to gamble it

[seebart]

Swapped switches would be a reason for eBay's buyers protection. But without PayPal and as these boards can come with other switches I personally wouldn't risk it too. At that price it's not worth to gamble it

Yes that's right, BTW that is the same seller I bought some of these from last year those had nixies but that doesn't mean anything. Of course nixies are 90% vintage MX blacks nothing more.

[chip chop]

This Nixdorf seems strange, no photo showing all the boards & a disclaimer that says the condition could be any type of junk. Maybe wait for Wodan to find one in one of his yellow waistcoat videos?

[kawasaki161]

Especially looking at his other listings this seems shady as fuck.

Also, it says he only accepts cash on pick up and offers shipping? Weird

[seebart]

The guy is semi-shady yes. When I bought from him it wasn't so bad though.

[chip chop]

Plus he's from Munich, we all know what trouble makers those Bavarians are!

[hansichen]

But... but what have I done wrong?

[seebart]

But... but what have I done wrong?

Nothing.

[Halvar]

Why are Nixies still a $250 thing anyway?

I understood it as long as they were the smoothest Cherry MX switches you could find, but nowadays, with Zealios and other great new MX clones around, I don't really think they still are, and I don't understand these prices. Or am I wrong and today's buyers buy them for the rare keyboard and the Nixdorf brand, not to desolder the switches?

[hansichen]

Most of the boards get desoldered, but for smooth linear mx switches vintage blacks are still the number 1 choice. Some people wanna use kalih switches now and Zeal wants to have some linears in future too, but for the moment vintage black is still by far the number 1. And reddit people want to have reddit switches for their "endgame" builds. It's their e-penis and that's why they spend 5$ per switch

[Wolf123rt]

Most of the boards get desoldered, but for smooth linear mx switches vintage blacks are still the number 1 choice. Some people wanna use kalih switches now and Zeal wants to have some linears in future too, but for the moment vintage black is still by far the number 1. And reddit people want to have reddit switches for their "endgame" builds. It's their e-penis and that's why they spend 5$ per switch

What's the difference between vintage black switches and new ones? Do they feel better because they are broken in?

[unxmaal]

https://vermont.craigslist.org/sys/d/ib ... 18999.html

I'm lusting for those Model Fs. I think the top board is a XT 83.

I don't really want to find out what shipping would be for the whole pile, though.

[hansichen]

Cherry have changed the tooling of their switches several times. Once in ~1994 and they changed it again in late 2016. That's why pre 1994 switches are way smoother than later ones and why the very new switches are pretty smooth again.

[JP!]

https://vermont.craigslist.org/sys/d/ib ... 18999.html

I'm lusting for those Model Fs. I think the top board is a XT 83.

I don't really want to find out what shipping would be for the whole pile, though.

That connector on that second XT is interesting. Have not seen a metal connector like that before. Those 5150's look nice. It looks like one of those 5150's might have a hard card installed. Those color vga monitors are not original to these PC's of course.

[Chyros]

Most of the boards get desoldered, but for smooth linear mx switches vintage blacks are still the number 1 choice. Some people wanna use kalih switches now and Zeal wants to have some linears in future too, but for the moment vintage black is still by far the number 1. And reddit people want to have reddit switches for their "endgame" builds. It's their e-penis and that's why they spend 5$ per switch

What's the difference between vintage black switches and new ones? Do they feel better because they are broken in?

No, it appears to be simply because their tooling wasn't as worn back in the day.

[seebart]

Why are Nixies still a $250 thing anyway?

I understood it as long as they were the smoothest Cherry MX switches you could find, but nowadays, with Zealios and other great new MX clones around, I don't really think they still are, and I don't understand these prices. Or am I wrong and today's buyers buy them for the rare keyboard and the Nixdorf brand, not to desolder the switches?

Nixies are little if any smoother than 1980's MX blacks, and yes anyone who still spends $$$ just for the clear tops with the current Asian selection available...

images.jpg (12.46 KiB) Viewed 16178 times

[Slom]

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Tono-THETA-O-900 ... 2045031501
Too expensive but very nice looking ... any ideas about the switches?


http://www.ebay.de/itm/DEC-VT-100-Serie ... 2821267194
Looks like alps tee mount.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAL-CT2100-Comm ... 2488456805
Fancy some nice old M7 cherry? wiki/HAL_KB-2100

[ekeppel]

https://vermont.craigslist.org/sys/d/ib ... 18999.html

I'm lusting for those Model Fs. I think the top board is a XT 83.

I don't really want to find out what shipping would be for the whole pile, though.

That connector on that second XT is interesting. Have not seen a metal connector like that before. Those 5150's look nice. It looks like one of those 5150's might have a hard card installed. Those color vga monitors are not original to these PC's of course.

The whole lot just went up on eBay a few minutes ago. Still only local pickup, though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/391875260502

[Slom]

Everybody sleeping? Let post some cool stuff
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Early-C ... 2285838105

[seebart]

Very nice finds Slom, and that's my HAL KB2100 right there which is not that rare really.

keyboards-f2/hal-kb-2100-hal-ct-2100-co ... ?hilit=HAL

[Halvar]

@slom: That's an impressive number of pins on the PCB edge... Not to speak about those diodes that someone added...

[hypkx]

For the switch collectors:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mechmarket/com ... h_samples/

[Keybug]

Those Nixies aren't Nixies but this, whatever that is (photo from seller):

Siemens-Nixdorf-keyboard.jpg (207.14 KiB) Viewed 16811 times

[Keybug]

So Nixies are now very yesteryear? Someone told me as recently as three months ago that the Siemens Nixie boards sell for around 500€. Maybe the news hadn't reached China by then...

[seebart]

Those Nixies aren't Nixies but this, whatever that is (photo from seller):

Siemens-Nixdorf-keyboard.jpg

Those are Nixdorf magnetic switches, far superior to MX in any and every way! I did a review on them here:

keyboards-f2/nixdorf-sm-8890-t14370.html?hilit=Nixdorf

[Chyros]

Nixdorf magnetic valve. Surely much more interesting than MX, why don't THESE go for €500 instead?! xD