Restoring a Model M “Battlecruiser” (122 keys, ISO German) from 1999
Posted: 05 Jun 2023, 21:08
For my first post on the forum, I thought I’d share how I got back into buckling spring keyboards. I bought a “Battlecruiser” (P/N 1397003 from 1999) on eBay in 2007, being fascinated by the number of keys and wanting to experience the typing feel (I forgot where I read about it, but at that time it was only talked about in some very niche corners of the internet). This terminal keyboard is a bit of a weird one, it uses the set 2 protocol (I cannot find a switch or jumper to change it) and has a detachable SDL <-> PS/2 cable. It is called Type IV here: https://sharktastica.co.uk/topics/m122_diffs#Type4. For several reasons the thing ended up stored in my parents’ attic: The F12 and F24 keys would not “click” anymore (it arrived like this), and while the letter keys and F1-F11 worked normally the rest was not recognized (correctly) by the OS. Finally, my new PC did not have PS/2 anymore at some point. I have another, more standard Model M that is fully PC compatible, but without USB and Windows keys, I found it increasingly impractical. I switched to Cherry MX Blue based keyboards and accepted my fate.
A few weeks ago I randomly learned that Soarer’s converter exists! I immediately went to find the 122 key keyboard and opened it up. [Sorry for the image quality of the photos, I only have a phone with a crappy camera here.] Here’s the label:
The plastic rivets were broken and the F12/F24 flippers were stuck at a weird angle.
The keyboard was a bit dusty, but apart from the broken rivets it is in quite pristine condition. No idea if it was even in use for a long time. Key soup:
I decided on a nut and bolt mod after cleaning the parts.
Afterwards, all keys worked immediately, emitting nice, satisfying clicks. (Yes, I did record it, but you have heard it before so I’m not attaching the sound file.)
Now to connect it to a modern PC... I used an Arduino Micro (the official Arduino one, not Pro Micro) that I could source easily. These have an Atmega32u4 chip and can be flashed easily with the Soarer firmware. Here is my glorious converter in action. A good tip is to first try with a crappy rubber dome keyboard to check if the PS/2 wiring is correct (luckily the passive USB to PS/2 adapter worked):
After this pointless USB -> PS/2 -> USB conversion, I could finally connect the real thing:
It seems that the correct scancodes are not floating around on the internet (or I could not find them), so I’ll post them here. First the codes, then the names in the Soarer firmware. I only included the non-standard ones, the empty keys are just the ISO layout defaults:
You can see that the codes are strange and seem nonstandard. I even had to use some deprecated codes in the Soarer firmware that seem to have no non-deprecated replacements listed in the docs (not a problem, since they still work just fine, but the codes seem to be very rarely used).
Finally, I was annoyed that the top of the case had a bit of wiggle room to the left and right. A quick application of tape stopped that nicely.
Currently, I have disassembled the keyboard again, because I used M2 bolts but only drilled 1.5 mm holes. Now I worry that that might put too much stress on the plastic and am thinking about widening the holes.
Thanks to everyone in the community who shared their knowledge in forums and blog posts and special thanks to Soarer for the firmware. This is really the first time I am “restoring” something like this and it is a lot of fun. Let me know if you want to see more photos or have some questions.
***
For my next steps, I’d like to ask for some hints/ideas. I would love to have the Soarer converter inside the case with some sort of USB A or C socket exposed. The SDL socket is unfortunately soldered directly onto the PCB:
I’m not the best at soldering, so I am hesitating to attach some cables to the PCB. I could not find any posts about such a mod, many people seem to have internal connectors between SDL plug and PCB, which makes this much easier? Does anyone have experience with this and can share some ideas?
I am also not super happy with the ISO Enter key. The resistance of the spring seems quite low, especially when hitting the key on the upper half (it seems that I usually hit the Enter this way). It’s not a defect of the spring, I tried different ones that work just fine in other positions. Is this a known issue, perhaps with the stabilizer? It is hard to describe the feeling, but it is worse than any other key somehow. The rest of the keys feel great.
A few weeks ago I randomly learned that Soarer’s converter exists! I immediately went to find the 122 key keyboard and opened it up. [Sorry for the image quality of the photos, I only have a phone with a crappy camera here.] Here’s the label:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Finally, I was annoyed that the top of the case had a bit of wiggle room to the left and right. A quick application of tape stopped that nicely.
Spoiler:
Thanks to everyone in the community who shared their knowledge in forums and blog posts and special thanks to Soarer for the firmware. This is really the first time I am “restoring” something like this and it is a lot of fun. Let me know if you want to see more photos or have some questions.
***
For my next steps, I’d like to ask for some hints/ideas. I would love to have the Soarer converter inside the case with some sort of USB A or C socket exposed. The SDL socket is unfortunately soldered directly onto the PCB:
Spoiler:
I am also not super happy with the ISO Enter key. The resistance of the spring seems quite low, especially when hitting the key on the upper half (it seems that I usually hit the Enter this way). It’s not a defect of the spring, I tried different ones that work just fine in other positions. Is this a known issue, perhaps with the stabilizer? It is hard to describe the feeling, but it is worse than any other key somehow. The rest of the keys feel great.