Kishsaver Photothread!

[Khers]

Congratulations Hyper! Christmas came early this year, huh! . Looking forward to seeing what you will do with your kish! With such a pretty board to start with, it's nigh on impossible to go wrong IMHO

[Muirium]

Nice indeed. They're the heaviest little beast ever, aren't they? Such low profile, too. Those aren't the original caps, I see. You bought this from someone with or without those?

The controller installation instructions you seek are on Xwhatsit's server. His docs are well worth a read. The link's on the thread. You'll find the GUI, various firmwares, and model appropriate documentation.

[snoopy]

nice. hope your wallet didn't bleed too much...

[Muirium]

Ah, it wasn't one from your stash then, eh?

[Hypersphere]

Thanks for the good wishes, one and all!

This was a recent acquisition; I never had a Kishsaver in my collection until yesterday evening. The image I posted is the way it came out of the box -- a true "before" pic, including the odd mix of keycaps that were on the board as I received it.

Looking forward to receiving tips from the keyboard enthusiast community before I jump into the restoration and USB conversion. I want to be sure to do things right when such a rare keyboard is involved -- especially irreversible steps such as drilling holes for a micro-USB receptacle.

[Muirium]

Have a look at how thick the stock cable is. You should be able to fit a mini or (better) micro USB plug inside the empty exit just fine. Paint stripping is the bigger Rubicon you'll cross.

[andrewjoy]

this is mine

[Hypersphere]

Have a look at how thick the stock cable is. You should be able to fit a mini or (better) micro USB plug inside the empty exit just fine. Paint stripping is the bigger Rubicon you'll cross.

Looks like the opening for the stock cable is only about 3/16 inch (0.1875 inch; 4.76 mm) . The opening for a micro-USB receptacle will require some widening.

I am thinking of using a Mouser Electronics panel-mount micro-USB receptacle.

MUSB-K152-30.png (85.54 KiB) Viewed 7108 times

The recommended panel cutout for this is 9.75 x 6.75 mm.

MUSB-K152-30-cutout.png (24.42 KiB) Viewed 7108 times

[Muirium]

Where are you planning on having the seam? The Kishsaver's case is a simple top and bottom half, which join around the original exit hole, unadorned. I reckon a smaller connector could be glued, with appropriate mounting, to the lower half of the case, and occupy that spot with the connector's widest edge lined up with the seam.

Panel mount sockets require more invasive work.


@Andy: epic project! Post pics once you've made some progress…

[Hypersphere]

Where are you planning on having the seam? The Kishsaver's case is a simple top and bottom half, which join around the original exit hole, unadorned. I reckon a smaller connector could be glued, with appropriate mounting, to the lower half of the case, and occupy that spot with the connector's widest edge lined up with the seam.

Panel mount sockets require more invasive work.
<snip>

Excellent point! I was thinking the same thing while looking at my KS. While I prefer to put things together with screws rather than glue, in order to be less invasive, I might want to use something like this micro-USB "glue-in" receptacle from Adafruit:

Micro-USB-Glue-in.png (310.03 KiB) Viewed 7096 times

Regarding the Kishsaver case material, What is it? I tested it with a magnet, and it is not ferromagnetic. Someone mentioned that they thought it was some kind of Al-Zn alloy. Does anyone know the composition of the metal? Could it be some ill-defined alloy sometimes referred to as "pot metal"?

[Hypersphere]

Where are you planning on having the seam? The Kishsaver's case is a simple top and bottom half, which join around the original exit hole, unadorned. I reckon a smaller connector could be glued, with appropriate mounting, to the lower half of the case, and occupy that spot with the connector's widest edge lined up with the seam.

Panel mount sockets require more invasive work.
<snip>

Today I received a Mouser mini-USB connector with somewhat bigger pins that exit straight from the back rather than pointing downward at a right angle to the connector. It is part number MUSB-B551-O4 Mini B Single Vertical connector.

In any event, it would be somewhat better to use a micro-USB connector. If you would care to share some pics and "how to" comments about how you soldered the pins on your Mouser USB connector in your custom keyboard, that would be great.

[Redmaus]

Oh god... I just found this thread. Im so jelly now. I wish the terminal 122 keys had a metal case...

[snoopy]

Just finished this:



More and better pics soon.

[ramnes]

Snoopy. Stop getting everyone mad, please.

[seebart]

Awe come on, let him flaunt his super-rare keyboards. I like the one in front better. Nice paint job.

[ramnes]

I like both, I think.

[Khers]

Are those original APL-caps? The new addition is really pretty! Wouldn't mind one of those

[snoopy]

Powdercoating is the same on both. Just thought we don't have enough iso kishsaver around here.

[DanielT]

No BS CC in this Kishy ?
Nice board, a dream for a 60% lover like me Except the ISO part, can't support that

[seebart]

ISO or not, good luck finding one Daniel! :O

[Redmaus]

Nice on the powdercoat, but ISO makes me vomit Looking forward to your other pics snoopy

[snoopy]

Are those original APL-caps? The new addition is really pretty! Wouldn't mind one of those

Yes, it's an original ibm set. The colors are still very bright and the printing is crisp. Got it from a dt member. I mixed it with a terminal set. All the modifiers are form the terminal set.

No BS CC in this Kishy ?
Nice board, a dream for a 60% lover like me Except the ISO part, can't support that

I tried different bs CCs and brobots, but wasn't satisfied. It always was just 'too much' in combination with the apl keycaps.

Maybe a dark grey cc (same color as modifiers) would be perfect. But for now it's also ok without cc. Will see what clackvent brings me...

Concerning iso... I think I just did it cause I had the apl iso set (and wasn't satisfied of how it looked on the iso industrial ssk). I recently switched to ansi and I'm happy with that decision.

[Madhias]

I remember someone selling (a not working?) Model M with german APL caps here, I was thinking of get it but don't know if it was already gone or I was not sure about it!

[alh84001]

Almost no activity in two years? Let's necro this!

No, I haven't gotten my hands on a kishy yet. This is just a reminder to any of you gentlemen, that if you've become bored with your kishy, there's a line of people that would be interested.

Spoiler:

That's me in the bottom left corner

[seebart]

I think I'm in there also...

[wobbled]

A friend of mine has finally come across both an Industrial SSK and a Kishsaver, I am way too excited to get my hands on them!! I hope nothing happens to me in the next few weeks, I need them in my life.

[alh84001]

Wow, that's a new kishy sighting after a long, long time. Congrats!

[E3E]

A friend of mine has finally come across both an Industrial SSK and a Kishsaver, I am way too excited to get my hands on them!! I hope nothing happens to me in the next few weeks, I need them in my life.

You, sir, have all the things. Goodness gracious.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

That's me in the bottom left corner :)

I didn't realise you'd had a sex change — but I guess that's to be expected in the technology industry.

[wobbled]

A friend of mine has finally come across both an Industrial SSK and a Kishsaver, I am way too excited to get my hands on them!! I hope nothing happens to me in the next few weeks, I need them in my life.

You, sir, have all the things. Goodness gracious.

Haha I still don't own an unsaver though unfortunately!

I wont be going for the industrial SSK as I already own one so that should be going on ebay eventually, if anyone is interested I will let you know when it has gone up for auction. Should be cheaper than Ellipses $1000+ asking price.