Intro + 122-Key Model M with Blue Legends?

[TheAdmiralty]

Evening, everyone! Just signed up and am looking forward to a pleasant cruise around the forums. I've been needing to register here for a long while.

I'm looking to pick up another board. I love my daily driver to pieces, a 1988 Model M (F2) 1391401 in nearly mint condition; when it came to me, the underside of the board was marked "DEMO" in what looked like a yellow grease pen... as far as I can tell, this board probably sat in a shop somewhere for the occasional customer to poke at and has seen no real use whatsoever. Wiped it down, took the cover off and blew the dust out, and she's sparkling like new.

Anyway, I've always wanted to get a real battleship of a keyboard, particularly in the form of a 122-key Model F, but availability and the fact that I'm a college junior on a budget has really hampered that idea. I looked into a 122-key RJ45 terminal board, and determined that while it wouldn't be hard to HDL up a Lattice MachXO2 FPGA to act as a scancode interpreter and convert to a usable PS2 line (computer hardware engineering student ) , I just don't have the spare time for that. There are no good Focus FK2001s available at the moment, and $200 for a desecrated Northgate Omnikey is absurd.

Then I started looking into 122-key Model M boards, and stumbled across this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181724065198#viTabs_0

...what exactly am I looking at? That looks like a standard PS2 connector, but on a terminal board with blue legends I've never seen before on a Model M. I've read about terminal-emulator boards that apparently exist but can't remember what was said about them. Does anyone have any experience with this particular model or anything similar? I'm tempted to drop $90 on one just for the hell of it, for collection value, but what interface am I getting into here? Anything usable with any effort? I can't find any information at all on the model numbers listed.

Much appreciated!
- Matt

[ohaimark]

The standard IBM legend color changed several times. I've seen brown and black. Blue is new to me, but not unexpected.

I regularly see model F122s for $40ish, so if you wait for a bit and troll eBay you'll find a good deal. You can also check the vendor section of the marketplace (under keypocalypse). There may be F122s in the spreadsheet. There was also a member selling them a while back -- can't remember the username.

[Redmaus]

Hmm, I really like the numpad on this board. A real shame there is no accommodating "+" key with blue legends.

Also, agree with mark on this one. You can find cheap F122's if you lurk long enough. And as for a M122, I have one that is USB converted and bolt modded for a decent price.

[TheAdmiralty]

http://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/ibm_1397000.html
Found it. I think.

On that note, the Keypocalypse spreadsheet is going to take me forever to plow through... guess I have something to keep myself busy for the time being. On the other hand, I'd kinda like to pick up an old keycap-donor ALPS board and get it back on its feet for something to do. Looks like I've found the right place. I'll drift around the classifieds and see what turns up.

[fohat]

Model F 122-key terminals have been in the deepest price slump that I have seen in years, since last fall. They have been selling for less than the price of the board you pointed to, although you still have to buy a breakout board, even the Teensy 2.0 is only $20.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-06FEB-86-PN ... SwYHxWKU0s

And I think that Cindy ("elecplus") probably has some but she paid top dollar and may not be able to sell cheap.

The secondary legends on the numpad (and sometimes elsewhere) were printed in light and dark gray, light and dark brown, black, blue, and orange. The browns and blue are my favorites.

[XMIT]

the Keypocalypse spreadsheet is going to take me forever to plow through...

If you're looking for something in particular send me a PM. The spreadsheet is stale. Of the items that are on there, a third have been recycled (mostly foam and foil boards), a third have been sold, and a third are still available. Of that remaining third, half are as listed, and half have changed substantially as I move parts around to create complete boards.

That eBay listing is your best bet price-wise. Any F122 I sell you would be more expensive, though it would also be much cleaner.

[XMIT]

Oh - I've re-read the OP. If you're after a 122 key Model M I can give you a better price than I could for a 122 key Model F. I've got plenty of those and would love to get rid of one. I would pick up an Arduino Pro Micro (ATmega32u4) board from eBay from China for like $5, flash it with Soarer's Converter, and use that as a protocol converter.

[TheAdmiralty]

Message away. I'm off to do some TA work with a professor at the moment, but I'll get back to you guys ASAP.

UPDATE:

The PM chain continues. I think I'm going to grab one of XMIT's M122s and see what I can do with it. I'm also hoping to grab a second junker to work on - thinking of milling and routing a thin PCB to mount directly to the top of the keyboard deck, to carry a boatload of surfacemounted LEDs for backlighting. Would be interesting, if I can find a cheap beater with decent switches. Might even see if I can find some caps with transparent legends, depending on what I end up with. Would make for an interesting project to stick over in the workshop.

[TheAdmiralty]

Alright then. Took me a while to get back here, but I just wanted to get everything in one place.

Thanks to XMIT for the smooth transaction for an M122 and a 'junker' Ortek MCK101. I don't have any pictures yet, but they're cleaning up nicely... the Model M is, at least. I have a bit of expected work to do on the Ortek.

I did also dump the rest of my spare budget on the M122 I'd linked to in the OP... it just seemed like on of those things I'd look back on and wish I'd grabbed one. I'm actually glad I did for once - the board is NIB with all of the original paperwork, driver diskettes, and key puller packed in Styrofoam. Pictures of the board itself are attached - the awful quality is the best my phone could muster until I get the SLR back up here. Hooked right up to my desktop and works straight out of the box over PS2; I had a bit of key remapping to do since terminal keys like "Erase EOF" don't exactly map to anything by default, but everything puts out a unique usable scancode. And, after a bit of breaking in the stabilized keys, it types noticeably smoother than my old standard Model M.

I'll probably post a whole new thread in the near future on my adventures with the second M122 from XMIT - I think I'm actually going to use our fab lab to mill an entire new chassis for it. Maybe out of Aluminum or Zinc. Would certainly make an interesting build log to follow.

I'm curious. What would you guys call the closest "commonly" available switch in terms of typing feel to a buckling spring? Not looking to buy anything else at the moment, but I wondering if any comparisons have ever been made.

EDIT: Those pictures really look awful in a browser - you can't even tell which keys are printed in blue. I'll see if I can take somebody's camera and do the thing justice.

[orihalcon]

Hmm, usually the M122's with these blue legends are terminal emulators and the cable is actually detachable with an SDL connector. The only M122 I've seen with these is a 1397000, but that does have the lock LEDs which is kind of cool. The 1397000 is odd in that it can output all three different sets of scan codes, so when using a Soarer's converter, you have to force one of the code sets to be used. This one might have that same issue potentially. Just don't expect all of the keys to work if you plan on using it with the original ps/2 cable pictured there without a Soarer's Converter.