Unicomp Mini-M (IBM SSK repro) review (buckling springs)

[Chyros]

Today we look at a prototype of Unicomp's new "Mini-M", which is basically a buckling spring TKL inspired by the IBM "SSK" Space Saving Keyboard. Hope you enjoy the video!

[depletedvespene]

I would have thought that the key between RGUI and RCTRL is the Menu ("APP") key, not a function key.

[lhutton]

I rather appreciate the lack of RGB, sci-fi fonts and other nonesense. Even when I was younger I didn't really go for that sort of trendy stuff and preferred simpler, cleaner looking stuff.

Designs like this are timeless. In 5-10 years those RGB boards are going to be very dated I think and look like "old junk from the 2010s." Kind of like the wavy, melted plastic, semi-translucent designs of the early 2000s. They are sort of indicative of a certain era and may fall flat on future style choices. I think the Unicomp Ms have done a good job of updating the design but keeping a simple, clean, really era-less aesthetic that will still look good to contemporary tastes in a decade.

Well, outside of the new Windows logo which is in your parlance is "hiiiddeeeeeoossss" IMO. I prefer the old school flying Windows logo but I generally replace that key with Unicomp's Linux tux keycap. I also knocked their New 2020 M for the blue LEDs in my video some months ago. Do they still shine through the case plastic? The bleed on my 2020 M is quite noticeable.

[stormcrash]

lhutton, I think the bleed on the Classic comes from the lock light openings in the case being larger than the transparent window/section of the lock light sticker. On my pearl Classic with green lights I get that little bit of bleed two shadowing where the opening continues a bit under the sticker

[Rayndalf]

That 1.5 - 1 - 1.5 - 5.75(?) - 1.25 - 1.5 - 1 - 1.5 bottom row is truly hideous
Why not 1.5 - 1 - 1.5 - 6 - 1.5 - 1 - 1 - 1.5 (or cut the show menu key or second windows key and get a 7u spacebar).

[raoulduke-esq]

Seems to be GA on Unicomp’s storefront now. I wonder what (if anything) changed between the prototype and the production model.

[stormcrash]

I think the original plan was to keep common parts with the other boards like the space bar. Older pictures show the right keys as having the same order as other Unicomp boards with the alt key on the 1.5 (and I believe that once the 86 key option becomes available that key will be alt on those versions as well) so I think the odd sizing carrying over from other Unicomp boards is a design artifact from the earlier planned modifier order. By the time they decided to switch to the requested standard order the barrel mold and membranes had already been finalized and produced

In order to use the same space bars they can't change the total number of key units. So given that constraint I think the ideal bottom row that kept the same space bar options would be:
1.5 - 1 - 1.5 - Space - 1.25 - 1.25 - 1.25 - 1.5

or

1.5 - 1.25 - 1.25 - Space - 1.25 - 1.25 - 1.25 - 1.5

(for the 86 key merge the 1.25 with the spacebar on the right side)

IBM on rubber dome boards used that second layout, where the control keys were still 1.5 but everything else was a 1.25. And I think my first option is a good compromise between that and the standard Unicomp layout and would have meant that regardless of winkey/alt order between the 87 and 86 that the same keycaps would be used on both (since they would all be 1.25 on the right)

[lhutton]

lhutton, I think the bleed on the Classic comes from the lock light openings in the case being larger than the transparent window/section of the lock light sticker. On my pearl Classic with green lights I get that little bit of bleed two shadowing where the opening continues a bit under the sticker

Yes you are right but the blue makes it far more noticeable IMO. I've got a 2018 UltraClassic with green LEDs that doesn't have near the appearance of bleed that my 2020 New M does. I think it's either a brightness or contrast issue with the blue that makes it stand out.

[ddrfraser1]

Thomas, the way you talk about the ultra classic in this video and the and unboxing makes it sound like Unicomp came up with that design. They didn’t. You know that that was based on a previous Japanese TrackPoint model right? The odd indent in the molding in front of the space bar is where the mouse keys used to be. It’s called the IBM 5576-C01.

Capture.PNG (3.15 MiB) Viewed 8084 times

Curious to know if you still think it looks... hhhhHIDEOUS!

[Muirium]

The connect / reconnect issue sounds like that "multi USB descriptor" playing up. A bigger matrix for higher rollover is perfectly wise, but playing with USB is not! There are better ways (Soarer, QMK, Xwhatsit all do it) to support >6KRO than presenting phantom keyboards on USB.

Those caps look real nice, though. Do they sell them separately?

[ddrfraser1]

They sure do! Check out my F107

D753E344-3F34-44DD-B96A-B9A89910715A.jpeg (4.5 MiB) Viewed 8128 times

[Muirium]

Those… are from… Unicomp!?

[kmnov2017]

Those… are from… Unicomp!?

Those are unicomp JIS keysets

[ddrfraser1]

Wonderous no? It's an unassuming little website but full of awesome treasures if you know where to look.

Another example, I managed to score some black caps for my M122 seen here however, at the time I think I had uncovered a loophole in their order system and I don't think they'll do it anymore.

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[Muirium]

So what legends are those WoBs? How did they print them?

I’m kinda tempted to get another ANSI Return (“Enter”) key in pebble just so one of my IBMs doesn’t have to wear that janky 2010s Unicomp oddball. That’s if their printing is all good now (and they’re not clearing out old stock).

[ddrfraser1]

I'm... actually not sure. They're not pad printed. Reverse dye sub maybe? I walked Funkmon through how I did it over on GH:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=10 ... msg2912840

[jbtb077]

They sure do! Check out my F107


D753E344-3F34-44DD-B96A-B9A89910715A.jpeg

Holy... that's endgame right there. Slick board.