My New to Me Apple Extended Keyboard

[apastuszak]

Salmon ALPS switches.

The ADB port on the left doesn't seem to work. But the right one is just fine. Could use some retrobriting. But other than that, it seems to work great.

[TNT]

Nice! How do you like the salmons?

[apastuszak]

I like them better that the cream dampened ALPS in the AEK II. I wish the keyboard was in better shape. But I had to take what I could afford. You can get an AEK II for pretty cheap. But the AEK seems to demand a premium.

I paid $80 for this. But I've seen them going for as much as $300 on eBay. I'm hoping that I'll find one sitting on a thrift store one day, but I doubt it.

[apastuszak]

I got the right ADB port working. Took an s-video cable and sprayed some Deoxit in it and then pushed it in and out of the ADB port around 10 times. Port came back to life. Typing away right now with the right port connected.

Deoxit really is "miracle in a can."

[kshopper2084]

I got the right ADB port working. Took an s-video cable and sprayed some Deoxit in it and then pushed it in and out of the ADB port around 10 times. Port came back to life. Typing away right now with the right port connected.

Deoxit really is "miracle in a can."

Deoxit is worth every penny. I use it regularly on my vintage '97 diesel pusher coach and my vintage 1980's pinball machine switches.

AEK is a damn fine keyboard, congrats!

[apastuszak]

I got the right ADB port working. Took an s-video cable and sprayed some Deoxit in it and then pushed it in and out of the ADB port around 10 times. Port came back to life. Typing away right now with the right port connected.

Deoxit really is "miracle in a can."

Deoxit is worth every penny. I use it regularly on my vintage '97 diesel pusher coach and my vintage 1980's pinball machine switches.

AEK is a damn fine keyboard, congrats!

Thank you. Between this and my Model M collection, I really don't think they make them like they used to.

[apastuszak]

Is there any value to lubricating the stabilizers on the AEK? If so, what's the best way to do it? Is there any way to help with the rattle on the space bar.?

[Muirium]

Is there any value to lubricating the stabilizers on…

The answer to this for any keyboard is: how much worse do those keys feel than the regular keys? If they’re close, then they’re where they’re meant to be. If they feel like ass, however, maybe it’s time for TLC.

[apastuszak]

Well, the keys need a cleaning. I cannot, for the life of me, get the space bar back on. I've been at it for 30 minutes now. I really need to take a break. I need to take this thing apart and clean it too.

I'm trying to find a guide on this, but I can't. Whole lot of stuff on the AEK II. Almost nothing on the original AEK.

[Muirium]

I was about to mention that.

The little pole stabiliser is a real son of a bitch for insertion into a metal plated Alps64, let me tell you. What a fight! I’ve had several AEKs and AEK IIs though so can’t remember which one was the donor for my palest spacebar.

[apastuszak]

Nice keyboard.

I'm not sure how this is supposed to go in.

When I pulled the space bar, the wire stabililzer and the two black pieces that connect to the plate came out. The AEK II spacebar was a LOT easier to get back in place.

I'm at an hour and I still can't figure it out. And now one of those plastic pieces fell off and is loose inside the keyboard.

[Muirium]

And now one of those plastic pieces fell off and is loose inside the keyboard.

Yeah you’re gonna want to fish that out.

Pics would help. I’m guessing you’re talking about the stabiliser clips which the wires run inside, on the plate.

As memory serves they’re quite like these ones from an Alps made Dell:



The clips are somewhat prone to popping out of the plate when the stab wire is manhandled. They squeeze back in quite easily, though. One little foot goes in, then the other. Be sure to put them in the right way around: they’re all about gripping the wire.

[apastuszak]

Crap. Looks like I may need new space bar stabilizer clips. The old ones may be broken. This is going to suck. I found one website that sells parts, but they're out of stock on that one.

[apastuszak]

Found both clips and managed to get them back in. Space bar works again! Thank God!

[apastuszak]

So, for the curious, this site sells parts for the AEK and AEK II.

https://applerescueofdenver.com/product ... -ii-parts/

I have never ordered from them before. I just found then on a DuckDuckGo search.

But if you want to bring one of these glorious beasts back from the dead, this site may be useful.

[Muirium]

I've heard of them. They also show up, perhaps more convincingly, in a search here on DT. They go a ways back.

[apastuszak]

I'm having one small problem with the keyboard. The E key is giving me an odd pinging noise when I press it. Has anyone heard of this? It's pretty distracting when I am trying to type.

[kshopper2084]

I'm having one small problem with the keyboard. The E key is giving me an odd pinging noise when I press it. Has anyone heard of this? It's pretty distracting when I am trying to type.

You can take it apart and apply the "paper fix" to dull the sound. Try searching here for that.

[apastuszak]

I'm having one small problem with the keyboard. The E key is giving me an odd pinging noise when I press it. Has anyone heard of this? It's pretty distracting when I am trying to type.

You can take it apart and apply the "paper fix" to dull the sound. Try searching here for that.

Thanks

[apastuszak]

Something else odd happening with this keyboard. I'm not the world's greatest typist. I make mistakes. Sometimes I press 2 keys at once.

On this keyboard, I'm hitting some kind of key combination that causes the number 6 to get pressed, followed by a bunch of other characters finally ending in an ESC key. I can't reproduce it. It just happens while I am typing.

At first I thought it might have been my ADB to USB converter, which I bought off of eBay and is running QMK/VIAL. But then I switched to the ADB to USB converter from Big Mess O' Wires (the Wombat, I think it's called) and that one gives me the same problems.

Now I think it might be the USB switch box I bought off of Amazon. I plugged the keyboard into the USB port on my monitor, I have not seen the problem yet. But I have not used it long enough to see if the problem might pop up.

It's just odd that it's happening with the AEK, but not with the AEK II.

I really hope it's not the USB switch box. I REALLY need to use a USB switch box and this is the third one now, and has been working the best.

I wonder if I should use a USB 2.0 switch box instead of a USB 3.0 switch box. I've seen quite a few posts saying that USB 2.0 is better for keyboards and mice than USB 3.0.

Has anyone seen anything like this?

[Muirium]

Searching DT for USB 3 issues (DT's own search function unhelpfully strips off numerics… ) I found this report by Ellipse who was having issues with various powered hubs and his keyboards. Apparently, there's a whole lot of rakes out there…

Spoiler:

FWIW: the two hubs I use are a Caldigit Thunderbolt dock, which I hook everything to and is flawless with all my keyboards, and the USB 3 ports in my Dell P2415Q display, which I used before the dock and is almost as good but sometimes blocked DFU mode when flashing on Xwhatsit. I’m an easily irritated bastard so would return any hub that had real issues. For that reason I threw everything in my collection at the Caldigit when I first got it in late 2020, and it passed the lot of them. Not had a single issue with it.

Mind, you are talking about ADB conversion here. I have had issues with that, even connected directly to my Mac. I use TMK for ADB and NeXT conversion, and I must say it's a lot better at the latter. ADB seems to be inherently buggy to convert: maybe it's something about that combined data and clock it uses to achieve the el cheapo 3 pin count? All my ADB boards throw the occasional stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck key,,,,,,,,,,,, which triggers my aforementioned anger. Can't exactly return them to Apple for a refund, though.