Representing IBM at a meetup

[sharktastica]

Yesterday, I attended a fairly impromptu keyboard meetup in Exeter, UK to represent IBM. I didn't want to take a suitcase with me for all the train commuting I had to do within a day, so I took what I could fit into a particularly large backpack. This meant no Model B(eam spring) keyboards, but I managed to fit two very cool buckling spring keyboards and a bunch of buckling sleeve keyboards (I opted to give them priority since they're far less well-known and experienced). Blahaj attended so the table was of course on brand.

Update: I've since made a small write-up with extra photos from the event on my website.

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The keyboards:

• IBM 4704 Display Station Model 100 Function Keyboard (1983ish Model F buckling spring keyboard)
• IBM Wheelwriter 5 Keyboard Assembly (1984-based Model M buckling spring keyboard)
• IBM Numeric Keypad for IBM PS/2 L40SX (1992 Model M3 buckling sleeve keypad)
• IBM PS/note 182-series Keyboard Assembly (1992 Model M6 buckling sleeve keyboard)
• IBM ThinkPad 355-series/360-series Keyboard Assembly (1994 Model M6-1 buckling sleeve keyboard)
• IBM RANPOS Keyboard (2001 Model M9 buckling sleeve keyboard)

Overall, it was a very good day with cool people and I got a very positive reception to these keyboards! Shout out to Mechanical Keyboards UK patrons Alvi and Shaoty for organising this!

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[Clavius]

Very nice boards! Is that the numpad that came with the L40SX? Did you manage to convert it to usb?

[sharktastica]

Very nice boards! Is that the numpad that came with the L40SX? Did you manage to convert it to usb?

Yes to both questions. It's fairly straightforward as it's an AT-compatible device but with a specific PS/2 plug pinout - the mouse's passthrough pins are in the usual positions with the keyboard's clock and data through the two typically unused pins. I think IBM did this because they assumed the host laptop's PS/2 port would typically be used for a mouse rather than a keyboard/keypad, so they wanted to make sure the port always supported mice. Anyway, you could make a passive adapter with a spare PS/2 port and plug or just wire it up from keypad's mouse port.

[Clavius]

Thanks a lot for your elaborate answer! This is enough info to build an usb converter, I'll add that one to the projects list then I suppose I could also hook up a ps2 keyboard to my l40sx with a passive adapter. Not that that gets you much, but anyway...