ibm model f 122 keys modding

[Vizir]

so i just purchased a model f (122 keys) from ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-Model-F-122-Key-Clicky-Mechanical-Keyboard-May-1985-6110345-RARE-/291273256697?

i was wondering which route should i go for modern pc compatibility between soarer and xtant?

would this (https://learn.adafruit.com/convert-your-model-m-keyboard-to-bluetooth-with-bluefruit-ez-key-hid?view=all) be a possible solution, considering it was done to a model m?

[fohat.digs]

Here is what I did:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48786.msg1338079#msg1338079

[Vizir]

very interesting. i don't have multiple items so i'm going to have to take this carefully. going to have to buy everything from a soldering iron to multimeter. i've never really worked on electronics myself, but i hope to change that.

[dgreekstallion]

Good luck with it. I know you'll love your new F-122. Personally I'm a convert, thanks to our esteemed fohat.

[vivalarevolución]

You don't need a soldering iron.  The only tools I needed were:

1.  some sand paper and rust remover to remove any rust
2.  spray paint to repaint the metal
3.  a rubber mallet for forcing apart the metal plates
4.  a long clamp for forcing the layers back together
5.  clamps
6.  Teensy and wires for to connect the Teensy internally (others use an external box with a Teensy).
7.  Whatever keys you want add or rearrange for you desired layout.

If you need to replace the foam mat, you will need:

1.  a hammer
2.  a leather hole punch
3.  some replacement foam
4.  scissors

I am probably forgetting some things, but those are what come to mind off the top of my head.

[0100010]

Could also forego the leather punch and use a razor / exacto knife.

[Vizir]

the teensy and wires would need soldering, right? or did you just twist wires together and then tape/shrink-wrap them?

[0100010]

Get a Teensy with header pins on it already, and some female to female jumper wires (like these - https://www.adafruit.com/products/266 )

[Touch_It]

Not necessarily.  you could get pin extenders(not sure on the actual name) with it and a bread board. 

edit from 0100010 above they are called header pins.

[Vizir]

looks like the teensy 2.0 from adafruit http://www.adafruit.com/products/199 comes with headers.

from the description

Comes with assembled Teensy board (ATmega32u4 with bootloader preinstalled) and header to allow easy breadboarding.

[0100010]

http://pjrc.com/store/teensy_pins.html

[Vizir]

how different are the F and the M internally? As in, would it be possible to do the backlighting mod done by PhosphorGlow? http://phosphorglow.net/2014/10/11/69/

What kind of LED's is he using?





they almost look like these http://www.adafruit.com/products/1757

[dgreekstallion]

Man I would love my Model F's with some LED back-lighting!

[Vizir]

i know!

i'm ordering the teensy++ 2.0 instead of the teensy, so I can play around with this oled https://www.adafruit.com/products/938. thinking i might add that to the keyboard for readouts. still need to figure out how this is going to work.

[dgreekstallion]

i know!

i'm ordering the teensy++ 2.0 instead of the teensy, so I can play around with this oled https://www.adafruit.com/products/938. thinking i might add that to the keyboard for readouts. still need to figure out how this is going to work.

My F-122 would certainly look fearsome all lit-up.

As far as helping you, I'm pretty useless, lol. I'm an oil and gas landman.

[Vizir]

after a little more research, i found that the adafruit oled displays are not as good as these from digole http://www.digole.com/index.php?categoryID=153. the adafruit ones are slower and require more memory to hold bitmaps in the micro controller, while the ones from digole do that internally, freeing up resources for the micro controller to do its thing.

[dgreekstallion]

Would the LEDs need a separate power supply? Or can they use USB power?

[Vizir]

from what i read (take it with a grain of salt, i'm still learning!), they need a couple of hundred mA which should be enough via USB (but I don't know how much power they keyboard and the microcontroller draw). most USB is limited to 500mA. so, depending on the draw of the rest of the kb, it _might_ be ok; if not, add a second usb cable for additional 500mA (like some external USB drives which come with 2 USB cables).

eg, Power consumption: maximum 110mA at 5V when all dots light on (Display White color).

[dorkvader]

to led backlight your F you could do it the same way as phosphroglow does his Ms. If you notice, he's drilled holes through the plastic plate. you could do the same with the F metal plate or put the LED on the front. It looks like he's using 1.8mm (2mm) LEDs but they might be 2*3*4 Hope this helps

about total power consumption for LED matrix, I can calculate it (or tell you how), but in general about 1K resistors will be good for any colour LED and still have enough power left for the microcontroller. If you aim for about 1 mA per LED, they are almost always bright enough unless you are using ancient LEDs from the 1980's or whatever. You don't want to blind anyone with your lamp keyboard

Another option is to drive the LED matrix at a much higher theoretical max power consumption and then limit it back with PWM. I believe GON does this and it works for him. You will need a transistor gate wired to pwm pin on teensy, source to 5v source and drain goes to the resistors and LEDs.

[dgreekstallion]

to led backlight your F you could do it the same way as phosphroglow does his Ms. If you notice, he's drilled holes through the plastic plate. you could do the same with the F metal plate or put the LED on the front. It looks like he's using 1.8mm (2mm) LEDs but they might be 2*3*4 Hope this helps

about total power consumption for LED matrix, I can calculate it (or tell you how), but in general about 1K resistors will be good for any colour LED and still have enough power left for the microcontroller. If you aim for about 1 mA per LED, they are almost always bright enough unless you are using ancient LEDs from the 1980's or whatever. You don't want to blind anyone with your lamp keyboard

Another option is to drive the LED matrix at a much higher theoretical max power consumption and then limit it back with PWM. I believe GON does this and it works for him. You will need a transistor gate wired to pwm pin on teensy, source to 5v source and drain goes to the resistors and LEDs.

This is one the first technical things I've ever read from you that I almost understand. This actually seems fairly simple.

[dorkvader]

to led backlight your F you could do it the same way as phosphroglow does his Ms. If you notice, he's drilled holes through the plastic plate. you could do the same with the F metal plate or put the LED on the front. It looks like he's using 1.8mm (2mm) LEDs but they might be 2*3*4 Hope this helps

about total power consumption for LED matrix, I can calculate it (or tell you how), but in general about 1K resistors will be good for any colour LED and still have enough power left for the microcontroller. If you aim for about 1 mA per LED, they are almost always bright enough unless you are using ancient LEDs from the 1980's or whatever. You don't want to blind anyone with your lamp keyboard

Another option is to drive the LED matrix at a much higher theoretical max power consumption and then limit it back with PWM. I believe GON does this and it works for him. You will need a transistor gate wired to pwm pin on teensy, source to 5v source and drain goes to the resistors and LEDs.

This is one the first technical things I've ever read from you that I almost understand. This actually seems fairly simple.

feel free to ask questions and I'm happy to explain whatever doesn't make sense normally. I try to gauge the person and give them an answer based on their current knowledge / abilities.

The hardware is pretty simple (to me at least) but I don't know how to program the teensy to use PWM or modify other people's code for that.

[dgreekstallion]

to led backlight your F you could do it the same way as phosphroglow does his Ms. If you notice, he's drilled holes through the plastic plate. you could do the same with the F metal plate or put the LED on the front. It looks like he's using 1.8mm (2mm) LEDs but they might be 2*3*4 Hope this helps

about total power consumption for LED matrix, I can calculate it (or tell you how), but in general about 1K resistors will be good for any colour LED and still have enough power left for the microcontroller. If you aim for about 1 mA per LED, they are almost always bright enough unless you are using ancient LEDs from the 1980's or whatever. You don't want to blind anyone with your lamp keyboard

Another option is to drive the LED matrix at a much higher theoretical max power consumption and then limit it back with PWM. I believe GON does this and it works for him. You will need a transistor gate wired to pwm pin on teensy, source to 5v source and drain goes to the resistors and LEDs.

This is one the first technical things I've ever read from you that I almost understand. This actually seems fairly simple.

feel free to ask questions and I'm happy to explain whatever doesn't make sense normally. I try to gauge the person and give them an answer based on their current knowledge / abilities.

The hardware is pretty simple (to me at least) but I don't know how to program the teensy to use PWM or modify other people's code for that.

Thanks I appreciate it very much. Conversely, if you ever have any questions about an oil or gas lease, or, what it's like to be Greek, I'm your guy!

[0100010]

I find it interesting how different people "come up" with the same or similar idea around the same times; meaning I also was thinking about putting some under cap LEDs on my Model F.  In a holding pattern until xwhatsit releases a software update for his capsense controller though (so I can have both LEDs and the 4704 piezo buzzer).

[Vizir]

haha. i'm going to try and first clean and get soarer's mod going before i try anything more challenging. if i manage to do this, i do plan to continue and make the keycap backlight and the oled screen on the top center of the keyboard.

edit: i have ordered a teensy++ 2.0 board so that i can add the oled display which might have been too much for the teensy2.0.

[Vizir]

I just realized that the model f I bought doesn't have the dip switches at the bottom.

see the difference:

without



with




what do they do? any advantage of having them? the only info i found seems that adding the teensy will make those obsolete anyways.

[fohat.digs]

The 6110668s that I have bought have had the DIP switches and the 611034*s have not. It is my understanding that the 6110668 is the earliest model, even though the number is higher.

I think that you are right that the Teensy renders them obsolete, I disconnected mine anyway.

[snoopy]

/edit

wrong thread 

[Vizir]

just received the f-122. thought i knew what to expect, but its size and weight are considerably more than what i'd imagined. a tank it is, and its in pretty good shape. i was tempted to buy another (cleaner one) which i posted in the great finds forum. but it looks like the seller just had not posted good photos. the item is quite clean from the outside and in excellent shape for being 29 years old.

now waiting on my teensy to arrive.

[dgreekstallion]

Good luck with it! You'll find it's hard to type on anything else once you are used to the "Aircraft Carrier."

[Vizir]

Haha. The aircraft carrier. I like that nickname. And thanks.

[dgreekstallion]

Haha. The aircraft carrier. I like that nickname. And thanks.

No problem at all!

[fohat.digs]

The aircraft carrier.

The 122-key IBM terminals are the quintessential "aircraft carrier" keyboards in both shape and size.

Unfortunately, the Apple Extended Keyboard M0115 is the "Saratoga" and the AEK2 M3501 is the "Nimitz"

[Vizir]

I got the teensy++ 2.0. The reason I ordered the teensy++ was possibly adding led's and/or an oled display.

to drive the oled display and any extra led's i thought i'd add a driver board for the led's, saving more pins for the oled display or anything else.

here's what I need for soarer's mod



As you can see the Vcc (+5V) pin is already being used for the keyboard itself. how would i wire up +5V wire for the driver board and also the oled display? I'm a complete noob to circuits, so please excuse me if this is something very basic.

According to adafruit I need to match one of these 3 configurations:

    +5v -> VCC
    GND -> GND
    Analog 4 -> SDA
    Analog 5 -> SCL
OR
    +5v -> VCC
    GND -> GND
    Digital 20 -> SDA
    Digital 21 -> SCL
OR
    +5v -> VCC
    GND -> GND
    SDA -> SDA
    SCL -> SCL

Which pins would I match between the teensy++ and the driver board, considering some are already in use by the keyboard itself (like the VCC)?

And what about the oled display?
 GND -> GND (G)
 5v -> VIN (+)
 #2 -> SCLK (CL)
 #3 -> MOSI (SI)
 #4 -> DC
 #5 -> OLEDCS (OC)
 #6 -> RST (R)

which corresponds to which pin between the display and the teensy++ with the driver board + keyboard itself?

[dorkvader]

As you can see the Vcc (+5V) pin is already being used for the keyboard itself. how would i wire up +5V wire for the driver board and also the oled display? I'm a complete noob to circuits, so please excuse me if this is something very basic.

VCC is the 5V power coming from the USB. You can put 2 wires there or have one wire split into two or anything like that.

According to adafruit I need to match one of these 3 configurations:

    +5v -> VCC
    GND -> GND
    Analog 4 -> SDA
    Analog 5 -> SCL
OR
    +5v -> VCC
    GND -> GND
    Digital 20 -> SDA
    Digital 21 -> SCL
OR
    +5v -> VCC
    GND -> GND
    SDA -> SDA
    SCL -> SCL

Which pins would I match between the teensy++ and the driver board, considering some are already in use by the keyboard itself (like the VCC)?

According to my handy Teensy++2.0 pin chart (that comes with the chip) Analog in 0 is PE6 and analog in 1 is PE7, you can use those for your display most likely.

Or use any 2 digital pins, since it says digital20 and 21 can be used. Not sure which pins the adafruit people say are 20 and 21, but any 2 digital pins should be able to be used for the display. You might have to change the code though.

Speaking of which, how do you propose to program this? soarer's code is not open source (so you can't modify it) and includes no compatability for an oled display module. I'm no programmer though so maybe you have a solution I haven't thought of.

Another option is to use hasu's TMK_firmware, but again I have little programming experience here.

And what about the oled display?
 GND -> GND (G)
 5v -> VIN (+)
 #2 -> SCLK (CL)
 #3 -> MOSI (SI)
 #4 -> DC
 #5 -> OLEDCS (OC)
 #6 -> RST (R)

which corresponds to which pin between the display and the teensy++ with the driver board + keyboard itself?

I thought you said the pins SDA/SCL were from adafruit for the OLED? Ohwell.

Just plug the data/clock pins into the proper inputs for soarer. I thnk they are PD6 and PD7 but I forget. it's in the topic and the firmware documetnation. For the OLEd display, here's the best I can think up:

 GND -> GND (G)
 5v -> VIN (+)
these 2 are obvious. VIN on the OLED module goes to VCC or 5V. GND to GND.

 #2 -> SCLK (CL)
 #3 -> MOSI (SI)
 #4 -> DC
 #5 -> OLEDCS (OC)
 #6 -> RST (R)
The rest of these can probably go to any digital pins. Make sure your firmware knows which ones. RST is "reset" which probably resets the microcontroller on the display. Youc an wire that up to a switch if need be, but having the teensy detect for an error and ping that pin is probably a better idea. you can even make a key combination reset the display.

Does the display come with a datasheet? if you link it and I can tell you some more info about hooking it up right. For example, the OLEDCS pin could stand for OLED Current Source and might require some different hardware. It could also mean OLED Cable Select (or just about anything else) and might just be a basic logic pin you hook into the digital IO of your teensy somewhere.

Maybe consider making a post about this in the MST forum http://geekhack.org/index.php?board=117.0

[Vizir]

thanks for the informative post. i'm still digesting all that info!

the adafruit oled display datasheet for the controller and the display itself.

i found that several GH/DT members have made a similar keyboard (albeit from scratch with a trackpoint) and called it the MX13.

and they have included the pin assignments in this section.

edit: i will make a new thread when i get a chance in the forum you mentioned.

edit2: and i did not know that soarer's was not open source. well, i'm a programmer so i can check out the tmk_alternate fw and see how difficult it'd be to work that with the ibms.

[dgreekstallion]

thanks for the informative post. i'm still digesting all that info!

the adafruit oled display datasheet for the controller and the display itself.

i found that several GH/DT members have made a similar keyboard (albeit from scratch with a trackpoint) and called it the MX13.

and they have included the pin assignments in this section.

edit: i will make a new thread when i get a chance in the forum you mentioned.

edit2: and i did not know that soarer's was not open source. well, i'm a programmer so i can check out the tmk_alternate fw and see how difficult it'd be to work that with the ibms.

Damn! That MX13 is certainly a really good-looking keyboard. Love the old-fashioned key cap choices.

[Vizir]

i want a replacement keyset and Ive read that unicomp has compatible keysets. which one will work with the f 122 ansi mod? what about the spacebar (large or small)?

it also appears that other than the old school pebble/gray colors, they have a brilliant white. any info about that color? i was planning to dye the keycaps eventually.

[fohat.digs]

i want a replacement keyset and Ive read that unicomp has compatible keysets. which one will work with the f 122 ansi mod? what about the spacebar (large or small)?

it also appears that other than the old school pebble/gray colors, they have a brilliant white. any info about that color? i was planning to dye the keycaps eventually.

They will all work, any IBM buckling spring stem/cap system is the same. People here are constantly whining about Unicomp quality control, which is lower than IBM's to be sure. You should get an entire set for a better match.

There are many beautiful colors available but not so much in keys larger than 1x. Bright white is very nice and very white.

You can get full sets (Model M standard sets) much cheaper than buying individually, but not in all colors. There are pearl, pebble, and white sets printed with red, green, and blue legends, too!

Spacebar is a problem because the M wire is much thicker than the F wire. In my guide I showed home-made tabs, and wcass has more elegant solutions.

[0100010]

You will need the 'large' spacebar from Unicomp (which is a 7x unit width).

I used heatshrink on my Model F spacebar wire to thicken the ends so it would mount on a Model M spacebar; wcass uses brass or steel tubing.

[Vizir]

hmm decisions decisions. i'm leaning towards a brilliant white set (hoping that the dyeing will be easier), but the default pebble/gray is also classic. thanks for the input. i'll check out wcass' and your guides. my spacebar catches sometimes when using the left thumb (on the very left end of it). i've been a little scared to pop it off, in case i break the stabilizers. i'll do it once i know i have all the supplies and am ready for a full dismantle and rebuild process.

and heatshrink tubing sounds easy enough.