As an update I have posted the latest blog entry which rounds up all of the postings of recent months. Apologies this one came out later than it should have.
https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/blog/For ease of reference here is a portion of the beginning of the blog, summarizing the current statuses of the various aspects of the projects:
Production Status – when are my orders arriving!The Round 2 Model F and Beam Spring boards should be wrapping up production and assembly over the next few months and arriving to me around mid-year, a delay from the original expectation of being completed around this current time. All these Round 2 boards should be going out at the same time once they arrive on the container ship, so if someone decides to order an additional board and they have two boards on order then they usually get to skip the additional line and have both boards go out in the same shipment and at the same point in line as their first board.
After assembly and packing is completed, we then have 6-8 weeks for the container shipment and arranging local delivery to me. As I always say, we are at the mercy of the factories for their production timeframes. This low volume project is far from the highest priority but I am thankful that the project can exist without economies of scale.
The factories all understand that the quality control is very important for all these parts so we prefer that they get things right even if it delays things.
A few folks have asked me to switch them to in-stock round 1 boards, such as the ultra compact F104, ultra compact FSSK, ultra compact B104, and ultra compact BSSK, if they prefer not to wait. If interested, please email me as I still have some of these boards left but stock is low and they will not be made again.
Model F specific production status detailsRound 2 Model F classic style cases: They made the batch of black cases but we still need to finish the other cases and finish assembly. The factory needs to confirm the finalized case colors and texture before powdercoating can start.
Inner assembly (all F104 and FSSK inner assemblies have been produced and assembled, including the barrels, flippers, PCB, inner foam, and clear mylar sheet).
F122: the F122 sample inner assembly still needs to be approved before F122 TIA and BIA production can start. I am currently evaluating the latest F122 keyboard. So far I see no errors with the inner assemblies.
Keycaps: in preparation for the new boards, I ordered several thousand extra key sets and miscellaneous extra keys which were all completed and are currently on hand, so we do not need to wait for keycap production for the new Model F keyboard designs.
Boxes: the new folding style boxes have been approved for production for all Model F and beam spring boards; the artwork remains the same as before. More details on these boxes are below.
Outside protective foam: has been approved for production. These will be end cap pieces similar to those of the latest classic style F77.
While this does not hold up any Model F production, unfortunately there were production issues with the small batch of new keys for ISO Enter, Code, and PC AT Big Enter. The factory is working on remaking this batch (photos shown below). They will be available in pebble, ISSK Blue, black, and dark gray. As always everyone interested in reserving one of these keys (alone or as part of a set) please sign the Google Form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vsamkl_jOqp6wAEfZGeivQZ8ZaibpoT0WQkDG39r08Q/If anyone prefers not to wait and wants to switch to a Round 1 Model F board please let me know by email as I still have some units remaining.
Beam spring production status detailsThe Round 2 boards still need to finish production and assembly, so I hope that they can arrive to me later this year, around mid-year. As mentioned before things have been delayed from the original hope that they be completed earlier. Like with the Brand New Model F Keyboards project, no one aspect has bottlenecked the project and caused the delay but a number of aspects have taken longer than expected. The factory has their new year break for the next few weeks so things will continue after then.
Same as with the Model F noted above: If anyone prefers not to wait and wants to switch to a Round 1 beam spring board please let me know by email as I still have some units remaining.
Beam modules parts A and B:
Recently completed, but there was an error with part B discovered just before the new year break for the factories, so these parts need to be remade. These took over one year to produce, much longer than expected. Over a hundred thousand parts of each type were produced.
Beam module part B’s (the white part’s) assembly with its metal part has been improved for a nicer looking rounded assembly finish on the nub that is below the metal part. The factory has made thousands of these as part of the updated beam modules (all the ones with the press fit washers on top) and they are nice.
Metal parts for the modules:
The new modules from this February batch now sound great and were just approved for production yesterday, so we are just waiting on part B to be remade. A month earlier I noted this: The new modules using the older metal part for beam flipper sound great and are very close to the IBM originals. The tooling for the metal part for the beam flipper was updated last year but the updated tooling designed to get things even closer needs some work to get the modules as good sounding as possible.
The updated press fit washer mold for the beam modules:
Has been completed and approved, and I believe the factory has finished production of these parts if I remember correctly. This is an update over the original glued metal washer design; it allows for quick and toolless disassembly and repair of the beam modules.
Cases:
All but the beige and industrial gray case colors were approved (I want the colors to be even more accurate to the IBM originals so I rejected those two samples). The paint texture finish is not yet finalized.
Capacitive and controller PCBs:
wcass and Rico have finished the PCBs for the various beam spring models and I ordered the updated samples a few days ago. Rico’s Leyden Jar Rev 3 controller is so far working flawlessly in my testing and these will be the default controllers for the B104 and B122 (plus the F122), though the controllers will hopefully have firmware for all the various Model F and Beam Spring models in the future. As mentioned before, after the ATMEGA32’s run out I expect everything to have the Leyden Jar as the factory-installed controller.
Keys:
The PBT double shot keys and wcass xwhatsit controllers were completed last year.
Boxes:
The box designs have been finalized. The art will be just about the same as the Round 1 boxes shown on the project web site, but the boxes themselves will switch to a tab locking foldable design similar to the boxes IBM used for the original IBM Model F XT and AT keyboards (more details below). I have approved the box designs for production.
The outside protective foam:
Will be similar to the end cap style used on the final production round classic F77 Model F keyboards; after the keyboard samples are approved then they can make the cutting tool for this foam.
Inner foam:
The inner foam that goes between the tops of the modules and the top inner assembly will be evaluated with the forthcoming samples.
Working sample status:
The factory still needs to produce fully working samples of each beam spring keyboard model for my approval, and then mass production and assembly of the remaining case parts can start. The tooling for these cases took months longer than expected to complete. The sample cases and their TIA/BIA’s are completed and are now waiting to be powdercoated and assembled.
