Yesterday was apparently the coldest July day Melbourne had experienced since 2006, or something like that. Last night was cold, this morning was about 5 degrees. It seemed an appropriate time to start soldering.
First up was to tin the wires on what is left of the IBM plug (tinning, for those unfamiliar with it, is the process of applying a little solder to the bare end of the wire. This serves to stop the wire from fraying while soldering it to something else, and to help the solder flow onto the wire later on):
Then to extract the connectors from the keyboard end of the PS/2 cable, so I could snip the wires as close to the connector as possible:
Then a bit more tinning:
Next up was to connect bare wire ends, REMEMBERING to put the heat shrink tubing on FIRST (I remembered this time, but I have forgotten in the past, and it is so annoying to have to undo a good joint just to put the tubing on):
Not too bad - one down, three to go:
All done:
Then to slide the heat shrink tubing over the joins and shrink it (weird stuff, I still can't get used to it):
Now instead of just having the cable sticking directly out the back of the case, a grommet is needed. Why not reuse the one that was there before? The 5cm or so of wires that remained slid quite easily out of it, but the plastic (actually felt more like rubber) insulation seemed to be glued into the IBM grommet - kind of expected as it is supposed to stop the cable from being pulled out, which would pull the wires out of the connector inside the keyboard. Nevertheless, with a bit of encouragement - out it came:
The IBM cable was flattish, the new cable is round, so a little snip with a knife and some deft drilling of the inside of the grommet was required, after which it was a reasonable fit:
By the way I cannot recommend getting one of these strongly enough, either that or grow an extra pair of arms:
It fits, with the case top on it should hold it sufficiently firmly. I am not one to pull keyboard cables wantonly:
Everything screwed in, time to put the case top back on:
Next up is to find an old computer with a PS/2 port and see if the Model M actually works. As it is nearly lunch time, that might have to be a job for next weekend.