Any Interest in IBM Model M Rivet replacement kits?

[ezrahilyer]

I have been thinking of offering kits with the appropriately sized drill-bit, brass screws and washers to do the same kind of rivet replacement (or bolt mod) that I do to my restorations.

Should be fairly cheap, probably $10 to $15 and would come with nicely printed out instructions ect.

What do you think?

I know a lot of people would rather just do it themselves, so why not help them do it. :-)

I also thought about selling pre-cut liner mats for the Ms, and maybe pre-cut floss for floss mods. Also I could sell pre flashed soarers converters, or ADB converters, and those bulk-head connectors I use for my restorations. If I sold all those things together on my site (which I am working on) people could come there and either buy my conversions there, or buy the kits to do the work themselves. That way they wouldn't have to order from multiple places and incur multiple shipping charges.

I am also working on a complete drop in controller upgrade which would finally offer NKRO on model Ms, I would sell those also.

Any ideas, suggestions, comments welcome. :-)

-Ezra

[0100010]

Bolt Mod Made Easy Kit
USB Conversion Kit
ANSI to ISO Kit
ISO to ANSI Kit

Having a one stop shop to order all the components that would be needed would awesome.

[dorkvader]

Hi Ezra.

I thought about this a while ago as well. How about the following:

Buy new barrel frames (they call them chimneys lol) from unicomp
cut off the plastic standoffs (unmelted rivets)
Drill them with a press
Sell an "easy bolt mod" kit.

This removes the hardest step: drilling the frame and converts it into a project anyone can do. People with 1390120 and 1390131 will need inserts and replacement keys for vertical 2* keys.

any end-user will need the following:
5.5mm thinwall nutdriver to open the case
phillips P0 or P1 screwdriver to screw in your bolts
4mm or whatever size nutdriver you need for the nuts you have
about an hour of time.

If you can get a qty discount from unicomp this could work out quite well for everyone.

I thought up the idea but didn't have enough time to see it through.

I also recommend replacing the "blanket" sheet for a better feel and longer lifespan but this is optional.

One other thing:
a drop in controller will not enable NKRO on model Ms, The physical switch matrix is only capable of 2KRO. To enable NKRO you will need a switch matrix that is NKRO. There are a few ways to go about this: replacement membranes & a very complicated connector or SMD soldering onto the membrane sheets.

[geniekid]

Dorkvader is right.  A bolts/washers/nuts kit would be nice but the hardest part of doing a bolt mos is drilling the holes into the barrel frame.  I would have bought some pre-drilled frames for my bolt mods if they had been available at the time.

any end-user will need the following:
5.5mm thinwall nutdriver to open the case
phillips P0 or P1 screwdriver to screw in your bolts
4mm or whatever size nutdriver you need for the nuts you have
about an hour of time.

They would probably need a chisel or a blade to break the intact rivets as well.

[FrostyToast]

I would love to have a kit for bolt modding.
Living in Canada, it would probably be quite a bit more expensive getting components shipped from several different sources as opposed to one.
No idea if this would include a pre-drilled piece for an ssk, but I could possibly do that myself. (or alternatively cut the numpad off of a normal piece.)

[rowdy]

Including a barrel plate would significantly increase postage cost for international users.

[ezrahilyer]

Thank you for the ideas! I had not thought of offering a pre-drilled chimney plate, I will have to find out from Unicomp what that will cost.

I should be able to find cheap 5.5mm nut drivers from china, and the Unicomp blankets I didn't consider selling them either.

It depends on how easy it is to work with Unicomp, I did send them an email a while back before I started restoring Ms, about helping them with webdesign, (have you seen their page? 1996 called and wants their <blink> back , lol ) and the email I received in reply was a very curt: NO, we are just fine thank-you very much. So i'm not sure how they would take someone trying to take some of their replacement parts business....

As to NKRO, I figured what I would do would be to identify the problem rows and columns in the M matrix, and make sure that areas which would ghost, would be fed with current in the opposite direction, and diodes would prevent this from feeding back and completing a circuit.

I read a few threads about this, and I see that other people have tried and failed to implement this, but at the least, i should be able to give 5 or 6 key rollover by alternating current direction and using diodes at the connector side. that should at the least prevent the common rollover issues with the M, namely the WSD block.

I am no hardware design wizard, so perhaps this is impossible, but even just offering a Atmega32u based drop in controller would be a help I think.



 

[FrostyToast]

Including a barrel plate would significantly increase postage cost for international users.

Considering the fact that I have no real access to power tools, this would or for me.
Although shipping can indeed be wonky. I have had my SSK shipped for $25 and my blue ALPS keyboard for $50.
Still, I am a man (or child rather) who is for the time being made of money. I would not mind having the pleasure of modding my keyboard effortlessly for the extra postage cost.

[dorkvader]

Thank you for the ideas! I had not thought of offering a pre-drilled chimney plate, I will have to find out from Unicomp what that will cost.

I believe they are $20 but it might be $10. They sorta have a flat rate on replacement parts cost.

I should be able to find cheap 5.5mm nut drivers from china, and the Unicomp blankets I didn't consider selling them either.

new blanket is much thinner and makes the M feel a little more "snappy". I can tell the difference in a blind test, but to many people it's a small thing. New blanket is much thinner.

It depends on how easy it is to work with Unicomp, I did send them an email a while back before I started restoring Ms, about helping them with webdesign, (have you seen their page? 1996 called and wants their <blink> back , lol ) and the email I received in reply was a very curt: NO, we are just fine thank-you very much. So i'm not sure how they would take someone trying to take some of their replacement parts business....

Man their current webpage is actually new. Their old one they had from like 1996 - 2012. was horrible like a generic yahoo storefront. It was like a poorly made geocities page but worse

As to NKRO, I figured what I would do would be to identify the problem rows and columns in the M matrix, and make sure that areas which would ghost, would be fed with current in the opposite direction, and diodes would prevent this from feeding back and completing a circuit.

Still won't work. No matter which direction you "feed" the signal to having a third key pressed that shares a row with one and a colum with the other is electrically the same. You'd need to solder diodes to the matrix (not possible unless you replace the matrix with a flexible PCB) or replace the membrane sheets to use a really huge connector and run one line for every switch, then putting a ton of diodes making your own "matrix" on the controller PCB (sorta like really really old keyboards from the 1960's and 1970's did it). Neither way is easy.

In short you can't get NKRO with the membranes currently there.

I read a few threads about this, and I see that other people have tried and failed to implement this, but at the least, i should be able to give 5 or 6 key rollover by alternating current direction and using diodes at the connector side. that should at the least prevent the common rollover issues with the M, namely the WSD block.

I am no hardware design wizard, so perhaps this is impossible, but even just offering a Atmega32u based drop in controller would be a help I think.

It'd make it programmable at least.  I have some KB matrix webpages you may want to familiarize yourself with before starting that can help explain. Or, I can draw out your current plan on paper and show how it would work differently (or not) from what is available now.

I'm visual, so I have to see it. Perhaps you can get a higher key rollover using the method you describe. Gut says no though.

http://www.dribin.org/dave/keyboard/one_html/ (best pictures)
http://blog.komar.be/how-to-make-a-keyboard-the-matrix/ (best writeup. Thanks Komar!)