Finally an IBM terminal keyboard!

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Well I finally got enough money to spare to purchase a used IBM 1397000.
It feels great to type on. I like the sheer size of the keyboard and the additional keys really make it stand out from my other Model M keyboards.
I can appreciate people who want small compact keyboards (if they are mechanical in nature) but I just like to stand out a bit with something uncommon at home.
Sadly some of the keys have become polished with time but that is OK as I'm not too picky about texture.

I really fear what is inside this thing (as I got it used).

I'd just like to say that it works with the adesso keyboard adapter (not sure about extended terminal key functionality).
I also like the Rule Home key in the center of the directional arrows. I plan to use it someday to control my wife and children.

As much pain as IBM has caused me at work (We run an iSeries server) I just had to have the keyboard I used to interact with it at work.

The cord is pretty clean (not ran through a dog's ass by any means as my old mechanical AT&T board was.)
I hate cleaning these things but there is no way I will type more on this lovely thing until it is properly cleaned up.

That said, if you want a hypermasculine over compensating heavy keyboard grab yourself an old IBM terminal keyboard.
(I just wish I knew what some of these mystery command buttons did)

Pics or it didn't happen.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-​images/535/dsc00665yn.jpg/

[theferenc]

Egads, that's pretty dirty. The extended functionality will be dropped by your converter, so if you can, you'll want to use PS/2 directly, or modify hasu's or soarer's adapters to handle those extra keys -- hasu's, at least, is pretty easy to add that to, not sure about soarer's, as I haven't used it. I would assume it would be just as easy in either of them, honestly.

You are definitely going to need to clean that bad boy. Not sure if you have any interest in a bolt mod, but it would make it much easier to clean it up, since it would be fully disassembled, plus you can change the layout to ANSI instead of that almost ISO.

I haven't looked at mine, but I wonder if there is a jumper on these similar to what the Unicomps have, so you could swap between unique (but converter dropped) scan codes on the extra keys and modifier based extra keys, which would pass the converter, but couldn't be used directly by AHK, as far as I know.

Regardless, welcome to the 122 club!

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Yep, I will leave it in as PS/2 but it is nice to know that it supports the standard keys should there be a need to only use it as a standard IBM.

I just pulled some keys off...UM this is the most filthy thing yet. Various froms of skin cheese, furballs and um misc. snots inside.
The key caps are soaking in their denture tab bath as we speak.

I'll probably use simple green to gently clean the housing. I'm scared to pull the keys out because the key stems are colored and I want to get them back in properly.
I've cleaned worse than this, in a sick sort of way I like restoring these. Making them look clean and fresh from a pile of poo poo.

I take great comfort in knowing that I can bludgeon something unconscious with this new toy.

Thanks for accepting me into the 122 key club. Now when does my decoder ring and membership stationary arrive?

[Touch_It]

those are so sexy.  i am definitely jealous

[theferenc]

You know, even just hot soapy water with a nylon scrubby is enough to get even the most stubbornly dirty Model M I have ever seen clean as a whistle. For instance, these are the same keyboards:





And yes, I know the numpad / is on the wrong key in that first picture. :redface:

Edit: It's partially the light, but you can still see how filthy the keyboard is in the second picture. Those are even the same keys, though they took more than a denture bath to fully clean a handful of them.

Edit 2: Well, the ESC key isn't in the original set, obviously. But otherwise those are the original keys.

[Oqsy]

Another welcome from another 122-fingered freak.  Excellent choice.

I also get joy from cleaning/restoring misfits. It's worth it when you end up with a shiny new toy at the end.

[theferenc]

And it's just so fun! I like to tear mine down completely, and wash EVERYTHING, including the membranes, though that's more in the nature of a rinse and rub with my hands kinda thing, as I don't want to worry about damaging them. But there's often dust, or even sometimes the sticky residue of a spilled drink. Though I've only seen that once in all the M's I've taken apart.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I must ask since I've decided to pull the key stems out for cleaning, is there a chart of which color goes where? They are about 3 or 4 shades of keystem.
I have no guarantee that they were in the right place when I got the thing.

[theferenc]

The stems are actually all identical. You can just put them back all willy nilly. If you have more than 2 of a different color, or more than 2 colors, usually it means someone has replaced the keys, or at least the stems.

Usually F and J have a different color to everything else. That was to orient the people who put the caps on, apparently.

[Oqsy]

Numpad 5 does often, but perhaps not always.