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IBM 42H1292 Model M Upgrade

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Falkenroth:
I want to share a project I did a few months ago.

I purchased a broken and not working Model M on eBay as a challenge to see it I could bring it back to life.
I think it cost around $30 dollars or so. Probably around $50 after shipping. Once I opened it up I could see the
thing was left outside or something for awhile. There had been moisture between all the layers of membrane and
calcium deposits or something on the membrane and back plate also. My first order of business was to do a
deep cleaning on everything and see if I could use original parts. They cleaned up pretty good so I went ahead and
did a screw mod on the board and put everything back together. First test was promising and I thought the board was
going to work until I got to the left lower section of the keyboard. It wasn't registering correctly and some key just were
dead.

Back to the drawing board. I set the keyboard aside for a few months to think about what I wanted to try. Reached out to
Unicomp and after a few discussions on model and controller type I decided to pull the trigger and try the new Unicomp
model M controller and all new membrane. Didn't know what might or might not work. Opened up the keyboard again and
did find that the original membrane was compromised. Installed the new membranes and and controller. To my surprise
everything went really smooth no issues installing the parts. Still didn't know if it would work once I had It all back together.
After plugging it into my computer with the new USB plug and controller everything worked. The keyboard was alive again.
Yea, it needed a new heart but it wasn't to bad. Specially if you're already doing a bolt mod or screw mod.

I don't think this upgrade would work with all models but it works well with this model and probably ones like it.

One draw back was no green locking lights. I could not get a controller to fit this keyboard model from Unicomp
with green lights. Only blue.

So now its my handy keyboard I can just grab and plug into any USB port without fussing with adapters when working
on random computers.

Best Regards.

HoffmanMyster:
Very cool project! I didn't realize Unicomp sells components like that, and it's great to know that there's at least a chance they'll work with original Model Ms as well. :thumb:

Do you think you'll swap out the LEDs eventually with some green ones?

Falkenroth:
You never know with Unicomp but I would say its possible.

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