geekhack Marketplace > Group Buys and Preorders
[GB] F104+SSK+122+62+77+50+Ergo orders now open! Kishsaver+Industrial Model F
Ellipse:
Also we have two new photos of variations today: the compact cases, both regular gray and black case colors, with the 60% dark gray printed keys and also the standard pearl/pebble printed keys.
tassadarforaiur what do you mean? The solenoid driver looks the same as the photos in the manual as it's from the same batch.
The right angle bracket is for the solenoid installation. A general note for everyone: please do review the manual before installing anything - to quote the first line in the manual - solenoid section: "Setting up your solenoid: please read this entire section. It is very easy to permanently damage the solenoid and driver by doing something another way." Included in the manual is a video showing a step by step guide to installing the solenoid.
https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2020-07-01_16-36-50.jpg
The cables may vary. I upgraded the cables to the one with a black connector and multicolor cables, which is easier to install in the tight area of the case and back plate because the connector was smaller.
jacobsoncharlie the case and case finish are the same as what was shown in the videos and photos on the project web site going back to 2016 - if you preferred another option you could have easily selected another model. The keyboards are assorted micro USB and USB-C - the earliest PCB batch was produced at a time many years back when USB C was barely one year old and was not as widespread.
Ellipse:
Recently I chatted with someone who worked for IBM in the 1980s, installing systems containing buckling spring keyboards. I learned that the occasional need to re-seat some keys during the initial setup and other shipping related issues was far less common when these systems were new because the systems were ultra delicate and primarily shipped in pallets by truck directly from IBM, as opposed to through the regular postal mail or UPS. Their comments as relayed to me:
"From what I recall, the biggest issues we had were with spacebars. Most of the keyboards would be fine, but spacebars would sometimes come loose in transit and if you didn't re-seat them carefully before setting up the system for someone, folks would either raise a support ticket to complain or try to fix the keyboard themselves, sometimes causing bigger issues. We'd set everything up in our workshop, install a Token Ring networking card and terminal software, test, and then wheel the entire system to them on a cart. We never tested that every key worked before delivery.
Keep in mind that we got the systems shipped to us on pallets directly from IBM and they were probably handled much more carefully, as they shipped together with old-school CRTs and the main CPUs. You are shipping your amazing products all around the world in individual packages and they probably get jostled around quite a bit more than what we ever had to deal with. And I'd be very surprised if IBM ever tested their packaging to what packages have to endure nowadays."
euphxenos:
How far have you gotten in shipping orders? If you were to characterize it as "all orders placed before <some date> have been shipped", what would that date be?
Ellipse:
euphxenos as posted earlier the orders go out if they are all in stock, not all orders before X date have shipped. Those ordering stuff like international language sets, Industrial SSK 12 key sets, and others which are not yet completed will have their orders shipped at some point after the sets are done and mailed to me.
For more than one year the split shipping option was available (to get your in stock keyboard early if you had spare keys to use in the mean time) while I had some down time waiting for the factory to get the key sublimation going and to mail the second container shipment, but now I'm focused on getting as many in stock orders out as possible.
I've also shipped out all the all in stock orders of those who did not order a keyboard, outside of maybe those who ordered something in the past month or so. So the dates of orders that have shipped range from the beginning of the project to recent months.
I expect that beginning in the coming weeks I will start mailing out all of the remaining stuff that's "all in stock" for the folks who chose the split shipping option back then. I thank everyone again for their patience as the project is wrapped up.
Ellipse:
Today is the public geekhack launch of the Brand New Beam Spring Keyboards Project!
This was designed to be announced after the new Model F project ended but there was another project in the works to reproduce the beam spring module exactly (good for the purposes of spare parts for the original keyboards), so I thought it would be a good time to post. My modules are not backwards compatible with the original IBM beam spring keyboards. They have been redesigned to be used with Cherry MX type keys natively and to remove all of the wasted space in the modules and in the beam spring cases, while maintaining 100% original key travel and the same exact specifications for the fly plates, beam module footprint, etc.
For now you should check out the photos on the thread linked to below and sign up on the interest form if interested.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdR8ygHtryVYyIl_bbVbNqW9NZgh98COkkf4U7lIhejhZ-Dkw/viewform?usp=sf_link
Please keep all beam spring discussion on this separate thread only so as not to add confusion to this current thread.
Details on the features and pricing are in these separate threads:
https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=26174&p=491823
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=114105
Important note: To repeat what I posted on that thread, the new beam springs don't ship and are not a focus until I've sent out the new Model F Keyboards. The Model F project was not delayed to finish these beam spring keyboards. More details are in the above threads.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version