Author Topic: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)  (Read 65367 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline dorkvader

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 6288
  • Location: Boston area
  • all about the "hack" in "geekhack"
Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« on: Sun, 13 November 2016, 21:07:17 »
Hi guys, I was talking to someone on skype and they convinced me to start posting pics of my projects again so here's one for you.




I love the IBM Chinese / Japanese keyboards (6112884 for Japanese, 6113442 for Chinese). Mendleson's has like a huge stash of them, they are NIB, IBM, tee mount (green) alps, have NKRO, and are also cheap. How cheap? $25 NIB IBM Alps! Everyone should own one. Soarer even made a controller code for it, which was sweet. Unfortunately they are huge. I decided to fix that.

What did I do? I cut the last two "sections" off the plate, cut a section out of the bottom case, cut a different section out of the top. I'm very glad I was able to preserve the places for the feet to clip back in as well as the speaker grill. I spent many hours filing the 4 edges down to match together perfectly, or as good as I could get. Then I decided whether to keep the PCB or not. The original PCB had NKRO, but the controller was on the part I cut off. I also really like the lowpoly-type M0110 mod where it's just direct wired, but I still need a place for the controller. hmm.

I ended up keeping the PCB. I cut it down to size, desoldered the mux chip driving the columns (which was on the part of the KB that was left) put a teensy there, fixed a few traces to power the teensy, repaired all the traces that were cut, mapped out the matrix, came up with a layout and bam!

The KB is sometimes known as the pingsaver keyboard. Since I desoldered mine I can confirm that it's the metal plate that makes the ping. This ping has been preserved in this iteration which is good 'cause I love it.

The tee mount alps actuate very high. Most people consider them linear, but I've always thought they were a little tactile. I use it for gaming or my "left hand only" ergodox depending on how I'm feeling.

Here are a couple of cellphone photos I took, I guess since I have a post now I'll take some interior shots too.

I have a few other projects in the works, so hopefully I'll find time to post those too


Next to a CM storm novatouch. The whole thing is about the size of a standard TKL




This picture is actually taken right after I finished the case, so it's not even working in the photo :p



This is the only shot of the internals I could find. Again missing any sort of wiring as it's an early photo.

I guess I'll take some photos and upload them later. Enjoy!


New pics. Unfortunately it rained all today and I loaned out my good tripod so we get terrible WB and ugly pics. I'm too lazy to fix because I'll just take better ones later




Here we see the bottom seam and how much it varies from the top. The advantage is that I can keep both feet and the speaker grille The disadvantage is that two case tabs on one side won't fit. I decided that's acceptable as it has 4 screws in it anyway



Here it is with the top off (oh my!) you can see the bright wires, which are the columns from under the board. This teensy used to be in the IC socket and therefore was missing some pins for that purpose. I found it easy and elegant to fix it this way. I also preserved the internal strain relief for the cable which was pretty legit. The speaker plugs in and does work if I connect it to the teensy but I opted against. I had to route the colored ones in between switches between the PCB and plate.




Close up on teensy wiring and USB cable. I did have to slice the USB to get it to fit in between the jacks, but I think it worked out pretty well. I considered repurposing the data jack (the upper one. Lower is for speaker) but that would involve tapping the two USB data pins from the teensy and would be a lot more work.




Underside of the keyboard. All rows are labelled. The green wire on the left "moves" that column to a different teensy pin somewhere on the top. I think that was the LED pin or something because I was having issues with that column so I moved it. The jumper on switch 0D adds 0E to that column, so I wouldn't need another wire there.





The green wire on the left is to "move" the first column there. On the teensy that pin is for VCC which I couldn't feed into my KB, so I sliced it (if you zoom in you can see an X I put there to mark it) Then I sliced the trace for the lower left pin, which is power for the mux chip that used to be there driving the columns, the wire "moves" column 1 to that pin, solving 2 problems with one wire.




On the bottom we see the speaker in place and the lower seam. in the middle of the lower edge, I had to remove a clip that interfered with something. You can see two upper edge clips on the left that do still mate, but the right one does not due to asymmetric cutting. On the lower, the left clip matches and the right does not: same reason. The large hole on the middle right is for the volume knob on the KB that no longer exists.




Here is the "seam" on the inside of the top. Again it is asymmetric: the top "cut" is at the end of the KB shelf, and the bottom one is moved a few mm inward from there for better strength. Its hard to see, but I had to cut a case locking "tab" off. it used to exist on the far right edge, where that little box is. It mounts to the hole near the key marked "enter" on the keyboard behind. I also had to slice another tab on the top left edge, which is near the alt key.





you can see what locking pieces no longer exist in this shot as well as how closely I was able to align everything. I actually cut and filed it flush by hand (over the course of several months, probably at least 10 hours of effort) then filed it inward to make a "v" shape for the glue to fill. I plan to add more later, but it's holding just fine now.

OK that's all for now. I'll put up some decent shots once I have light again.
« Last Edit: Tue, 22 November 2016, 16:27:53 by dorkvader »

Offline infiniti

  • I <3 KB
  • * Senior Moderator
  • Posts: 2405
  • Location: Thrilla, Manila, Philippines
  • Bob was here
    • PM me and ask for a custom title!
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 13 November 2016, 21:20:26 »
LOL the pingsaver :))

I love these hardmod projects! <3

Thanks for posting, dv!

Offline hking0036

  • Posts: 343
  • Location: NC, USA
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 13 November 2016, 21:29:42 »
Super cool project, like a homemade kishsaver with alps. Just wish I could be this handy :))
Realforce RF87UB 45g Uniform | Leopold FC660C w/ TMK | IBM Model M - 3/24/1997 | IBM Model F 122 - 11/25/1985 ANSI'd w/ TMK | IBM Model F XT in a box

Offline Puddsy

  • nice
  • * Elated Elder
  • Posts: 12278
  • Location: RSTLN E
  • "Do you shovel to survive, or survive to shovel?"
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 13 November 2016, 21:50:07 »
I've been looking for something to do with my one of these. I might just convert it to USB and use it as a conversation piece. Who knows.
QFR | MJ2 TKL | "Bulgogiboard" (Keycon 104) | ctrl.alt x GON 60% | TGR Alice | Mira SE #29 | Mira SE #34 | Revo One | z | Keycult No. 1 | First CW87 prototype | Mech27v1 | Camp C225 | Duck Orion V1 | LZ CLS sxh | Geon Frog TKL | Hiney TKL One | Geon Glare TKL



"Everything is worse, but in a barely perceptible and indefinable way" -dollartacos, after I came back from a break | "Is Linkshine our Nixon?" -NAV | "Puddsy is the Puddsy of keebs" -ns90

Offline chyros

  • a.k.a. Thomas
  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 3484
  • Location: The Netherlands
  • Hello and welcome.
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #4 on: Mon, 14 November 2016, 04:19:38 »
Wasn't there another board that was known as the Pingsaver? Anyway nice project! :)
Check my keyboard video reviews:


Offline menuhin

  • Posts: 1225
  • Location: Germany
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #5 on: Mon, 14 November 2016, 06:18:49 »
Nice mod and thanks for sharing this great find, for me, shipping to Europe costs 60+ USD though.
How did you achieve such a clean cut and what glue / method did you use for putting them together?
Wishlist: 1) nice thick Alps caps; 2) Cherry profile POM;
More
Wishful-list: 1) We order from keyboard-layout-editor.com; 2) usable Trackpoint module for all keyboards
IBM M13 black
NeXT non-ADB keyboard (AAE)
HHKB Pro 2 HasuBT
[~90WPM, in love with Emacs, and Lisp]

Offline chyros

  • a.k.a. Thomas
  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 3484
  • Location: The Netherlands
  • Hello and welcome.
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #6 on: Mon, 14 November 2016, 07:37:01 »
BTW IIRC this is the actual Pingsaver; it's basically the Alps version of the Kishsaver:

Check my keyboard video reviews:


Offline samwisekoi

  • MAWG since 1997
  • * Administrator
  • Posts: 2480
  • Location: Mt. View, California
  • Sorry, moving houses. Be back ASAP.
    • Tweet samwisekoi
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #7 on: Mon, 14 November 2016, 09:45:45 »
DV,

Thanks!  Nice project board!

I bought two of the QWERTY/Chinese versions.  No Japanese left.



One for the wall o' keyboards, and one to see if the GH-122 PCB will fit inside.

 - Ron | samwisekoi
« Last Edit: Mon, 14 November 2016, 09:50:17 by samwisekoi »
I like keyboards and case modding.  Everything about a computer should be silent -- except the KEYBOARD!

'85 IBM F-122/Soarer Keyboard |  Leopold FC200 TKL (Browns) + GH36 Keypad (Browns/Greens) | GH-122 (Whites/Greens) with Nuclear Data Green keycaps in a Unicomp case

Offline harjoat

  • Posts: 38
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #8 on: Mon, 14 November 2016, 16:18:46 »
Awesome!

Offline dorkvader

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 6288
  • Location: Boston area
  • all about the "hack" in "geekhack"
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #9 on: Mon, 14 November 2016, 18:38:40 »
BTW IIRC this is the actual Pingsaver; it's basically the Alps version of the Kishsaver:

Show Image

I don't know when that board was branded but JDcarpe called it the pingsaver back in 2014 https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62628.msg1468025#msg1468025 I called them pingmaster in early 2014, but the name never stuck :( The important part is that most of these alps-made tee mount KBs all use the same plate, and that plate makes the noise. I noticed a similar thing when HaaTa visited me with his box of NIB alps keyboards for his kiibohd project in 2012 or 2013 sometime, but we didn't know that this would be a common theme amongst these keyboards and the pingsaver name didn't come out yet. I wonder why the Apple M0110 isn't like this. My guess is that it's too short.

The plate has the ringing / ping sound even detached from everything else. There were some theories as to what caused it, any me theory was pretty wild ) so I'm glad to have put them to rest.

Anyway I work full time and also take classes full time so I never saw the sun. I have a half-day tomorrow so I'll take more photos then.

Few
« Last Edit: Mon, 14 November 2016, 18:43:23 by dorkvader »

Offline dorkvader

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 6288
  • Location: Boston area
  • all about the "hack" in "geekhack"
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #10 on: Tue, 15 November 2016, 16:49:39 »
added pictures and descriptions of what I did to mod it.

using this KB is sorta tough, because the "enter" and right shift keys are 1u over from their normal place. I mapped the extra key to be the same to prevent me from missing too badly.

Layout is HHKB similar. Let me find a pic
« Last Edit: Tue, 15 November 2016, 16:51:42 by dorkvader »

Offline digi

  • elite af tbh
  • * Exquisite Elder
  • Posts: 2789
  • keyboard game on fleek
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #11 on: Wed, 16 November 2016, 09:02:50 »
Awesome build!! Good to see you around DV! :cool:

Offline chyros

  • a.k.a. Thomas
  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 3484
  • Location: The Netherlands
  • Hello and welcome.
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #12 on: Wed, 16 November 2016, 10:07:15 »
I don't know when that board was branded but JDcarpe called it the pingsaver back in 2014 https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62628.msg1468025#msg1468025 I called them pingmaster in early 2014, but the name never stuck :(
The thing is, pingsaver is a **** name for this board because it doesn't save anything, and pingmaster is a great name :p . We might need a retcon here :p .
Check my keyboard video reviews:


Offline samwisekoi

  • MAWG since 1997
  • * Administrator
  • Posts: 2480
  • Location: Mt. View, California
  • Sorry, moving houses. Be back ASAP.
    • Tweet samwisekoi
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #13 on: Wed, 16 November 2016, 13:38:59 »
Dang it!  Now I wish I had bought three.  One for the Wall o' Keyboards plus two to slice for expansion for the GH-120, including the leftmost two columns.

Nice job, DV.

 - Ron | samwisekoi
I like keyboards and case modding.  Everything about a computer should be silent -- except the KEYBOARD!

'85 IBM F-122/Soarer Keyboard |  Leopold FC200 TKL (Browns) + GH36 Keypad (Browns/Greens) | GH-122 (Whites/Greens) with Nuclear Data Green keycaps in a Unicomp case

Offline dilbertprogrammer

  • Posts: 42
  • Location: Soddy Daisy, TN
  • Keyboard Connoisseur
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #14 on: Wed, 16 November 2016, 19:10:32 »
Excellent work!  I have one of these (in "uncut" form) and love the modded smaller form factor.  Well done!

Offline dorkvader

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 6288
  • Location: Boston area
  • all about the "hack" in "geekhack"
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #15 on: Wed, 16 November 2016, 19:52:43 »
Dang it!  Now I wish I had bought three.  One for the Wall o' Keyboards plus two to slice for expansion for the GH-120, including the leftmost two columns.

Nice job, DV.

 - Ron | samwisekoi


I'll have to check, but I might have kept the bits I cut out. I know I kept the switches.

A worthy keyboard for the wall!

I don't know when that board was branded but JDcarpe called it the pingsaver back in 2014 https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62628.msg1468025#msg1468025 I called them pingmaster in early 2014, but the name never stuck :(
The thing is, pingsaver is a **** name for this board because it doesn't save anything, and pingmaster is a great name :p . We might need a retcon here :p .

Yeah, it got named that after the "saver" convention. Spacesaver, "unsaver" (which is another horrible name. the "space saver of F122's" about the same width as a model M, so it "unsaves" space. Kishsaver is a good name. the list goes on. I didn't like the "pingsaver" for the same reason. It pings if you look at it funny. To use this keyboard truly is to master the ping.

Oh, forgot to mention one of my favorite bits! This keyboard has convex keys on the bottom row! I've always been a big fan of that.

Offline dorkvader

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 6288
  • Location: Boston area
  • all about the "hack" in "geekhack"
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #16 on: Thu, 17 November 2016, 14:28:58 »
New pics up 56K warning. Taken in the dying twilight of 3:00 PM New England (the sun sets early here)


One good pic




Photographer's knee in frame




Artistic Depth-of-Field makes most of keyboard blurry and hard to see




Keyboard Guts




Lens cap in frame


You can tell I need to have more practice here to get back in the habit.
« Last Edit: Tue, 22 November 2016, 16:26:57 by dorkvader »

Offline alh84001

  • Posts: 276
  • Location: EU-HR-ZG
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56K warning)
« Reply #17 on: Fri, 18 November 2016, 04:02:15 »
Wow. Such a nice mod. I'm always bummed when I see these, since they are so heavy, which makes shipping them over crazy expensive.

I can't say that I understand much of the wiring after one read through the post, but if I wrap my head around it, it might actually come with my AKB-3420.

Offline kekman

  • Posts: 225
  • Location: Sydney, down under
  • quit life
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56K warning)
« Reply #18 on: Fri, 18 November 2016, 05:16:40 »
i ordered one of these from berserkfan. unfortunately we all know how poorly that ****fest went...

nice board and nice pics. hopefully ill acquire these soon without having my money stolen

Offline ander

  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 1186
  • Location: Vancouver, BC
  • I type, therefore I am
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56K warning)
« Reply #19 on: Fri, 18 November 2016, 19:32:05 »
Congratulations, Dork—this has to be one of the more audacious mods in recent memory. I remember you'd been talking about doing this ever since these unique boards appeared.

Show Image

This picture is actually taken right after I finished the case, so it's not even working in the photo :p

Maybe it's just me, but I'd be tempted to add a cut at the left too, so they'd look like an intentional part of the design, like the slots around a Model M. It'd be purely esthetic, of course.

This ping has been preserved in this iteration which is good 'cause I love it.

The ping is the thing!

I called them pingmaster in early 2014, but the name never stuck :(

It didn't? That's all I've ever called them... It's a lot easier than "IBM Model 6113442" or whatever.

The thing is, pingsaver is a **** name for this board because it doesn't save anything, and pingmaster is a great name :p .

How about Pingmaster Mini then?

BTW IIRC this is the actual Pingsaver; it's basically the Alps version of the Kishsaver:

Show Image


Why aren't more  double-shots made this way? I've always assumed that smaller, off-centre legends became the norm so they wouldn't wear off of pad-printed keys as quickly. Obviously that's not necessary with DS, and it looks so much cooler—but all the centred, big-legend DS keysets that appear these days are quite expensive and limited-edition.  :?(

Dork, any practical way to show us how you mapped this? There are so many possibilities.
We are not chasing wildly after beauty with fear at our backs. – Natalie Goldberg

Offline chyros

  • a.k.a. Thomas
  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 3484
  • Location: The Netherlands
  • Hello and welcome.
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56K warning)
« Reply #20 on: Fri, 18 November 2016, 20:55:10 »
The thing is, pingsaver is a **** name for this board because it doesn't save anything, and pingmaster is a great name :p .

How about Pingmaster Mini then?
I meant the fullsize one, actually. Pingsaver is fine for this cut-down version, because it actually saves something xD .

Quote
BTW IIRC this is the actual Pingsaver; it's basically the Alps version of the Kishsaver:

Show Image


Why aren't more  double-shots made this way? I've always assumed that smaller, off-centre legends became the norm so they wouldn't wear off of pad-printed keys as quickly. Obviously that's not necessary with DS, and it looks so much cooler—but all the centred, big-legend DS keysets that appear these days are quite expensive and limited-edition.  :?(
Ha, that keyboard is quite high on some people's lists xD . I agree though, centred lettering just has something really nice and retro about it :D .
Check my keyboard video reviews:


Offline menuhin

  • Posts: 1225
  • Location: Germany
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884
« Reply #21 on: Sat, 19 November 2016, 13:34:43 »
BTW IIRC this is the actual Pingsaver; it's basically the Alps version of the Kishsaver:

Show Image


It has quite an inspiring layout. Ctrl and Enter for the pinky - actually pinky is not that weak. And the far bottom corners are difficult to be reach by any mean, even pinkies - therefore the Esc key. Tab key can be reached by the palm on this profile.
Wishlist: 1) nice thick Alps caps; 2) Cherry profile POM;
More
Wishful-list: 1) We order from keyboard-layout-editor.com; 2) usable Trackpoint module for all keyboards
IBM M13 black
NeXT non-ADB keyboard (AAE)
HHKB Pro 2 HasuBT
[~90WPM, in love with Emacs, and Lisp]

Offline danwomansan

  • Posts: 78
  • Location: Somewhere in Ontario, Canada
  • Also known by my real name, ********!
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56K warning)
« Reply #22 on: Sat, 19 November 2016, 18:51:11 »
beautiful keyboard and great pics, but I wasn't expecting the pics to hit my internet that hard! Took me about 10 minutes to load the whole page, on 5 down!
it's pronounced "danw omansen", not "dan woman san"

Offline dorkvader

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 6288
  • Location: Boston area
  • all about the "hack" in "geekhack"
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56K warning)
« Reply #23 on: Tue, 22 November 2016, 14:59:37 »
beautiful keyboard and great pics, but I wasn't expecting the pics to hit my internet that hard! Took me about 10 minutes to load the whole page, on 5 down!
Yeah I got a little carried away and posted the full resolution. This thread has 17 full resolution photos which are certainly a few MB each.


Why aren't more  double-shots made this way? I've always assumed that smaller, off-centre legends became the norm so they wouldn't wear off of pad-printed keys as quickly. Obviously that's not necessary with DS, and it looks so much cooler—but all the centred, big-legend DS keysets that appear these days are quite expensive and limited-edition.  :?(

Dork, any practical way to show us how you mapped this? There are so many possibilities.
They were a lot more common on older boards. The old ALPS tee mount standard caps are centered like this, and I think they made one of the TRS80 boards. Other notable examples are first gen fujtisu leafs, pretty much all microswitch, and a bunch of keytronic boards. I'm a fan for sure. I just noticed that most of my doubleshots are centered. retro DSA, solarized, nuclear data, and the R5 Honeywell all are

Wow. Such a nice mod. I'm always bummed when I see these, since they are so heavy, which makes shipping them over crazy expensive.

I can't say that I understand much of the wiring after one read through the post, but if I wrap my head around it, it might actually come with my AKB-3420.

I'll go over how I wired it. Just gotta write it up. Fortunately it's not hard.
edit: it's pretty easy for a 2KRO KB like yours. A little harder for NKRO but still not that bad. Does take a little work with a good eye and/or a multimeter / continuity tester though. This board is an excellent example because it's got an easy to see matrix, is only one layer but also NKRO.




what's my current project? here is a teaser:

https://c4.staticflickr.com/6/5459/31068379651_18f82436ae_o.jpg
« Last Edit: Tue, 22 November 2016, 15:22:05 by dorkvader »

Offline samwisekoi

  • MAWG since 1997
  • * Administrator
  • Posts: 2480
  • Location: Mt. View, California
  • Sorry, moving houses. Be back ASAP.
    • Tweet samwisekoi
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #24 on: Tue, 22 November 2016, 18:37:25 »
Got my keyboards in today.  Very nice - nobody believed they were NIB keyboards.  Also, having heard my F-122, many were surprised that this was an IBM keyboard.

Anyhow, one is up on the wall o' keyboards already.  The other wants to be a project board.  I've already verified that the GH-122 PCB will not work due to the extra column on the right of the main block.  However, it *might* be possible to move two columns from the right side over to the left, a la the F-122.  Then some trimming and Teensy-ing and Bob's your uncle.

Anyhow, thanks very much for the find!

 - Ron | samwisekoi
(Auto-typed by my GH36 Matrix Keypad.)
I like keyboards and case modding.  Everything about a computer should be silent -- except the KEYBOARD!

'85 IBM F-122/Soarer Keyboard |  Leopold FC200 TKL (Browns) + GH36 Keypad (Browns/Greens) | GH-122 (Whites/Greens) with Nuclear Data Green keycaps in a Unicomp case

Offline dorkvader

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 6288
  • Location: Boston area
  • all about the "hack" in "geekhack"
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #25 on: Tue, 22 November 2016, 19:43:00 »
If you want, I was able to find all the bits I cut out of mine. I'm not sure if it'll help you or not, but they are available.

Ron, did you take it apart? I think everything about these keyboards is really over the top. Even the D Backshell connector is rebuildable. I've only seen nicer ones in mil-spec eqpt.

Offline samwisekoi

  • MAWG since 1997
  • * Administrator
  • Posts: 2480
  • Location: Mt. View, California
  • Sorry, moving houses. Be back ASAP.
    • Tweet samwisekoi
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #26 on: Wed, 23 November 2016, 10:39:38 »
If you want, I was able to find all the bits I cut out of mine. I'm not sure if it'll help you or not, but they are available.

Ron, did you take it apart? I think everything about these keyboards is really over the top. Even the D Backshell connector is rebuildable. I've only seen nicer ones in mil-spec eqpt.

Thanks!  I have not, due to my new policy of *finishing* one project before *starting* another.  However, even from the outside it is a tank.  That D connector is awesome.  (Gotta post a pic!)  I am absolutely going to find a way to embed a USB A connector inside of that.

Do you know if the keycaps are just "Alps"?

 - Ron | samwisekoi
I like keyboards and case modding.  Everything about a computer should be silent -- except the KEYBOARD!

'85 IBM F-122/Soarer Keyboard |  Leopold FC200 TKL (Browns) + GH36 Keypad (Browns/Greens) | GH-122 (Whites/Greens) with Nuclear Data Green keycaps in a Unicomp case

Offline lemur

  • Posts: 81
  • Location: USA
  • personal text
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #27 on: Wed, 23 November 2016, 12:05:36 »
I just got mine in the mail (chinese), thanks to seeing this thread.. (mine is for general use, not for modding)

And I have to say, as pretty much everyone else has said about these everywhere on the internet, it really is great. great value.

I like nice super tactile clicky buckling springs and mx greens, and, while I am still waiting for a controller to come in the mail, simply typing on it without it plugged into anything the linear vintage green alps just do feel pretty darn nice. They are nice and loud, so while one might not get a satisfying tactile feel, you get a nice satisfying audible experience.... and yes, it does ping (in a rather satisfying way).

And as said, it's new, in box! Almost want another one right away just because it feels wrong that they're so cheap and I can't imagine not having more than one while I can.

Another pinging endorsement of these boards, get one while you can!
153603-0
keyboards

Offline losing_ctrl

  • Posts: 190
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #28 on: Mon, 28 November 2016, 17:04:24 »
Just got mine (also Chinese version) in the mail today, also inspired by this thread. What a great deal. And shipping from Ohio to California was very reasonable.

I've never warmed to linear switches, but these are totally worth of respect. And I love these keycaps - what a great feel.

Does anybody know if these are comparable to the Topre 104UG HiPro key caps?

154044-0

Offline dorkvader

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 6288
  • Location: Boston area
  • all about the "hack" in "geekhack"
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #29 on: Mon, 28 November 2016, 20:00:54 »
I don't have topre hipro, but I will compare with SP spherical and also hall effect, which are similar.

To me, these are slightly tactile, I've never found them to be linear. At first I bought two, one to mod and one to keep, but I sold one after installing a converter, and then modded the other. I feel like buying a third to keep stock or at least controller modded (soarer / teensy) but I really can't justify it.

@ron, the keycaps are alps "tee" mount, and aren't compatible with anything else. "normal" alps (z axis or whatever) is different.

Offline losing_ctrl

  • Posts: 190
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #30 on: Mon, 28 November 2016, 20:08:13 »
I don't have topre hipro, but I will compare with SP spherical and also hall effect, which are similar.

To me, these are slightly tactile, I've never found them to be linear. At first I bought two, one to mod and one to keep, but I sold one after installing a converter, and then modded the other. I feel like buying a third to keep stock or at least controller modded (soarer / teensy) but I really can't justify it.

@ron, the keycaps are alps "tee" mount, and aren't compatible with anything else. "normal" alps (z axis or whatever) is different.

Yes, if I press slowly, I can feel something that can be described at non-linear/slightly tactile. However compared to even MX Browns, it is very subtle. Even with this being the case, these switches are nice, and the key caps are nice too!

Offline chyros

  • a.k.a. Thomas
  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 3484
  • Location: The Netherlands
  • Hello and welcome.
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #31 on: Mon, 28 November 2016, 20:20:47 »
I don't have topre hipro, but I will compare with SP spherical and also hall effect, which are similar.

To me, these are slightly tactile, I've never found them to be linear. At first I bought two, one to mod and one to keep, but I sold one after installing a converter, and then modded the other. I feel like buying a third to keep stock or at least controller modded (soarer / teensy) but I really can't justify it.

@ron, the keycaps are alps "tee" mount, and aren't compatible with anything else. "normal" alps (z axis or whatever) is different.

Yes, if I press slowly, I can feel something that can be described at non-linear/slightly tactile. However compared to even MX Browns, it is very subtle. Even with this being the case, these switches are nice, and the key caps are nice too!
Correct, all SKCC, SKCL and SKCM switches have this. It's caused by the slider clearing the switchplate. It's subtle, but noticeable enough that the "feel" is not like that of other linear switches.

Look at AS's Alps force curve and note the dip in SKCL Green and Yellow.


Check my keyboard video reviews:


Offline captsis

  • Formerly matt2dlg
  • Posts: 343
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #32 on: Mon, 28 November 2016, 20:35:09 »



Im scared of chopping up a PCB though.

Offline samwisekoi

  • MAWG since 1997
  • * Administrator
  • Posts: 2480
  • Location: Mt. View, California
  • Sorry, moving houses. Be back ASAP.
    • Tweet samwisekoi
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #33 on: Tue, 29 November 2016, 12:56:27 »
DV,

If you can, please do send me the leftovers.  I'd like to make something like this:

154090-0

Possibly converted to MX, but we'll see.  Case first.

Thanks in advance,

 - Ron | samwisekoi
(Auto-typed by my GH36 Matrix Keypad.)
I like keyboards and case modding.  Everything about a computer should be silent -- except the KEYBOARD!

'85 IBM F-122/Soarer Keyboard |  Leopold FC200 TKL (Browns) + GH36 Keypad (Browns/Greens) | GH-122 (Whites/Greens) with Nuclear Data Green keycaps in a Unicomp case

Offline XMIT

  • formerly jsoltren
  • Posts: 421
  • Location: Austin, TX area
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #34 on: Sat, 03 December 2016, 20:48:18 »
How neat! I'm tempted to get a second board just to give it the chop.

Glad to see you posting again! I feel like it's been a really long time.

Offline ander

  • * Esteemed Elder
  • Posts: 1186
  • Location: Vancouver, BC
  • I type, therefore I am
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #35 on: Sat, 11 February 2017, 03:09:07 »
Just thought I'd mention that there are still some of these left at $34.95 + free U.S. shipping.
« Last Edit: Sat, 11 February 2017, 03:10:57 by ander »
We are not chasing wildly after beauty with fear at our backs. – Natalie Goldberg

Offline XMIT

  • formerly jsoltren
  • Posts: 421
  • Location: Austin, TX area
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #36 on: Sun, 12 February 2017, 09:05:21 »
I saw this in person and it looks incredible. Great job dorkvader.

Offline dorkvader

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 6288
  • Location: Boston area
  • all about the "hack" in "geekhack"
Re: Cut down IBM japanese keyboard 6112884 (56k warning)
« Reply #37 on: Mon, 01 May 2017, 09:22:44 »
I've gotten a few requests for this. I thought I went into detail when I made the post but apparently not! I'll put more details in the topic sometime soon*

Anyway here's the short version: the matrix supports NKRO, so after you cut the board, you just "repair" all the traces that you cut (for the switches that are still used). Additionally, I realized the teensy is an almost 1/1 drop in for the port expander, so I was able to do a really "clean" mod of it. It would be much easier to just wire up the teensy "floating" (just in the bottom under the PCB, or cable tied down or whatever.

Now actually figuring out what the matrix was and how to get it working was very tedious: I used soarer's firmware because I could quickly test new layouts and then just played around with it until it worked. My methos is to map every key to a fn key, a number row key or a number pad key, then use aquakeytest and see what I press and what happens. So if I press "s" on the keyboard and I get F5 then I go and edit the matrix in the config and change "F5 to be "s" repeat until done, then figure out the keys that "don't work" and repair those. (you can see in my work, I "added" them to an existing row and new column, since there was an unused portion of the matrix in that area.

I'll write up a little more detail on how I accomplished this, and a bit more about how keyboard matrix circuits work, since to understand this mod, you need a very good grasp of that.


---
edit: don't want to necro this so I'll edit. Here's the code I used for it. Should tell you the pins and matrix

Hi there, I used soarer controller v1.20Beta4 with the below code:
Save as keyboard.sc and run scaswr keyboard.sc to upload the layout to the teensy.
 
Code: [Select]
# length: 253
# signature: S C
# version: 1 3

# block length: 3
ifset any
ifkeyboard any
ifselect any
# configblock
# config count: 0
# end

# block length: 113
ifset any
ifkeyboard any
ifselect any
matrix
scanrate 1
strobe_mode 0
sense_polarity 0
debounce 5
blocking 0
debounce_method 0
sense_delay 1
sense  PF0 PF7 PF6 PF5 PF4 PF1
strobe PC7 ESC 2 W S Z TAB
strobe PB0 1 3 E D X Q
strobe PB1 BACKSPACE 4 R F C UNASSIGNED
strobe PB2 A 5 T G V LSHIFT
strobe PB3 LCTRL 6 Y H B LGUI
strobe PB7 LALT 7 U J N UNASSIGNED
strobe PD0 UNASSIGNED 8 I K M SPACE
strobe PD1 RALT 9 O L COMMA APP
strobe PD2 RCTRL 0 P SEMICOLON PERIOD UNASSIGNED
strobe PD3 UNASSIGNED MINUS LEFT_BRACE QUOTE SLASH UNASSIGNED
strobe PC6 UNASSIGNED EQUAL RIGHT_BRACE ENTER INTERNATIONAL_1 UNASSIGNED
strobe PB5 UNASSIGNED BACKSLASH BACKSPACE ENTER RSHIFT UNASSIGNED
strobe PD7 UNASSIGNED BACK_QUOTE PAD_1 PAD_2 FN1 UNASSIGNED
strobe PB4 UNASSIGNED SELECT_2 UNASSIGNED UNASSIGNED UNASSIGNED UNASSIGNED
end

# block length: 7
ifset any
ifkeyboard any
ifselect any
layerblock
# count: 2
fn1 1
fn2 2
end

# block length: 54
ifset any
ifkeyboard any
ifselect any
remapblock
layer 1
# count: 25
1 F1
2 F2
3 F3
4 F4
5 F5
6 F6
7 F7
8 F8
9 F9
0 F10
MINUS F11
EQUAL F12
I PRINTSCREEN
O SCROLL_LOCK
P PAUSE
LEFT_BRACE UP
K HOME
L PAGE_UP
SEMICOLON LEFT
QUOTE RIGHT
COMMA END
PERIOD PAGE_DOWN
SLASH DOWN
BACKSPACE DELETE
BACK_QUOTE DELETE
end

# block length: 70
ifset any
ifkeyboard any
ifselect 2
remapblock
layer 0
# count: 33
MINUS LEFT_BRACE
EQUAL RIGHT_BRACE
Q COMMA
W PERIOD
E QUOTE
R P
T Y
Y F
U G
I C
O R
P L
LEFT_BRACE SLASH
RIGHT_BRACE EQUAL
S O
D E
F U
G I
H D
J H
K T
L N
SEMICOLON S
QUOTE MINUS
Z SEMICOLON
X Q
C J
V K
B X
N B
COMMA W
PERIOD V
SLASH Z
end


EDIT: here is the actual keymap for my device. I read it off the device with SCRD and SCDIS. The first part is the matrix (most useful for you). The second part is the function layer. The third part is DVORAK layer.
« Last Edit: Mon, 22 June 2020, 17:38:13 by dorkvader »