Terminal Model F, or slightly altered Unicomp?

[sethstorm]

Thinking of which one of these to go for:

a heavily modified(for a manufacturer) Unicomp that has the black M13 style keys.

Terminal Model F and modify it with my RJ-45 adapter, and just let the black Unicomp go to someone else.

[ch_123]

You're probably never going to find an all-black Unicomp terminal board. And the M13 idea isn't going to be completely successful as it does not have all the right buttons.

That, and Model Fs are so much cooler.

[sethstorm]

You're probably never going to find an all-black Unicomp terminal board. And the M13 idea isn't going to be completely successful as it does not have all the right buttons.

That, and Model Fs are so much cooler.

Already have an M13, don't plan on any mouse button adding at all.

But if you want to see which keyboard I'm referring to, I'll post it up on Ebay Finds.

[sethstorm]

Hey, here's a question of marginal relevance...

Do Model F terminal keyboards all use the Model F capacitive buckling springs?

I have yet to see the insides of a Model F terminal board so...yeah. Presumably they do, but it'd be nice to know for certain.

See my sig for the particular Model F I'm wanting to get.  It has the hat keys, old barcode/serial no label, and a 1984 build date.

[ch_123]

Hey, here's a question of marginal relevance...

Do Model F terminal keyboards all use the Model F capacitive buckling springs?

I have yet to see the insides of a Model F terminal board so...yeah. Presumably they do, but it'd be nice to know for certain.

Yep. After all, they came out before the membrane buckling springs were invented.

Oddly enough, production of some Model F terminal boards continued as late as 1994 with even Lexmark making Model Fs. No drainage channels though =P

[sethstorm]

Looks like a nice board (found it on RecycledGoods' website)

Everything about the exterior would suggest Model F-style guts, and with Model Ms not being out yet...

Still won't know for absolute, complete certain until someone opens one up and takes photos, I suppose. Unless it's already been done?

Got the Model F.  The unbelievable Unicomp link's going to Ebay Finds.

Forum Post

[microsoft windows]

I've been looking for one of those Model F's for a while now! I see there are some available on recycledgoods. Thanks for pointing them out!

[Oqsy]

I'm confused...  will the Model F terminal boards even work on a PC?  Perhaps I missed something.

[sethstorm]

I've been looking for one of those Model F's for a while now! I see there are some available on recycledgoods. Thanks for pointing them out!

No problem.  It's that it's been there for a while on my sig as well as it has been on the site.

Since I can't find where my XT Model F is, this one will have to do.

[ch_123]

Kishy - does the 122-key Model M use a Berg connector for the keyboard cable connection?

Incidentally, if you don't have an AT Model F cable to hand, here's some info that should let you make your own.

Link.

[ch_123]

As far as I remember, the XT one doesn't use a Berg connector, and instead uses a simple flat 4-5 pin connector not a million miles unlike the ones used in modern keyboards.

EDIT:

[sethstorm]

As far as I remember, the XT one doesn't use a Berg connector, and instead uses a simple flat 4-5 pin connector not a million miles unlike the ones used in modern keyboards.

If it is what I think it is, and the Terminal F uses it, it will make my life a whole lot easier.  I've got no proper Berg strip for the Terminal F that I have, and I'd certainly like to know of a good source of the proper pins.

I want to do it the completely right way, not the "2 sets of 1x3" way.

sethstorm, awesome to see you're getting the F. won't expect anything, but i think a photographic breakdown of the guts would be neat to see

That will happen.  I just hope that they've shipped it by now - it should be far enough outside "the holidays" to have that as a problem.

Does that mean you want the RAW's off my camera too?
(just kidding about that, but if you really *do* want the 8MB files, I'll be more than happy to have those linked in as well.)

[sethstorm]

As far as I remember, the XT one doesn't use a Berg connector, and instead uses a simple flat 4-5 pin connector not a million miles unlike the ones used in modern keyboards.

If it is what I think it is, and the Terminal F uses it, it will make my life a whole lot easier.  I've got no proper Berg strip for the Terminal F that I have, and I'd certainly like to know of a good source of the proper pins.

I want to do it the completely right way, not the "2 sets of 1x3" way.

sethstorm, awesome to see you're getting the F. won't expect anything, but i think a photographic breakdown of the guts would be neat to see

That will happen.  I just hope that they've shipped it by now - it should be far enough outside "the holidays" to have that as a problem.

Does that mean you want the RAW's off my camera too?
(just kidding about that, but if you really *do* want the 8MB files, I'll be more than happy to have those linked in as well.)

[sethstorm]

If you find a source for those berg connectors and need a bulk order (as I suspect you will), I'd be in for some (~10 if the price was reasonable, say under 50 cents a piece)

ch_123 showed the connector style for the Model F XT and I quoted it above; is the image not showing up for you? Maybe photobucket is imposing regional viewing limits

That's not to say that's what a terminal board would use, but there's a good chance it is.

The problem is that I don't know where I can find the uncrimped ones - it would save on me soldering up wires to what I have that does fit.  Should someone else know at the moment, I'll gladly order up 50(or whatever the lowest price break is) of them and split/sell as needed.

Another problem is that I don't exactly know where my Model F XT is at the moment to check.  I've torn into a Monterey rubber membrane, a cheapish IBM rubber membrane, and no dice.  Either they have some 1x4 connector that's strange but has ground, or it's soldered straight into the interface board.

[JBert]

For what it's worth: berg connectors were used for connecting quite some kinds of stuff in the original IBM PCs. Because our modern PCs are still largely "PC compatible", you can still find connectors of the same family on ATA cables, floppy cables, jumpers and CD-drive-to-audio-card cables. The trademark of the Berg connector is the square hole with the square pin.

I would advise against making them yourself because I read it is hell to assemble. You can buy the connectors and little pins (mostly sold in a bag of 100), but you'd also need some special tools as those little pins are allmost impossible to clip on to wire without those tools and some experience.

At one point I wanted to hard-wire my model F XT to a parkbd adapter so I took a similar connector with 2x9 pins and simply cut off 2 rows. If you take an ATA cable (everyone uses SATA nowadays) and split it into two with an exacto knife, you might get the same result. Wire up the right strands, get rid of the others and solder it to a regular keyboard cable. Simple and cheap!

[ricercar]

The original IBM PC has an unused port cutout on the rear of the case, with the label L. The IBM engineers didn't have an exact use for it, yet: it was for (L)ater.

[sethstorm]

I would advise against making them yourself because I read it is hell to assemble. You can buy the connectors and little pins (mostly sold in a bag of 100), but you'd also need some special tools as those little pins are allmost impossible to clip on to wire without those tools and some experience.

I did that kind of crimping for the keyboard I have now; I would still agree that it's not easy.  The worst of it aside from crimping is stripping enough wire (and keeping it there) for the connector to use.

I have no shortage of pre-crimped stuff, but I find it a lot more easy/durable to not solder wire-wire.

[sethstorm]

I think I got the stuff at Mouser.  Don't remember it being all that hard to work with.

Looking for it, and not seeing the exact strip; only seeing the connector side.

What I'm looking for is the metal part that needs to be crimped on the wire.

[Hak Foo]

I think I got it here. Hope these are the right ones - they worked for motherboard connectors and some custom cables I built (Xfi to front panel IIRC).

They're not too terrible to do if you start with ribbon cable and appropriate plugs.

I did some cables for front-panel display modules ($20 surplus VFD >>>>> $50 pre-made LCD kit) with ribbon cable and these boys :http://web-tronics.com/connectors-2-row-0-1x0-1-female-idc-socket-connectors.html

However, I don't know if you can get ribbon cables for one-row plugs, or only two-row ones.

[sethstorm]

I think I got it here. Hope these are the right ones - they worked for motherboard connectors and some custom cables I built (Xfi to front panel IIRC).

Those should be - got a sizable sum of them.

CH_123:
You are correct about that - it does use those connectors.