Even the AT Model F begins playing with it just a bit, but for the main cluster that's the basic idea, and it's pretty consistent on the XT Model F.  I can certainly appreciate the mod-colored keys going down the left and back up the right of the main cluster, though, especially as the principle eroded over time. 

Dumb question: why do people buy these keyboards today, in 2024?

Besides the collectors, I mean.  Is it because they want to run terminals, terminal emulators, or point of sale stations?

I have some not-so-fond memories of the 3270 PC.  My company bought many of those, and then doggedly insisted on depreciating them over the industry standard five year lifespan of all other office equipment.  Notwithstanding the rapid pace of technological innovation that made them practically obsolete, in much less than five years.

Yes, they're big, and in some ways, still impressive.  Would I want one on my desk today, to type on?  No thanks.  There are better choices.

Quote from: TomahawkLabs on Tue, 30 April 2024, 09:25:51

Agreed also the "`~" and "\|" keys should be defaulted the same color as the modifiers, not the alphas on standard kitting.

On regular ansi keyboards I don't like mod pipe and tilde, looks weird to me, especially on something like a tkl. Though the layouts that I normally use (tsangan/hhkb stuff like that) I do like the `~ key to be the mod colour, while the |\ key is alpha colour, just feels more right.

When you look at the Model F, the colors have a consistent meaning: One color if it types something, and the other if it does something, with numpad + and - as the only exceptions, but while I don't know 80s productivity software well enough to say with any certainty, I almost wonder if some programs simply didn't echo them as characters.  The Model M's F1-F4 and F9-F12 muddy the waters a bit more in return for easily distinguishing the three clusters, but it generally maintains the convention.  I can see the symmetry in mod-colored tilde and backslash though, and I have boards with each.

Chenyi Space Station Mousepad

SPEC

Rubber bottom version

Dimension = 900 x400 x4mm
Rubber+Nylon fabric+stitched-edge
Poron bottom version

Dimension= 900 x400 x3.5mm
Poron+Fine fabric+slim stitched-edge

GB closed on 12 May PST

Estimated delivery in June PST

Join KPrepublic Discord server to follow the status

[GB NOW]

Quote from: wjrii on Tue, 30 April 2024, 09:27:31

I couldn't make myself fall in love with Orthos

That looks like a particularly tricky ortho to fall in love with. There may be more approachable layouts if you ever want to try again .

Do you have pictures of the wiring? I'd be very curious if you picked up and construction tips or tricks along the way to keep things neat and tidy.

Several pics of the wiring are in this gallery, and two more are attached here.  There is a general trend that the matrixes get cleaner over time, and I learned after the first few that you don't have to wire the MCU to the end of the rows and columns, which helped a lot with sheer bulk, but I generally don't fixate on making Joe Scotto-like artpieces out of my wiring, nor am I sure it would go well if I tried.

As for orthos, I was having better luck with the little planck derivative, and I can absolutely appreciate the appeal, but ultimately I realized I like making keyboards more than I like typing practice.     I do think my attempt would have been better as something a little more standard with column stagger and angled thumb cluster, but those weren't my pain points; I'm just lazy.