[Listing Ended by Seller] Another Beamspring up on eBay $29.95 starting bid...

[ekeppel]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/192187827072

Same seller as one that was sold recently.  Perhaps they have a small cache of them? :-)

[clickityClackity]

Has anyone ever converted these to cherry mx compatible/is it possible?

[clickityClackity]

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=82938.0

[pr0ximity]

Has anyone ever converted these to cherry mx compatible/is it possible?

I'm not aware of any effort to, but the caps on these are better than just about any Cherry ones out there. Converting them to USB is trivially easy with an xwhatsit as well, no soldering required.

[pr0ximity]

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=82938.0

Funnily enough these are a bit lighter than the 3101 mentioned in that thread, since the 3101 (which is actually my 3727) is all metal, while the 5251 is a plastic shell over the metal inner assembly. Metal bottom though, and they're both quite hefty.

[ekeppel]

Strange...the auction was just ended without apparent reason or bids.

[clickityClackity]

Strange...the auction was just ended without apparent reason or bids.

Weird... I did see one bid just a few minutes ago, maybe someone reached out and made a deal?

[clickityClackity]

Has anyone ever converted these to cherry mx compatible/is it possible?

I'm not aware of any effort to, but the caps on these are better than just about any Cherry ones out there. Converting them to USB is trivially easy with an xwhatsit as well, no soldering required.

Yeah I wasn't very clear, I meant the keycaps. They are freaking gorgeous on some of these older boards, this one especially!!

[ander]

Yeah I wasn't very clear, I meant the keycaps. They are freaking gorgeous on some of these older boards, this one especially!!

You sure got that right. (Except that, technically, they're called buttons—caps being the upper halves of two-piece buttons on IBM boards. IBM created the terms "cap" and "stem" for this.)

What is it about great classic so-called "SA" buttons that turns us on so much, anyway? Is it the obvious care that went into their production? The elegance of the font, the audacity of the oversize characters? We should start a topic about this.

And BTW, what does "SA" actually mean? I know it means "big characters in the middle of the buttons", but what does "SA" actually stand for? Anyone know?

Okay, I've had coffee—but I would've asked at least some of these questions even if I hadn't been caffeinated.

[pr0ximity]

Yeah I wasn't very clear, I meant the keycaps. They are freaking gorgeous on some of these older boards, this one especially!!

You sure got that right. (Except that, technically, they're called buttons—caps being the upper halves of two-piece buttons on IBM boards. IBM created the terms "cap" and "stem" for this.)

What is it about great classic so-called "SA" buttons that turns us on so much, anyway? Is it the obvious care that went into their production? The elegance of the font, the audacity of the oversize characters? We should start a topic about this.

And BTW, what does "SA" actually mean? I know it means "big characters in the middle of the buttons", but what does "SA" actually stand for? Anyone know?

Okay, I've had coffee—but I would've asked at least some of these questions even if I hadn't been caffeinated.

"SA" denotes spherical keycaps, with the same profile across all rows. Originally a flat profile, SA was followed by the spherical sculptured SS profile, which was later retired. SA itself was later retooled for a sculptured profile, but retained its existing name.

https://deskthority.net/wiki/Signature_Plastics_SA_family

[ander]

"SA" denotes spherical keycaps, with the same profile across all rows. Originally a flat profile, SA was followed by the spherical sculptured SS profile, which was later retired. SA itself was later retooled for a sculptured profile, but retained its existing name.

https://deskthority.net/wiki/Signature_Plastics_SA_family

Ah. I'd always assumed SA referred to large, centered characters. But it refers to spherical buttons—and the legends are naturally centered on those because the shape's center-focused. And the single-character legends are usually oversized, I imagine, because that was just the style vintage SA double-shots used. It's good to understand these things... Thanks!