Just a fun weekend mod [Apple Keyboard II SpaceSaver MOD]

[simon_C]

One weekend i decided i wanted a keyboard to match my Macintosh SE/30 i had sitting on my shelf. i had a spare apple keyboard II (the board that came with the Se/30) sitting around. While already a pretty compact board, it dwarfed the SE/30 in width, just way out of proportion.

So i got chopping. i split the case as you have seen many others do, and glued it back together. i cut the  backplate down to fit, folded the membrane under, and cut the plate the keys sat in down to size. now the hard part was the controller board, which was as wide as the keyboard. i had to cut it in half, fold it over, and hand extend every trace that i broke, but when all was said and done, it worked first shot! i also noticed the keys were not sculpted, so i swapped it around to dvorak. all in all, i think its a pretty cute little keyboard. it has hybrid mechanical/rubber dome system and its a little bit of a bear to type on. long travel and has to be bottomed out, and whatnot. but hey.

here is what i started with:





and the finished product:





maybe when i get around to it, ill get some pics of the internals and one or two of it next to my se/30

[JustCallMeCrash]

Nice smooth lines... good idea cutting it far enough in to salvage the original lines.  I'm jealous.  I've been contemplating a Poker to have in my laptop bag (as I can't stand typing on the built-in for any amount of time), but this would meet the need just as well.  Not that I have the skills or materials do pull something like this off, but we can all dream, right?

Nice work.

[Chobopants]

Really nice! Almost looks like it came that way.

[500_pts]

This is a very clean mod. Ill be repetetive and bland and say that was a clever use of the exsisting shape to make it look natural.

[simon_C]

Nice smooth lines... good idea cutting it far enough in to salvage the original lines.  I'm jealous.

This is a very clean mod. Ill be repetetive and bland and say that was a clever use of the exsisting shape to make it look natural.

im confused, there are other ways to do it?

[EverythingIBM]

I *hate* those arrow keys!

[Gerk]

Nicely executed.  :clap2:

[simon_C]

thank you, thank you very much. too bad its not a true mechanical switch

[Daniel Beardsmore]

thank you, thank you very much. too bad its not a true mechanical switch

Yeah, that's one of the most ghastly keyboards to type on that I've ever used, even though it's really cute (I still have at least one here, not likely to ever get used again, came with my first Mac, also lying around here, an LC)

There's a much uglier brick from Apple, but with ALPS switches it's a joy to type on and I regret not grabbing one when I had the chance, for the once a year occasion when I switch on my StarMax. My G4 tower has a FILCO Zero XM TKL attached, which is one of the few things worse than the Keyboard II.

[Gerk]

I've used much worse keyboards than that one ... my iPad comes to mind  No seriously, some early stuff was horrrrrrrible.  I remember having a couple of "bubble above a membrane" type boards on early computers that were pretty much unusable.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Well, yes, for keyboards that don't even make an effort to try to be keyboards … it's tragic that such cynical garbage ever existed.

But even the PowerBook 150 keyboard is virtually unusable, a lot like XM, despite visually resembling the perfectly usable PowerBook 160 keyboard (low profile non-scissor dome switch, which can be very nice if done right). Maybe I just have a bad laptop.

[simon_C]

nope, its just as terrible on the pb190cs i have here. but the 500mhz g3 chiclet ibook i have has a wonderful keyboard

[theferenc]

Daniel, you don't like you Zero? That's the only Filco I've ever liked. What do you dislike about it?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Daniel, you don't like you Zero? That's the only Filco I've ever liked. What do you dislike about it?

It's a Zero with XMs – you mean that you actually like XM? I guess someone has to love the wretched things!

Never used a Zero with Fukkas, but from Ripster's recording it sounds like the Fukka Zero has the same ping problem as the TP3, although from YouTube videos it seems to be to a much lesser extent, so maybe it's within tolerable limits.

Never had the fortune of owning an AEK though ... too bad.