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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: czarek on Thu, 25 August 2011, 16:23:56

Title: Surprise after vacation
Post by: czarek on Thu, 25 August 2011, 16:23:56

Back from holiday - apparently I won an auction for Model F Terminal with AT plug (apparently working with PC XT)
http://allegro.pl/klawiatura-ibm-z-1986-roku-kawalek-historii-i1765536408.html
Do you know how to make it work with a mac?

Title: Surprise after vacation
Post by: wcass on Thu, 25 August 2011, 16:31:44

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:17458

Good luck.

Title: Surprise after vacation
Post by: czarek on Fri, 26 August 2011, 03:07:25

Got it this morning and just cleaned it now. It feels superb. Very smooth, light and crisp compared to Model M or Unicomp. It's also louder and more consistent. Of course it weights a ton and whole back is made of metal. The plastic case seems to be made slightly different than Model M. I think it has some paint coating on top of plastic - it can be seen on edges where there are slight tears in this coating (barely visible). The connector is indeed like AT and XT, but apparently it doesn't work with AT->PS2->USB adapters, but the seller said it worked fine with his XT, so to use it with Mac I'm gonna need some more sophisticated adapter like this teensy.
Here are some photos of it - my girlfriend took a camera to work so I made them with a mobile:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]25056[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25057[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25058[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25059[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25060[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25061[/ATTACH]

Title: Surprise after vacation
Post by: Half-Saint on Fri, 26 August 2011, 04:05:30

Nice board!

Title: Surprise after vacation
Post by: czarek on Fri, 26 August 2011, 11:53:25

There you go mate:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25069[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25070[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25071[/ATTACH]

I have ordered teensy today - will give it a go when it arrives.

Title: Surprise after vacation
Post by: Soarer on Fri, 26 August 2011, 16:53:41

1385472 looks more like what we'd expect - the odd number on the back must be down to just the legends on the keycaps!

I haven't heard of any having an XT connector on, but others have far more encyclopedic knowledge than me. The cables are interchangable though. Usually they have this plug, which has wider spaced pins...

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/DIN-5c_Diagram.svg/60px-DIN-5c_Diagram.svg.png)

Title: Surprise after vacation
Post by: EverythingIBM on Mon, 29 August 2011, 20:01:04

Quote from: Soarer;405647

1385472 looks more like what we'd expect - the odd number on the back must be down to just the legends on the keycaps!

I haven't heard of any having an XT connector on, but others have far more encyclopedic knowledge than me. The cables are interchangable though. Usually they have this plug, which has wider spaced pins...

Show Image

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/DIN-5c_Diagram.svg/60px-DIN-5c_Diagram.svg.png)

But if he got the AT to PS/2 adapter onto the cable, the pins wouldn't have been spaced farther.

Strange, for sure. But IBM makes so many products with subtle variation that it's sort of expected.

Title: Surprise after vacation
Post by: Symmetry on Wed, 31 August 2011, 11:41:03

Beautiful! Finding that keyboard online (not for sale, mind you) is what got me into mechanical keyboards at all. I love boards with way too many keys!

Especially that center arrow...