geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: ValerieV on Fri, 15 November 2013, 23:34:29
-
There are about 5 keyboards they want to toss out at work. I told them no i would take them home. I explained that there is an adapter so the keyboard will work fine with a USB plug. They were put in a box for over 10 years and haven't been used since. One of them is my favorite ML switch. I cleaned it up, it wasn't even that dirty, and now i have a backup keyboard. The other keyboards i haven't gotten into to look at yet but hopefully there are some other good finds. They think i am crazy for wanting them but who cares. :D
-
Your company was using G84-4100s? That's awesome
-
The place I used to work had a G84-4100 attached to an X-ray machine.
-
There are about 5 keyboards they want to toss out at work. I told them no i would take them home. I explained that there is an adapter so the keyboard will work fine with a USB plug. They were put in a box for over 10 years and haven't been used since. One of them is my favorite ML switch. I cleaned it up, it wasn't even that dirty, and now i have a backup keyboard. The other keyboards i haven't gotten into to look at yet but hopefully there are some other good finds. They think i am crazy for wanting them but who cares. :D
Makes me sort of wonder what keyboards do they issue to you by default? if it is some cheap membrane type keyboard then that is some serious downgrade from proper worthwhile mechanical keyboards. Otherwise old keyboards does not mean that their useful life has expired. Sometimes it usually boils down the decision makers and often they don't have a clue about such intricate technologies.
I guess at the end of the day the old idiom that goes,"one man's trash is another man's treasure". Mechanical keyboards are well worth the value and the technology that they bear, soon enough I'm sure the keyboards that you got for free from your company may soon become scarce and as such people may demand for them.
-
Lucky you!
Where I work threw out a whole bunch of old hardware about a year ago.
Or, specifically, I was asked to throw it all out.
Naturally I inspected everything, but every keyboard (at least a dozen) were rubber dome. And pretty crap rubber domes too.
The one mechanical keyboard that was lying around (except my two Duckys) was the NEC APC-H4100E that I rescued 18 months ago.
-
I work in the medical field. They had this keyboard hooked up with a machine that tests the functions of the inner ears. I cleaned it and i am typing on it now and it works absolutely great. No cosmetic damage either. All the lights work as well. It does make me angry when i think about all of the other keyboards that have been thrown away over the years. They are just sitting in a landfill polluting the environment when they should be on someone's desk!
-
I imagined IBM Model M's
-
I see that ctrl is bottom-left, instead of fn. Nice switches, but having fn bottom left (as in my G84-4400) drives me bonkers. That layout is pretty much spot on.
-
I imagined IBM Model M's
They threw away 4 IBM Model M SPACESAVER keyboards about three years ago! The cord was like the telephone line cord it wasn't plugged into a PS 2...i don't know if that makes any sense. Could those keyboards have been used in today's computers? Thanks.
-
They threw away 4 IBM Model M SPACESAVER keyboards about three years ago! The cord was like the telephone line cord it wasn't plugged into a PS 2...i don't know if that makes any sense. Could those keyboards have been used in today's computers? Thanks.
That sounds like a keyboard for IBM terminals. (A terminal is a dumb low-cost machine that is only capable of logging into a mainframe)
Terminal keyboards can be used with a modern PC together wtih Soarer's converter firmware (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=17458.0) for the Teensy or Leonardo (tiny microcontroller boards) ... but it is not something you can buy off-the-shelf, and it was not available four years ago. ;)
Still, an enthusiast could probably have replaced the controller with a modern one. If the keyboard you are talking about is bulky like a Model M but lacks numeric keypad ("IBM Space Saving Keyboard") then I think that it would be more valuable than a regular Model M with PS/2 even if it is a terminal board. If it, on the other hand has a full-sized layout, but is smaller, flatter "space saver" Model M2, then it is not worth that much even with PS/2.
-
Terminal SSK's regularly go for higher prices than model M's, though this wasn't the case three years ago.
-
beautiful
-
They threw away 4 IBM Model M SPACESAVER keyboards about three years ago! The cord was like the telephone line cord it wasn't plugged into a PS 2...i don't know if that makes any sense. Could those keyboards have been used in today's computers? Thanks.
That sounds like a keyboard for IBM terminals. (A terminal is a dumb low-cost machine that is only capable of logging into a mainframe)
Terminal keyboards can be used with a modern PC together wtih Soarer's converter firmware (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=17458.0) for the Teensy or Leonardo (tiny microcontroller boards) ... but it is not something you can buy off-the-shelf, and it was not available four years ago. ;)
Still, an enthusiast could probably have replaced the controller with a modern one. If the keyboard you are talking about is bulky like a Model M but lacks numeric keypad ("IBM Space Saving Keyboard") then I think that it would be more valuable than a regular Model M with PS/2 even if it is a terminal board. If it, on the other hand has a full-sized layout, but is smaller, flatter "space saver" Model M2, then it is not worth that much even with PS/2.
We had full size too but the space saving one is the one that i really like and i wish i took it. :mad:
-
I would say to cart off almost anything free that looks remotely good (assuming that you have transportation) and sort it out later.
If you itemize your taxes, you can donate that rubber dome to a charity, claim it at $5, and save a dollar on your own taxes.
-
I would say to cart off almost anything free that looks remotely good (assuming that you have transportation) and sort it out later.
This, unless you are planning on moving house in the near future.
I chucked out a couple of dozen old computers I collected in accordance with the above philosophy, and had to move a van full of other computer gear myself.
Now I try to collect only smaller items, like keyboards.
-
This, unless you are planning on moving house in the near future.
Keep the cycle times short. If it has value, keep it only until it would be more profitable to put it on ebay than put it into the collection.
If not, get it out of the house within 24-48 hours to the dumpster or charity. You will know by then.
-
The only thing is the switches. I think that some switches would be valuable if i desoldered them off of a unusable keyboard. Like if i found a keyboard that had the blue alps, but the keyboard couldn't work on newer computers, i would desolder and then put them on ebay. Do you think it is worth it?
-
The only thing is the switches. I think that some switches would be valuable if i desoldered them off of a unusable keyboard. Like if i found a keyboard that had the blue alps, but the keyboard couldn't work on newer computers, i would desolder and then put them on ebay. Do you think it is worth it?
Depending on the keyboard, maybe Soarer's converter would work.
-
I will let you guys know if there are any good keyboards that i find on Monday. The funny thing about me finding the ML 4100 is that i already have this keyboard in gray and i love it. Its odd because i spend a small fortune on keyboards yet the cheaper one is the main one i love the most. I am really particular about not wanting to use used keyboards but this keyboard looked to be in great clean condition when i found it and i just did a cleaning of all the keycaps and inside the keyboard and it looks brand new. I can't believe they wanted to toss this in a landfill!
-
To also get keyboards for free is even more insane. There's plenty of people that would otherwise try to make a buck out of selling proper mechanical keyboards but it seems you have beaten them. I am sure the majority of us would love to get something for free (or even at a very very small price) rather than having to contemplate the idea of digging money out of our pockets haha. :p
-
I will let you guys know if there are any good keyboards that i find on Monday. The funny thing about me finding the ML 4100 is that i already have this keyboard in gray and i love it. Its odd because i spend a small fortune on keyboards yet the cheaper one is the main one i love the most.
Sounds like you're not a good candidate then for seeing whether it's possible to lube ML switches to remove their inherent scratchiness.
The only thing is the switches. I think that some switches would be valuable if i desoldered them off of a unusable keyboard. Like if i found a keyboard that had the blue alps, but the keyboard couldn't work on newer computers, i would desolder and then put them on ebay. Do you think it is worth it?
You would prefer to sell via eBay instead of via the geekhack marketplace?
One option you have with blue Alps is to take a keyboard with questionable switches (e.g. Dell AT101W, Filco Zero XM, SIIG MiniTouch w/Hua-Jie) and swap in blue Alps switches to get a keyboard that was never sold. If I could solder, I'd have a much better feeling keyboard (true blue Alps) than swapping out the uppers of blues into the lowers of black Alps, as doing that leaves me with the nasty switchplates from the flat-branded generation Alps. The end result is switches with the balky feel of white Alps, not the smooth and forgiving blues that were in Tulip-branded Monterey K102 donor board.
I doubt you'll find a blue Alps board that won't work on a PC though — blue Alps are PC/AT age, so they should be XT/AT switchable minimum.
-
I wish i was good enough at working on a keyboard to get the "scratchiness" off but i am not that good. I would always try and sell a keyboard on the Geekhack forum and i have in the past. However, some of my keyboards, mainly the TEX keyboards i have for a good price, are not selling so i may have to go the Ebay route.