geekhack
geekhack Community => New Members => Topic started by: cowboysfan on Sun, 24 July 2016, 18:22:58
-
Got myself an IBM Model M a few months ago. It's a unicomp version so not a classic. Got it for about 40 bucks. I love the buckling springs. Poor quality photo but great keyboard.
[attachimg=1]
I'm looking to make some modifications to the KB. First I wanna add some EL wire under the keycaps to illuminate it. I really wanted to make it backlit( but don't think that'll happen). But from a quick google perusal, the EL wire illuminating looks great on some kbs but others looks crappy. Any tips on pulling it off?
I also want to change up the colors on the keycaps. Where can i get keycaps for the model M. Another option is for me to dye it. But i'm looking for new caps and haven't found much luck.
-
If you like your model M, you'd love a model F, a true classic :)) As for the caps, if youre interested in blanks, unicomp will sell you full blank sets. I dont know a thing about the el strips, but it interests me. Im not a huge fan of backlighting, but I think a backlit m would look cool :D
-
Welcome to Geekhack!
Nice keyboard, and USB built-in? One up on the classic Model M ;)
There's a thread (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=61007.0) about backilghting a Model M, with a link to one that Phosphorglow partly backlit, might give you some inspiration.
There's also this page that talks about making a backlit keyboard with EL wire: http://lifehacker.com/5609060/make-your-own-backlit-keyboard
-
Nah, Usb Isn't built in. It's an adapter. I considered modding it to be bluetooth, but then i realized how heavy this thing is and i'd get nearly no benefit with BT. I'll be sure to try out EL wire soon. Will post pictures. :D
-
$40 Unicomp huh? You can't really go wrong with some EL wire. If you happen to mess up the case while modding you can always buy a shell from Unicomp. Welcome :)
-
Nah, Usb Isn't built in. It's an adapter. I considered modding it to be bluetooth, but then i realized how heavy this thing is and i'd get nearly no benefit with BT. I'll be sure to try out EL wire soon. Will post pictures. :D
There's enough room in the case for a BT adaptor and some batteries, but you'd have to open the case each time to change the batteries, and it's definitely not facilitating portability :))
-
Nah, Usb Isn't built in. It's an adapter. I considered modding it to be bluetooth, but then i realized how heavy this thing is and i'd get nearly no benefit with BT. I'll be sure to try out EL wire soon. Will post pictures. :D
There's enough room in the case for a BT adaptor and some batteries, but you'd have to open the case each time to change the batteries, and it's definitely not facilitating portability :))
yup exactly. If it were an HHKB for example i'd definitely mod it to have a bluetooth chip. I'd probably add a li-poly battery and a microusb charging port. No batteries to change.
in other news i bought myself some EL tape. It's gonna be a fun little project. I gotta figure out how to cut this stuff though. It's too wide to fit in between rows.
-
Nah, Usb Isn't built in. It's an adapter. I considered modding it to be bluetooth, but then i realized how heavy this thing is and i'd get nearly no benefit with BT. I'll be sure to try out EL wire soon. Will post pictures. :D
There's enough room in the case for a BT adaptor and some batteries, but you'd have to open the case each time to change the batteries, and it's definitely not facilitating portability :))
yup exactly. If it were an HHKB for example i'd definitely mod it to have a bluetooth chip. I'd probably add a li-poly battery and a microusb charging port. No batteries to change.
in other news i bought myself some EL tape. It's gonna be a fun little project. I gotta figure out how to cut this stuff though. It's too wide to fit in between rows.
There's a Bluetooth mod or two for the HHKB, and also an HHKB with native Bluetooth now, although I understand that you do have to change batteries on it.