geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Kavik on Tue, 09 January 2018, 15:43:28
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I have a spare inner assembly from Unicomp that I've been sitting on for over a year now. I'm thinking of throwing Ellipse keycaps on it once that GB delivers, but I still need a case and controller for it. The membrane is the newer kind that only has two ribbons (the third LED set of traces is combined with another).
Questions:
1. Is it possible to cut the LED traces away from the second ribbon in order to use this with an older vintage controller (and still get everything to work correctly)?
2. Does Unicomp sell controllers? I don't see any on the website, but I haven't asked customer support.
3. Has anyone tried making a custom one? I found this blog post (https://blog.lmorchard.com/2016/02/21/modelm-controller/). It doesn't look too hard with the right parts.
I saw a post on Deskthority a while back about someone's designing a universal Model M controller, but I don't think anything ever came of that.
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1. Yes. I've done this with replacement membranes from Unicomp.
2. Yes, and I think they're really cheap too ($15-$25+ship).
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1. Yes. I've done this with replacement membranes from Unicomp.
2. Yes, and I think they're really cheap too ($15-$25+ship).
Ditto. I've done both as well. As of last year I was able to get replacement controllers for a couple older IBM boards from Unicomp.
The best way to get the right controller is to contact Unicomp customer service and tell them which board # you want a replacement controller for. They'll then let you know what to order. It was done as a custom order in units of $10 ($20 total for mine in spring '17).
Was invoiced this way (this was $20 for one controller):
[attach=1]
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Thanks for the feedback.
I think getting a controller from Unicomp looks like the easiest solution, so I'll try pursuing that.
I assume the assembly I have is for a Classic 103, but I'm not entirely sure. Unicomp sent it to me as a replacement to a vintage Model M, and, obviously, nothing about it was compatible. I'll look for identifying markings when I get home.