Post by: whiffysole on Mon, 12 November 2018, 23:38:22
In the past few days I've restored a Reynolds + Reynolds rebranded Wyse ASCII keyboard I found relatively cheaply online.
It uses Vintage Cherry MX Blacks (The PCB is dated as 1985) with thin doubleshot ABS keycaps.
It also has a monstrous 10u spacebar that looks absolutely ridiculous.
There's a Teensy 2.0 wired up inside using a guide from Scott Paladin (https://www.scottpaladin.com/home/2018/3/28/wyse-ascii-terminal-keyboard-project-n (https://www.scottpaladin.com/home/2018/3/28/wyse-ascii-terminal-keyboard-project-n))
And code from this user on DT (https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/wyse-ascii-teensy-tmk-t19298.html (https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/wyse-ascii-teensy-tmk-t19298.html))
Here's the process I went through to clean this thing up.
How I received it.
More
https://imgur.com/31dd82s
https://imgur.com/ImThVux
https://imgur.com/R4s8KRz
https://imgur.com/ImThVux
https://imgur.com/R4s8KRz
Keycaps removed.
More
https://imgur.com/o05UyHL
https://imgur.com/PMIxi4c
https://imgur.com/PMIxi4c
My first round of cleaning was a hard scrubbing with rubbing alcohol. That got a lot of the dirt and grime off.
More
https://imgur.com/6xPhDf1
https://imgur.com/zY2hWTQ
https://imgur.com/zY2hWTQ
My second round for removing the big smudges is the baking soda and moist paper towel technique. The baking soda acts as an abrasive and makes quick work of scuffs.
More
https://imgur.com/FV2vRIn
https://imgur.com/uFp8KGh
https://imgur.com/uFp8KGh
Then I realized there was rust near one of the switches after cleaning the mounting plate. Luckily this was an easy fix by desoldering one switch and removing the evil rust with some steel wool. I just covered it up with some black sharpie because I'm lazy :p
More
https://imgur.com/BU6jOEA
https://imgur.com/06SXFMH
https://imgur.com/VznYDqb
https://imgur.com/06SXFMH
https://imgur.com/VznYDqb
After this whole process I decided it would be fun to convert this to USB. This was a seriously frustrating experience due to never doing this before, but it worked out in the end and now I have a beautiful 33 year old keyboard.
More
https://imgur.com/wOa6pDy
https://imgur.com/jSUVVqe
https://imgur.com/XPR6mTA
https://imgur.com/jSUVVqe
https://imgur.com/XPR6mTA
This log was typed using this Wyse :thumb:
Overall this was a fun experience and I'm excited to try again in the future.
Thanks for checking this out! Feel free to ask questions below. :)
Post by: whiffysole on Mon, 12 November 2018, 23:45:32
Post by: OldIsNew on Tue, 13 November 2018, 13:21:08
(lol, the | is above the 1 on my current keyboard instead of ! so had to fix it!)
Post by: OldIsNew on Sat, 17 November 2018, 19:50:00
Post by: whiffysole on Sat, 17 November 2018, 20:30:32
I must say I'm a bit annoyed. This is a really nice keyboard project - didn't anyone else have a comment?
Thanks! Yeah I'm a little frustrated no one else left a comment. Having some pointers on how to improve future projects and posts would be nice. It was fun though, definitely looking forward to my next find.
Post by: OldIsNew on Sun, 18 November 2018, 17:13:02
Thanks! Yeah I'm a little frustrated no one else left a comment. Having some pointers on how to improve future projects and posts would be nice. It was fun though, definitely looking forward to my next find.
For sure don't get discouraged! I'm not sure what happened, but it seems like the GH community doesn't take much interest in vintage keyboard restorations anymore. If you can, I would suggest posting this at DeskThority, either in the workshop or the keyboard section - I think you might get some useful feedback there.
Post by: invariance on Mon, 19 November 2018, 07:48:20
Got to love the pre ansi/iso layout with that “Wyse 60” and it’s funky key placements especially that ctrl/caps lock arrangement.
Obviously cntrl was used more often than Caps Lock at the time
Nice bonus having a Function key as you then have easy access to layers
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Post by: whiffysole on Mon, 19 November 2018, 23:17:24
Thanks! Yeah I'm a little frustrated no one else left a comment. Having some pointers on how to improve future projects and posts would be nice. It was fun though, definitely looking forward to my next find.
For sure don't get discouraged! I'm not sure what happened, but it seems like the GH community doesn't take much interest in vintage keyboard restorations anymore. If you can, I would suggest posting this at DeskThority, either in the workshop or the keyboard section - I think you might get some useful feedback there.
Thanks for the feedback, I'll see about getting it up over there and updating my review after using this board for awhile.
Agree on it being a nice resto job.
Got to love the pre ansi/iso layout with that “Wyse 60” and it’s funky key placements especially that ctrl/caps lock arrangement.
Obviously cntrl was used more often than Caps Lock at the time
Nice bonus having a Function key as you then have easy access to layers
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Oh yeah, I love these old layouts. They're super fun to use and look great too ;)
I actually am starting to prefer the swapped Ctrl and Caps keys. It's actually gotten me heavily into the UNIX layout, and my upcoming 60% build will be using my adaptation of the UNIX layout. I also really like having the delete key closer to backspace.