THE Top 10 Unicomp questions

[APL4]

After perusing pckeyboard.com store I have questions about the Unicomp product line that I was hoping the membership would help me sort out.

1) What color keys come in two piece (2pc) with a cap and stem and which do not?
     a) Standard/Stock (which is pearl white and beige?)
     b) Metallic Grey
     c) Pebble Grey/White
     e) Black
     f) Others?

2) What colors and keys go with themes?
     a) Perl White
     b) Raven Black
     c) Black with metallic gray

What is the diference between the "SpaceSaver M" (UB4ZPHA) and the "SpaceSaver - M"
(UNIZPHA)?

3) Can a pointing stick easily be removed from the Endurapro?

4) Can a pointing stick easily be added to a SpaceSaver104?

5) Does the Endurapro and Spacesaver have the same controller board?

6) Is there a chance for a Mini in the future?
     (The banter and jokes in the forum on this topic is confusing me.)

7) Are some keys just not available as 2pc?

What are the differences between the SpacesaverM and the SpaceSaver104?
     a) firmware (specifics?)
     b) keycaps
     c) other

9) Can the user easily load firmware?

10) What is the health/stability of the company?

Any question or part of a question that you know I would appreciate a response; don't feel like you have to address every question.

Thanks very much.

[TacticalCoder]

7) Are some keys just not available as 2pc?

"Big" keys like spacebar, right shift (and "big left shift" on ANSI / U.S. QWERTY too), big '+' on the numpad, big 'enter' on the numpad and "big" backspace.  These on Model Ms I've never seen in two parts.

But then you can have kinda weird stuff, like a terminal '+' key on the numpad that is actually a small key, in two parts (I think I've got one like these here on one board) if I'm not mistaken.

Also, just to add one more question: do original black keys (either IBM or Unicomp) exist in two parts? I mean, the real ones, not dyed ones, like the one Ripster put on his "GI Joe"-style Mini Industrial?

[noodles256]

wlcm 2 gh.

Future BS user is nice

[HaveANiceDay]

10) What is the health/stability of the company?

Bwahahaha!
It's like asking Dinosaurs what their future plans look like after the meteor hits.

[APL4]

Thanks for the replies.  From what I can glean the current black blank stock at Unicomp are 1pc keys.  But I started the thread to confirm this.  I don't know about the IBMs.  I too am quite interested if there are or ever were 2pc keys in black from any suppliers.

Looking forward to being a future BS user if I could only figure out Unicomp's color schemes.

[ch_123]

1) What color keys come in two piece (2pc) with a cap and stem and which do not?
     a) Standard/Stock (which is pearl white and beige?)
     b) Metallic Grey
     c) Pebble Grey/White
     e) Black
     f) Others?

With Unicomp you are never really certain. Any given board may have an arbitrary mixture of two-part and single-part keycaps. As far as I know, the black keycaps are usually always single part.

2) What colors and keys go with themes?
     a) Perl White
     b) Raven Black
     c) Black with metallic gray

Black case with metallic grey keycaps and white case with white keycaps are the standard options. Black on black is non standard, and the black keycaps are always blank.

What is the diference between the "SpaceSaver M" (UB4ZPHA) and the "SpaceSaver - M"
(UNIZPHA)?

Colour as far as I know. Both are Mac keyboards.

3) Can a pointing stick easily be removed from the Endurapro?

Yes, but it's hard to reinsert (you'd end up breaking the clips while removing it). You'd be better off buying the Spacesaver which is just an Endurapro minus the pointing stick.

4) Can a pointing stick easily be added to a SpaceSaver104?

No. The casing on the Spacesaver doesn't have the cutouts for buttons (although you can see on the case where the cutouts would be)

5) Does the Endurapro and Spacesaver have the same controller board?

For the keyboard itself, yes. The Endurapro has an additional controller board for the trackpoint. The controller for the keyboard is also hooked up to that controller, and the cable to your computer, either USB or PS/2, runs from the trackpoint controller.

6) Is there a chance for a Mini in the future?
     (The banter and jokes in the forum on this topic is confusing me.)

According to my Magic 8 Ball - Outlook not so good.

7) Are some keys just not available as 2pc?

Anything that isn't a single sized key, or a Tab sized key.

What are the differences between the SpacesaverM and the SpaceSaver104?
     a) firmware (specifics?)
     b) keycaps
     c) other

As far as I know - Firmware. It sends different scancodes for the Apple-specific media keys, so it would have to be different to a PC keyboard. It has some different keycaps too.

9) Can the user easily load firmware?

No. It has never been done as far as I know, nor is it supported.

[APL4]

Thanks for the answers ch_123; ripster your reply made me sad.  I won't delay my order.  I just missed a group buy on keycaps.  Was that special pricing/products or can just call to get the same deal?

[APL4]

Question 2.5) What is the diference between the "SpaceSaver M" (UB4ZPHA) and the "SpaceSaver - M"
(UNIZPHA)?

You seem to be able to specify color when ordering either model.  So it seems odd that color would be the difference.

[ch_123]

There are different part numbers for the different colours on all their keyboards, even if they dont specify it that way.

[BucklingSpring]

After perusing pckeyboard.com store I have questions about the Unicomp product line that I was hoping the membership would help me sort out.

I own many Unicomps and none of them were disappointing. If you want to buy a NIB buckling spring keyboard at a decent price… That's the only way to go.

Forget the 10 or 20 questions game. Go get one, you'll be happy and will never look back.