IBM Wheelwriter Buckling Spring Typewriter

[Boskr]

Hello all,
I'm about to (most likely) acquire one of the typewriters in the below picture (not my picture). I know it's an IBM WheelWriter, but I can't say for sure which model it is. My lady's work had one sitting on the counter in the copy room, and when I pointed it out that it was strange for a typewriter to be there (real estate office, very up-to-date one at that), she said that it was for kids to play on, since they "like how clicky it is". I touched one key and realized it was definitely buckling spring, and my googling led me to realize what series it is.

Since then, I've inquired about it, and their only concern is that the kids that some of the employees bring there on occasion will miss it (The boss literally said if it were not for that she would just give it to me). I've offered to replace it with another clicky keyboard (just going to throw some Razer Green switches I have lying around into an old Logitech board, just junk I want to get rid of anyway) and I'm waiting to hear back.

But aside from all that, I'm curious how viable it would be to take the keyboard from this unit and convert it into a PC keyboard. From the videos I've seen, it appears that two ribbon cables lead from the keyboard, and I suspect that the pins on the ribbon cables match 1:1 for the keys, and that all actual processing is done on the typewriter portion of the unit. If this is the case, could I not run leads from the ribbon cables to a Teensy or similar controller? This seems like the easiest solution.

If that's not viable, can anyone give me a run down on how hard it would be to wire a buckling spring keyboard to a controller? I'm very comfortable with electronics, and very comfortable with a soldering iron (just recently finished replacing my Razer BW X TKL board with Gateron Blacks, 522 desolders and 522 solders to preserve the RGB). I just know older electronics are more prone to breaking in some cases, and don't want to break anything on a device of this rarity.

I appreciate any help or advice anyone can provide, this is my first foray into anything to do with buckling spring.

TL;DR About to get a BuckSpring typewriter (picture related), curious how hard it is to wire a controller to BuckSpring boards.

[chyros]

Hello all,
I'm about to (most likely) acquire one of the typewriters in the below picture (not my picture). I know it's an IBM WheelWriter, but I can't say for sure which model it is. My lady's work had one sitting on the counter in the copy room, and when I pointed it out that it was strange for a typewriter to be there (real estate office, very up-to-date one at that), she said that it was for kids to play on, since they "like how clicky it is". I touched one key and realized it was definitely buckling spring, and my googling led me to realize what series it is.

Since then, I've inquired about it, and their only concern is that the kids that some of the employees bring there on occasion will miss it (The boss literally said if it were not for that she would just give it to me). I've offered to replace it with another clicky keyboard (just going to throw some Razer Green switches I have lying around into an old Logitech board, just junk I want to get rid of anyway) and I'm waiting to hear back.

But aside from all that, I'm curious how viable it would be to take the keyboard from this unit and convert it into a PC keyboard. From the videos I've seen, it appears that two ribbon cables lead from the keyboard, and I suspect that the pins on the ribbon cables match 1:1 for the keys, and that all actual processing is done on the typewriter portion of the unit. If this is the case, could I not run leads from the ribbon cables to a Teensy or similar controller? This seems like the easiest solution.

If that's not viable, can anyone give me a run down on how hard it would be to wire a buckling spring keyboard to a controller? I'm very comfortable with electronics, and very comfortable with a soldering iron (just recently finished replacing my Razer BW X TKL board with Gateron Blacks, 522 desolders and 522 solders to preserve the RGB). I just know older electronics are more prone to breaking in some cases, and don't want to break anything on a device of this rarity.

I appreciate any help or advice anyone can provide, this is my first foray into anything to do with buckling spring.

TL;DR About to get a BuckSpring typewriter (picture related), curious how hard it is to wire a controller to BuckSpring boards.

Show Image

The model name will be on the IBM badge.

Yes, I'm sure it's quite feasible to convert this to USB using a ribbon slot connector and some sort of controller. You might have to work out the programming side of it, though.

Personally I think the best use for them is as keycap donors. The caps are M/F compatible and generally have cool legends and coloured sublegends.

[Boskr]

Hello all,
I'm about to (most likely) acquire one of the typewriters in the below picture (not my picture). I know it's an IBM WheelWriter, but I can't say for sure which model it is. My lady's work had one sitting on the counter in the copy room, and when I pointed it out that it was strange for a typewriter to be there (real estate office, very up-to-date one at that), she said that it was for kids to play on, since they "like how clicky it is". I touched one key and realized it was definitely buckling spring, and my googling led me to realize what series it is.

Since then, I've inquired about it, and their only concern is that the kids that some of the employees bring there on occasion will miss it (The boss literally said if it were not for that she would just give it to me). I've offered to replace it with another clicky keyboard (just going to throw some Razer Green switches I have lying around into an old Logitech board, just junk I want to get rid of anyway) and I'm waiting to hear back.

But aside from all that, I'm curious how viable it would be to take the keyboard from this unit and convert it into a PC keyboard. From the videos I've seen, it appears that two ribbon cables lead from the keyboard, and I suspect that the pins on the ribbon cables match 1:1 for the keys, and that all actual processing is done on the typewriter portion of the unit. If this is the case, could I not run leads from the ribbon cables to a Teensy or similar controller? This seems like the easiest solution.

If that's not viable, can anyone give me a run down on how hard it would be to wire a buckling spring keyboard to a controller? I'm very comfortable with electronics, and very comfortable with a soldering iron (just recently finished replacing my Razer BW X TKL board with Gateron Blacks, 522 desolders and 522 solders to preserve the RGB). I just know older electronics are more prone to breaking in some cases, and don't want to break anything on a device of this rarity.

I appreciate any help or advice anyone can provide, this is my first foray into anything to do with buckling spring.

TL;DR About to get a BuckSpring typewriter (picture related), curious how hard it is to wire a controller to BuckSpring boards.

Show Image

The model name will be on the IBM badge.

Yes, I'm sure it's quite feasible to convert this to USB using a ribbon slot connector and some sort of controller. You might have to work out the programming side of it, though.

Personally I think the best use for them is as keycap donors. The caps are M/F compatible and generally have cool legends and coloured sublegends.

I would happily use it as some sort of donor, and perhaps I might in the future, but I have no other boards to put it on, and my keeb budget is a little spent at the moment.

Mainly I just wanted some confirmation that I'm not about to jump into hell itself, that it wouldn't have some crazy, complicated pin layout I would have to work with.

Wait....you wouldn't happen to be the same person who did a review of the keyboard on this model, would you? I recently watched a YouTube video on it, where the person showed how nice the caps looked on a Model M. I can't get to YT at work, so I can't check if that was you.


EDIT: Yeah, it was your video that I saw...really informative stuff.

[typo]

I can't explain all this here but you are going to use a "pic" and a layer to a controller then you can work it out in vb on the pic. good luck I have a number of those and I just use them as Typewriters. Darn nice ones at that. I was smart to go to every failed business fire sale/auction and clean them out. I guess a huge basement and attic helps too. To me these are treasures. To others junk. Example: Typewriters like this working at sales(not Ebay) go for less Than $40.

[Boskr]

I can't explain all this here but you are going to use a "pic" and a layer to a controller then you can work it out in vb on the pic. good luck I have a number of those and I just use them as Typewriters. Darn nice ones at that. I was smart to go to every failed business fire sale/auction and clean them out. I guess a huge basement and attic helps too. To me these are treasures. To others junk. Example: Typewriters like this working at sales(not Ebay) go for less Than $40.

I'm actually not sure the typewriter even works.  I've been too interested in the keyboard part of it to ask yet if it's functional. I really have no room for more large items in the house, so I may be looking at getting rid of the non-keyboard portion of it.

I think some evil part of me just wants a Buckling Spring to take to work and upset the whole office 

[typo]

If you do not have something ready made from some company I completely forgot you will need to do as I said. The board will dump data into he pic you have to program in vb and then into a controller with a usb output. I think it would be cool to have the whole thing but it is still just a pc keyboard. It does not matter either way.