IBM Space Saver - UK Layout Version ?

[Dirty Bint]

Hi,

Would anybody know if there was a UK layout equivalent of the IBM "Space Saver" and if so, what was the part number?




Thx
Dirty Bint

[ch_123]

I'm sure they existed, but I've never seen one around here.

There were some people who claimed to have them, but they were in fact a strange US ISO layout -



Although you could very easily just swap the keycaps from a UK Model M onto one if you wanted to. Part number UNI04C6 - on the scale of hard-to-find, about 4/5.

[Dirty Bint]

ch_123,

Your keycap swapping idea is a possibility.

If I got a USA layout "Space Saver" and swapped the keycaps from an old UK layout Model M would it work if windows was set to UK keyboard ?

Or, would there be something in the PCB "ghosting" it to a USA layout that would cause issues with my proposal ?


Thx
Dirty Bint

[ch_123]

Bare in mind that a US keyboard has a different physical layout, so you can't just take a US keyboard and swap keycaps and have a UK keyboard. Here's a US one for reference -



Due to the way that a Model M is designed, it is possible to take a US one and convert it to be a UK one, but this involves quite a bit of work - see this for an idea of what you're up against.

Dunno about you, but learning the US layout would be easier to me =P

[ch_123]

To me, "bare" always made more sense, as it seems to be some form of "[lay] bare in your mind". One should not attempt to have a bear in their mind.

[Rajagra]

There were some people who claimed to have them, but they were in fact a strange US ISO layout -

Show Image

I can't imagine that being anything other than an ISO layout (with US legends on it.) If you put UK keycaps on it, it would effectively be a UK Space Saving board.

[ch_123]

That's what I was saying - it's what you get if you set your computer to use a US layout on an ISO keyboard.

Too bad they're rather rare. And for some reason, a load of them ended up in Japan... I've lost count of the amount of Japanese sites I've seen with people showing pics of their one.

[skcheng]

SKCheng's German one is quite nifty.

Show Image

If I get a chance tnite, I'll post a pic of my French unit  ;-))

[ch_123]

Germany seems to have been a good place to get IBM stuff. The only ISO M4-1 I've ever seen was a German unit.

[ch_123]

Oh, and there's no reason to imagine that if a customer wanted them that IBM wouldnt have made some. The thing is that they seem to be almost non-existent in the wild these days. Perhaps European customers didn't want them as much as the US ones?