So I got this 1989 Model M in yesterday that was "untested and sold as-is," but to my surprise the seller (Detroitsoldier from OCN) neglected to send a SDL to PS/2 cable with the board. All he had to say was "in the pictures, I did not include the cable as I did not have any extra" and "I don't really know what to tell you beyond that, sorry." Really shady way of doing business if you ask me.
Here are the pictures of what I recieved:
After taking it apart though, I found out it didn't matter if I had the SDL to PS/2 cable anyway because the connector on the PCB was broken.
So, I asked myself, how can I get this working and not spend more money? I know...take apart an old rubber dome keyboard and steal PS/2 cable from it. Cut the wires with a bit of length just in case and when to solder them to the IBM's PCB.
I found the
PS/2 wikipedia article and used a multimeter to figure out the pinout of the PS/2 cable. And used this
Model M USB guide to figure out what locations on the PCB did what.
Then I proceeded to clean the case and keys with denture tabs while it was apart. Results were pretty astounding.
And to finish the story...I just typed this entire post on the Model M that got the PS/2 transplant.