Beam spring board

[xwhatsit]

Hello all,

I'm desperate to buy a beam spring board of some description. I plan to use it; using the V-USB stack, make a new controller with an AVR, rather than trying to convert the signals.

Unfortunately I definitely can't find anything locally and the boards seem to come up very rarely on eBay etc.

They're of no use unless you have the original hardware or just like typing on a board with nothing attached (fair enough!), so I figure there should be a few out there hiding.

I can't afford crazy money, but please let me know if you have something you'd like to sell!

[Sam]

I've been working on a controller for beam spring boards as well, and am in the process of trying to locate a sample of each kind of beam spring board.  The 3270 boards seem to be the most difficult.  I've seen a few different GH'ers post about their boards, but nobody's been willing to sell as of yet, nor have I even seen one come up on eBay.

The Displaywriter keyboards seem to be the most readily available, and sometimes for quite cheap ($30), but it's still not a common occurrence to see them for sale.

The IBM 5100 is probably the most expensive keyboard of the lot, being you'll likely need to buy the entire computer along with it.

There's a range of different interfaces used on the various beam spring boards.  Do you not care which interface the board uses?  I imagine the complexity/difficulty in building a converter will vary a lot depending on the type of interface.  It also helps a lot if you have the complete hardware the keyboard was designed for, so the base unit can supply the proper voltages and input signals for testing.  But if you need the complete hardware, that complicates sourcing a reasonably priced one immensely.

What's the maximum you're looking to spend? I'm not really looking to sell any of my beam spring boards, but send me a PM if you want and I might possibly be able to give you some pointers on how to locate one, depending on your needs and price range.

Edit: oops, just reread your post and notice you want to change the actual controller.  So maybe you don't care about the base unit.  I've also been looking to do that, but found it was easier to make a converter first so that I could test out doing real typing on the keyboard first.  I do like the beam spring boards, but after actually typing on them, don't know if the complexity and issues of building a new keyboard controller for them is worth it.  The Model F switches in my opinion aren't that far behind, so I'm now considering perhaps concentrating more on those and leaving beam springs for another time.

[xwhatsit]

Hello Sam,

Yes, the last time I was reading geekhack regularly (about a year ago) I recall your efforts, very interesting stuff!

As you've noticed, I'm not fussed about the base unit or the interface used, as I'll set that aside and put my own controller in to scan the matrix. I don't plan on destroying any hardware (we are talking about pretty rare stuff).

I haven't tried the Model F switches, although I plan to get a 122-key terminal board (do a controller for that too if I need to, although many seem backwards-compatible) to sit alongside my 122-key Model M. I'm attracted to the beamspring not only because of the reports of the wonderful key action, but also by the very cool cosmetics etc. (I love spherical keycaps, for instance; you can't get those for a Model M or F!).

I'd love to be able to find a Displaywriter keyboard for $30 (don't like my chances though)! Although, they are probably the least interesting cosmetically. On the other hand, the layout looks like it could be practical as a daily driver for me (with a little reinterpretation of keylabels of course -- I have a job as a `squiggly brace' language programmer).

The absolute maximum I could spend with good conscience would be $US100, and that would be high, because I still have to ship the heavy bloody thing to New Zealand, and US shipping costs are very high these days. However, I've obviously got what the rangefinder camera guys call `GAS' (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), so if something shiny and pretty comes up then who knows.