Bought another beamspring

[xwhatsit]

After getting my 7361073 (which unfortunately got a bit damaged in shipping, straightened out a couple of bent switches, but still need to do a bit of gluing on the 1 key) a month ago, I've noticed one or two more beamsprings appear on eBay.

This one came up and I put in an offer of $US80 just for kicks. To my surprise this morning he accepted it! Whoops!

I see he has a quantity of two remaining, so if somebody else is interested in a beamspring board they might make an offer (try lower than $US80 though ).

This one looks to be a bit more unusual than my IBM 5251 7361073 board in terms of layout. As far as I can figure out, it's from an IBM 3101 terminal, which is a different family (but about the same age) as the IBM 5251. The 5251 layout is nice because it very closely approximates an original IBM XT keyboard, numpad and all, so it looks like it'll be quite usable. The 3101 layout is a little stranger. I looked and there's a quote about it on the geekhack IBM wiki:

In 1979, the IBM 3101 terminal was released. This was a standard serial terminal in the same league as competitors such as the DEC VT-100. It had a keyboard with part number 5641316 which used a similar character layout to the terminals of IBM's competitors. The 3101 is something of a Frankenstein keyboard, having the physical layout of a 3278 keyboard in a 5251 keyboard style casing. As can be seen from the picture, some of the keys are not used.

So it'll be interesting to see what it's like. I may sell it or exchange it for a 3278-style board for something a bit more different.

Work has taken over for the moment so I haven't got onto designing the PCBs for the USB beamspring controller. Now I have two of them I might have to hurry up!

[ch_123]

Yeah, that's a 3101 board alright. I was thinking of grabbing one, but the cost of shipping on top of $80 to me would make it quite pricey, and there are Beam boards that I'd want more than that one, even though it is one of the nicer looking ones.

In terms of layout, the best choice would be the 92-character Displaywriter keyboard, which has a layout very similar to the AT Model F. Looks a bit boring though

[xwhatsit]

Yeah shipping to NZ isn't so hot either.

I'm not so keen on the Displaywriter layout to be honest. The lack of a numpad means cursor control and home/end/pageup/pagedown in non-vi-like programs could be a pain. Plus what would be the Alt keys (Ctrl would be put on Caps Lock) are too far inwards, packed on either side of the tiny space bar. I dunno, could work, just doesn't look as immediately workable to me. Aesthetically it is a bit bland, you're right.

If one comes up at an OK price I'd love to snag a 3279 keyboard:
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Bit more colourful and the indicator lights could be used for interesting stuff (email notification comes to mind).

[ch_123]

In regards to the Displaywriter, I'd just map some of the lower right hand function keys to be an arrow cluster, in that regard it would be better than an AT. I do agree that the keys flanking the space bar are quite far in, but I don't think that would bother me.

Note that not all 3279 keyboards had those indicator lights, only one particular variant (out of the seemingly endless list of options) was like that.

Speaking of which, I happen to be getting myself such a keyboard - a Data Entry variant

[xwhatsit]

Man, that's got a weird layout! Cool keycaps, though. Is that the keypunch layout copy?

[ch_123]

Yeah, most IBM terminals had a Data Entry variant, which was based on the layout of the IBM 029 cardpunch.

I was going to get one of those keyboards, but I decided to go for something more compact.