Author Topic: Help Identify an IBM Model M (Read 9111 times)

kywirelessguy · « **on:** Sat, 06 August 2011, 18:54:30 »

I work for a company that used to sell and repair IBM typewriters and printers (we moved to Lexmark when IBM sold their typewriter division). We still repair IBM/Lexmark Wheelwriters to this day, including repairing the keyboards (new mylars, new springs and held together with screws).

Anyway, back on topic we have some old IBM PS/2 items laying around, and I grabbed this Model M keyboard the other day, but searching the part number doesn't tell me a whole lot. I assume if it was just a standard 101 key IBM PS/2 keyboard google would return more results.

The model number on the box is 1394619 and the model number on the back of the keyboard is 1394618. The box date is 12-19-89. The box is open, but the keyboard has never been plugged in. It came with a PS/2 interface cable in its own package inside the box. The keytops have a lot of extra text on them.

I'll work on getting some pics.

Thanks.

False_Dmitry_II · « **Reply #1 on:** Sat, 06 August 2011, 19:00:52 »

As in, not working for unicomp?

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #2 on:** Sat, 06 August 2011, 19:17:24 »

No, we are definitely not unicomp. We only repair wheelwriter keyboards, not model M's. We probably get parts from unicomp though.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #3 on:** Sat, 06 August 2011, 20:04:13 »

Some more information. It has the round silver IBM logo on the top left, with black lettering.

ESC and the function keys have their normal ESC, F1, F2, etc. text printed on the front of the keytop, rather than the top.

Esc says Exit on top and the Functions keys say

Print, Help (F1)
Save
Align
Block
Rept,Srch/Srch
Get,Find
Frmat
Merg
DelLn,DelWd
Go to Page,Spell
Draw
PgAdj,LnAdj (F12)

Print screen says Task/Menu
Scroll lock is normal
Pause/break key, the pause is on top and break is on the front in green.

IBM made a basic word processor too, right? Their Wheelwriter 70 is a word processor with a typewriter attached, but didn't they have a standalone word processor as well? I still figured the part number would reveal more information than it did. It isn't even listed on wikipedia.

False_Dmitry_II · « **Reply #4 on:** Sat, 06 August 2011, 21:07:00 »

From what little I can tell you, they seem to have made a brand new part number any time they made a change to the regular model m. So that just sounds like some company somewhere made a custom order.

Talk to CH_123 if he happens to know anything more about this particular model, but he might just say the same thing.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #5 on:** Sun, 07 August 2011, 11:11:58 »

Wow, that orange color really stands out! I also really like the blue ctrl button on the second image.

Well here's the pics of my keyboard. It has some similiarities to the wheelwriter keytops so it's got to be for a word processor, but I can't find any evidence that IBM made a standalone word processor device. A lot of the keys are hold overs from the wheelwriter typewriters though.

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23480[/ATTACH]
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23481[/ATTACH]
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23482[/ATTACH]
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23483[/ATTACH]

I was going to hook this up and use it as my everyday home keyboard, but I might try to find a decent used one at work so I can keep this one in the box.

Do any Model M's use the one piece keytops or are they all two piece keytops? Or maybe they all come with 2 piece, but one piece keys still work?

I only ask because we have thousands of one piece IBM wheelwriter keytops we'll probably never use, but with unicomp selling model M keys it probably wouldn't be worth the effort to sort them.

mbc · « **Reply #6 on:** Sun, 07 August 2011, 11:40:11 »

As far as i know, the older models and the rubber dome versions use onepiece.

Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #7 on:** Sun, 07 August 2011, 11:50:37 »

Thanks for all the help. I find this stuff fascinating.

I'm going to go on a hunt on Monday, I think we might have a space saver model M or two still NIB as well.

We also have some old IBM posters I'll try and get pics of, something keyboard historians might get a kick out of anyway.

False_Dmitry_II · « **Reply #8 on:** Sun, 07 August 2011, 18:18:13 »

I think the current ones unicomp sells are all one piece caps.

If it fits and works right then it'd be fine. I think it'd be cool to have that amount of replacement keys, because of how oddly often model m's on ebay have missing keys for seemingly no reason.

theferenc · « **Reply #9 on:** Sun, 07 August 2011, 18:21:57 »

No, Unicomp sells both one piece and two piece in the "pearl", and one piece only in the (sparkly) grey. They even sell the APL keys in both one and two piece versions.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #10 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 07:49:46 »

Well I did happen to find some more PS/2 stuff. I have a 1396050 NIB and a 1392575 NIB. Both are space savers, neither has a cable with them.

Ebay probably the best bet to get the most money out of them?

ch_123 · « **Reply #11 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 07:55:32 »

IBM had a word processing software for the PS/2 and the System/370 called Displaywrite. The keyboards they made for the PC looked like this. I'd like to see some pics of the one you have if you are able to take some.

It's funny, I've been reading into the Wheelwriters lately, and it's interesting to come across someone who repairs them... Do you know when did Lexmark ceased manufacture of them? Haven't been able to determine this from Google.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #12 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 07:58:53 »

Thanks for the link, it looks as though my keyboard from the OP is very similar to the one you linked, just made a couple years later in 1989.

Here are some pics of 1392575...

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23523[/ATTACH]
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23522[/ATTACH]
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23524[/ATTACH]
[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23525[/ATTACH]

The 1396050 is very similar to this one, it has the same numpad covering the JKL area of the keyboard, but lacks all of the green alt text.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #13 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 08:01:19 »

Wow, the 1392464 looks very similar to the one I have in the original post. Looks identical except mine was made a couple years later. Well it turns out I have 4 of those 101-key word processor keyboards still new in box.

ch_123 · « **Reply #14 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 08:14:58 »

Those Displaywrite keyboards are awesome. The ones you have pictured are 84-key ones. Do you have 101-key ones too?

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #15 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 08:17:00 »

Here are some more random pics from work.

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23527[/ATTACH]
We used to have a beautiful poster of a personal wheelwriter keyboard with rainbow colored keys, but I'm afraid we threw it out

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23526[/ATTACH]
A Wheelwriter keyboard with one piece blanks. No clue what this is for, but it's not something you see everyday.

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23528[/ATTACH]
Just one little shelf of our keyboard department.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #16 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 08:20:03 »

Quote from: ch_123;395067

Those Displaywrite keyboards are awesome. The ones you have pictured are 84-key ones. Do you have 101-key ones too?

Yeah, look at my first set of pictures here.

If you ever need any wheelwriter parts, we probably have it.

ch_123 · « **Reply #17 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 08:21:22 »

Ah, I missed those pics. I didn't know that they made 101-key versions of that board.

Do you guys have spare Wheelwriter keycaps, or do you just harvest them from old boards?

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #18 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 08:26:30 »

We just take them off old boards, but we have to scrap a lot of keyboards because the plastic backing cracks and can't be reused.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #19 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 08:41:29 »

OK, the word processor was called the IBM Personal Typing System with a 8086 processor!

And here is a IBM System 40 keyboard. The System 40 was a word processor, but instead of using a monitor it had the 3 line LCD you see in the picture.

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23529[/ATTACH]

The System 40 was kind of a big brother to the typewriters while the PTS was "light" version of the PS/2.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #20 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 09:06:47 »

And one more pic for the antique lovers out there. I would love a steampunk keyboard with these keytops.

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23530[/ATTACH]

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #21 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 10:09:35 »

Nope, never seen anything like it before. Is that the only pic he could get of it?

If you hadn't told me it was for making signs I would have guessed that sign was the beginning of signature and it has something to do with printing checks. It would be interesting to see what the whole machine looks like, and how the keyboard connects.

TexasFlood · « **Reply #22 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 10:23:23 »

Quote from: ripster;395098

Do you have any ideal what this mysterious IBM mini keyboard found by Clickclack attached to some sign making equipment is?

This thing? I know that I want it, :wink:

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #23 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 17:02:22 »

Well I had a chance to sort through what keyboards we had at work, and surprisingly I think I hit the motherload.

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23591[/ATTACH]
It's looking like 9 space saver model M's (1 is regular, 8 are the Personal Typing System)
And 4 of the IBM Personal Typing System 101-key Model M's
All the boxes but one 101-key appear opened, and 2 of the SSK boxes have "keytops replaced" written on the box.

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 23588[/ATTACH]
This is one of the 2 SSK's with keytops replaced. You'll notice the number 6 and the letter U don't belong, there might be more. No PS/2 cables came with the SSK's.

It also appears at least one of the 101-key PTS keyboard boxes is still sealed, never been opened.

I think I'm going to have to go through one-by-one and test all these keyboards before I try and ebay them. Except maybe the sealed box. I would feel better knowing they worked for sure rather than selling them in as-is condition.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #24 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 17:07:18 »

Forgot to mention I also found 7 out of box 101-key Model M's. Assorted blue and black labels and PS/2 and PTS versions. They all need a good scrubbing though.

The one odd SSK is part number 1396050. It came in a blue IBM PS/2 box. Date of 05-13-1991. The sticker came right off it, but I did save it.

And I just realized 2 of the SSK are sealed boxes! The original tape has never been broken.

ch_123 · « **Reply #25 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 18:14:24 »

Quote from: kywirelessguy;395390

(Attachment Link) 23588[/ATTACH]
This is one of the 2 SSK's with keytops replaced. You'll notice the number 6 and the letter U don't belong, there might be more. No PS/2 cables came with the SSK's.

The backspace is also wrong.

Too bad, I'd really like one of those backspaces with the typewriter correction (I believe) symbol on it.

kywirelessguy · « **Reply #26 on:** Mon, 08 August 2011, 18:39:07 »

I was thinking about swapping keys out, but none of my full size boards is going to have the U with a 4 on the front.

ch_123 · « **Reply #27 on:** Tue, 09 August 2011, 11:11:27 »

Quote from: ripster;395460

CTRL, ALT and M in those pictures have been replaced. Or at least different than your plain vanilla Model M Mini.

Those are normal for the word processing ones.

TexasFlood · « **Reply #28 on:** Tue, 09 August 2011, 11:18:32 »

Don't tell any of us where you live or you might have unscheduled midnight visits, :wink:

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Author Topic: Help Identify an IBM Model M (Read 9111 times)