Woohoo! My new eBay find arrived (a 3278 data entry keyboard). The auction promised it was a bit beaten up, but it's cleaned up OK. The paint on the case isn't that great though. I cleaned all the keycaps and they have all come up reasonably well, a few marks here and there.
Excuse potato photo, I haven't got the hang of not blowing the highlights through the roof when I use these newfangled digital cameras yet:
White + black + blue
tripleshots!!!
The weird thing on this keyboard is the key indentation; normally beamsprings have extra-deep dishing on the F and J keys as normal. This one has extra-deep dishing on J, K and L, presumably to help you centre on the numpad. Feels very strange, especially not having anything for F. I'm getting used to it though.
Another strange thing is the left and right shifts, which are significantly recessed. And yes, the Right Shift (or whatever key it's supposed to be) really does go that way up.
The little trapdoor thing on the bottom where the manual folds out is a bit of a let-down; it's the only bit of plastic (other than the keycaps) on the keyboard, and is a bit rattly. mr_a500 isn't missing anything by not having one on his 3278. Other than that it's very solid—more solid than the old 3727 even. Must be because it's Canadian-made.
Unfortunately I had no Rev4 controllers left—I all of them but one, and then swapped the one I was actually using myself with the cool Dutch chap who built a
3278 converter for his PCB (he had a 3278 with a dud controller). I am left with two Rev1 controllers (my prototypes). To my great suprise—after all of that hooha earlier in the development of the controllers—the Rev1 controller fits perfectly into the case of a 3278, despite being upright. Granted, there's not a lot of room to spare, and there may be tolerances between different keyboards, but I had to laugh...
Up and running now, put the 3727 back on the shelf for now. I'm still trying to figure out the final details of how to map the embedded numpad. My right thumb does actually hit the spacebar itself comfortably; nonetheless on the base layer I have the big numpad 0 as a spacebar too. I then to a hop-skip Fn1->Fn2 jump to numpad layer. My only issue is where to place the numpad +/-/÷/* keys, as a numpad without those is pretty useless. Will have to have a play.
All in all a nice little keyboard. It really is pretty compact. Looking forward to getting Round 2 of the controller orders underway, so I can order myself a Rev4 beamspring controller and a solenoid driver. The solenoid on these is nicely rubber mounted in a little cradle, so should sound quite different. I'm sure mr_a500 can chime in here.