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Author Topic: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.  (Read 2519 times)

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Offline mougrim

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Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 05:19:57 »
I decided to change nav cluster a bit, cuz I want all important buttons to be really close. That's what I got after step 1.

Now I thinking...

As I had remapped my Caps Lock to Control, why not use 8 on numpad as Caps Lock (only one of "Lock" keys I really use).

As I don't have any use for Num Lock and Scroll Lock now (obviously) I consider remapping Num Lock to Pause/break, Scroll Lock to Print Screen/SysRq), moving asterisk and minus one unit up, addin one unit + buttong and replacing big + button with Enter. But I don't know if Model M numpad enter can be installed on F...
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Offline E TwentyNine

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 07:31:02 »
You might consider going a little further:



Once you open up the board and rearrange the barrels the possibilities are many.
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Offline mougrim

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 07:44:05 »
Quote from: E TwentyNine on Wed, 25 February 2015, 07:31:02
You might consider going a little further:

Show Image


Once you open up the board and rearrange the barrels the possibilities are many.

Too radical for me. And I don't like all that unfulled holes ;)
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Offline jacobolus

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #3 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 07:54:58 »
It seems to me like with a full numpad to work with, you could get more comfortable and faster arrows with an arrangement along the lines of:

where left = index finger, up = middle finger, right = ring finger, down = thumb.
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Offline E TwentyNine

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 08:02:47 »
Quote from: mougrim on Wed, 25 February 2015, 07:44:05
Quote from: E TwentyNine on Wed, 25 February 2015, 07:31:02
You might consider going a little further:

Show Image


Once you open up the board and rearrange the barrels the possibilities are many.

Too radical for me. And I don't like all that unfulled holes ;)

I've been meaning to figure out a cover for the holes, haven't gotten to it.

But it's not for everyone.  Someone over at DT (and here) did do a rearrangement of the cluster keeping all the keys but turning most (all?) of them to single unit.  Forget what the thread was.
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Daily driver: SSK or Tenkeyless IBM AT
1984 Model M Industrial Prototype ⌨ 1992 Black Oval Industrial SSK ⌨ 1982 5251 Beam Spring ⌨ 89 Key "SSK" ⌨ M13 triplets

Offline Melvang

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #5 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 08:21:55 »
Quote from: E TwentyNine on Wed, 25 February 2015, 08:02:47
Quote from: mougrim on Wed, 25 February 2015, 07:44:05
Quote from: E TwentyNine on Wed, 25 February 2015, 07:31:02
You might consider going a little further:

Show Image


Once you open up the board and rearrange the barrels the possibilities are many.

Too radical for me. And I don't like all that unfulled holes ;)

I've been meaning to figure out a cover for the holes, haven't gotten to it.

But it's not for everyone.  Someone over at DT (and here) did do a rearrangement of the cluster keeping all the keys but turning most (all?) of them to single unit.  Forget what the thread was.

I did it with mine.  All the pads are there under the barrels.  Just need to pull the plate, add springs with flippies, tweak the layout on the firmware side and put caps on.

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Offline katushkin

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #6 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 08:37:41 »
Go even further

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Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 08:53:41 »
Quote from: E TwentyNine on Wed, 25 February 2015, 08:02:47
Someone over at DT (and here) did do a rearrangement of the cluster keeping all the keys but turning most (all?) of them to single unit.  Forget what the thread was.

Muirium at Deskthority did this and it really got me going.

When I get around to modding my AT, it will be more like this:
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"However, even though I was born in the Mesozoic, I do know what anyone who wants to reach out to young people should say: Billionaires took your money. They took your chance to buy a home. They took your chance at a good education. They stole your opportunities. Billionaires took the things you want in life. If you really want those things, you have to take them back.
That's the message. That's the whole message. Say that every day, not just to reach America's frustrated young white men, but people of every age, race, and gender.
Late-stage capitalism is a wealth-concentration engine, focused on vacuuming up every dollar and putting it in as few hands as possible. Republicans are helping that vacuum suck.
How does a tiny fraction of the population get away with this? They do it by dividing the other 99% of Americans against themselves."
- Marc Sumner 2025-05-30

Offline JPG

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #8 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 09:02:53 »
While I understand the fun of modding the keyboard and replacing this bigass enter and/or the small backspace, I just don't get why people want to change the NAV cluster on the AT F since it already has a very nice nav cluster to it.


Anyone can enlighten me? Maybe it's because I don't use it as a numpad at all and let it configured as a pure NAV cluster all the time, but for me it works very well. More so since I also have a second layer NAV cluster around ijkl, so I only use the NAV cluster on the numpad when I need to use the mouse at the same or when my hands are not well placed on the keyboad for whatever reason.


Show me the light!
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Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #9 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 09:07:16 »
Quote from: JPG on Wed, 25 February 2015, 09:02:53
Anyone can enlighten me? Maybe it's because I don't use it as a numpad at all

I use the numpad constantly, and, in fact, on my F-122s I have removed the "numlock" key entirely - it does not even exist on the keyboard.

Dedicated numpad, arrows, and page up/down are essential to me. Back in the 1980s, I never learned to use the "navigation cluster" built into the numpad, and so, for me, it does not exist.
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"However, even though I was born in the Mesozoic, I do know what anyone who wants to reach out to young people should say: Billionaires took your money. They took your chance to buy a home. They took your chance at a good education. They stole your opportunities. Billionaires took the things you want in life. If you really want those things, you have to take them back.
That's the message. That's the whole message. Say that every day, not just to reach America's frustrated young white men, but people of every age, race, and gender.
Late-stage capitalism is a wealth-concentration engine, focused on vacuuming up every dollar and putting it in as few hands as possible. Republicans are helping that vacuum suck.
How does a tiny fraction of the population get away with this? They do it by dividing the other 99% of Americans against themselves."
- Marc Sumner 2025-05-30

Offline E TwentyNine

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #10 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 09:14:02 »
Same here with the dedicated cursor keys and nav six-pack.

While the AT has superior construction and internals, it lacks in the layout department.  Not as bad as the XT, but inferior to the SSK.

The inverted-T cursor layout has stuck around for a reason.
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Offline mougrim

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #11 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 10:22:01 »
Quote from: fohat.digs on Wed, 25 February 2015, 08:53:41
Quote from: E TwentyNine on Wed, 25 February 2015, 08:02:47
Someone over at DT (and here) did do a rearrangement of the cluster keeping all the keys but turning most (all?) of them to single unit.  Forget what the thread was.

Muirium at Deskthority did this and it really got me going.

When I get around to modding my AT, it will be more like this:

Hmm... Not bad. But to do all this and not replace stepped keys?
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Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #12 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 10:31:44 »
Quote from: mougrim on Wed, 25 February 2015, 10:22:01
But to do all this and not replace stepped keys?

Ha Ha Ha

Some of us LOVE stepped keys!
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"However, even though I was born in the Mesozoic, I do know what anyone who wants to reach out to young people should say: Billionaires took your money. They took your chance to buy a home. They took your chance at a good education. They stole your opportunities. Billionaires took the things you want in life. If you really want those things, you have to take them back.
That's the message. That's the whole message. Say that every day, not just to reach America's frustrated young white men, but people of every age, race, and gender.
Late-stage capitalism is a wealth-concentration engine, focused on vacuuming up every dollar and putting it in as few hands as possible. Republicans are helping that vacuum suck.
How does a tiny fraction of the population get away with this? They do it by dividing the other 99% of Americans against themselves."
- Marc Sumner 2025-05-30

Offline mougrim

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #13 on: Wed, 25 February 2015, 11:03:20 »
Quote from: fohat.digs on Wed, 25 February 2015, 10:31:44
Quote from: mougrim on Wed, 25 February 2015, 10:22:01
But to do all this and not replace stepped keys?

Ha Ha Ha

Some of us LOVE stepped keys!

I know SOMEONE had to love them, but I thought all people who actually do worked in IBM team, which created XT keyboard. And probably faced firing squad right after that :)
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Offline mougrim

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Re: Tweaking a nav cluster on AT Model F a bit.
« Reply #14 on: Fri, 27 February 2015, 06:38:24 »
OK, I'm almost created an ideal nav cluster for me - I remapped Numpad 8 to Backspace and + to Enter - now i can edit text and navigate in Total Commander and FAR with one hand :)

I have M-style Numpad Ener key and, of course, original 1-unit Backspace, so all I need now is one-unit Caps Lock. Whish I need to order from Unicomp. Damn :)
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