Ideas for a custom Model M?

[shut up]

So, long story short. I've got two Model M's that aren't currently in working condition and I'd like to do something interesting with at least one of them



The black terminal is a Unicomp, which has a connection issue. I've already opened it up and had a look inside, everything looks like it's in place but putting it simply, it just doesn't work. The keys are one piece, with no keycaps. They have a slightly different feel than those of other Model M keyboards.

The white one is a '97 model year Model M. Made in the United Kingdom. It's missing a fair amount of keycaps, but cleaned up really nicely. That one didn't work either, I've already done the bolt mod and it still doesn't work properly.

Here's a picture of the "before" for the white one. I'd say it cleaned up pretty nicely. Anything's an improvement over all the dead cockroaches that previously resided inside of it. Yuck.



AAAAAND I've also got my standard Unicomp Model M black/grey. Horrible picture, but you get the idea.





So anybody have any ideas of an interesting custom idea that I can pull off with the three? I was originally thinking about either dying the one piece keycaps black and sticking them on the Unicomp and somehow getting a trackball on there possibly, but another idea of mine would be to get the old frame from the IBM one and stick in onto the Unicomp.

[rowdy]

For a start you could convert the Unicomp to ANSI ...

[fanpeople]

Cut one down and make a 40% Model M. Use a teensy to make it go. That would be awesome.

[Xonar]

Hacksaw the 122 key into a pseudo Model M Unsaver. I kinda want to do that to mine.

BTW, what's the exact birthdate of that white M?

[fanpeople]

Hacksaw the 122 key into a pseudo Model M Unsaver. I kinda want to do that to mine.

BTW, what's the exact birthdate of that white M?

Seconded,

At least do something involving some form of cutting/sawing.

[njbair]

Hacksaw the 122 key into a pseudo Model M Unsaver. I kinda want to do that to mine.

BTW, what's the exact birthdate of that white M?

Awesome idea. I have a spare Unicomp PC-122 that's just sitting around while I think of something to do with it. This idea is perfect.

Has someone done this and written it up? I'd love to learn from someone else's mistakes before going under the knife.

[dorkvader]

The black terminal is a Unicomp, which has a connection issue. I've already opened it up and had a look inside, everything looks like it's in place but putting it simply, it just doesn't work. The keys are one piece, with no keycaps. They have a slightly different feel than those of other Model M keyboards.

That unicomp has pretty bad quality cable. If you replace it you might be able to get it working. It broke the first time I pulled mine apart (and it was NIB!)
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62060.0

About the keycaps, IBM has changed moulds on their caps a few times throughout the years, it's normal that two Model Ms of different generations have different feeling caps. For the Greenrock, you can just direct-wire it by soldering cables between the connector and a new microcontroller (teensy is a popular choice) Another option is to buy a replacemenbt controller http://www.ebay.com/itm/221741764651

I have a spare but it's for a 50-key so it probably wont work with your KB (it's most similar to a SSK controller but its' missing some parts

[shut up]

Hacksaw the 122 key into a pseudo Model M Unsaver. I kinda want to do that to mine.

BTW, what's the exact birthdate of that white M?

17-01-97 is what it says on the back of it.

Good idea though, if I can get one of them working that might just do it. I'll assume that my bolt mod didn't go as planned, since there's a bunch of crap rolling around inside of there now.

[shut up]

Yup, it's pretty thin cable. The controller looked fine and the internals looked clean, IIRC some of the functions of that keyboard would work and some would not. Same deal that's with the white one.

I changed some of the whole one piece keycaps over to the white one just to see how it would look and they felt the same as the ones that were currently on there, but only when they are only the black terminal board is when they start to feel strange. They feel a lot lighter and quieter on the terminal board.

[dorkvader]

I'll assume that my bolt mod didn't go as planned, since there's a bunch of crap rolling around inside of there now.

There's not supposed to be anything rolling around there after a bolt mod. Open it up and double check your work

They feel a lot lighter and quieter on the terminal board.

Could be because of bolt mod. Unicomp caps are subtly different than some IBM ones (and there have been numerous changes to the mouldings over the years: a quick check of this is to see (on one piece caps) if there is a stabilizing bar between the round hole for the barrel and the front of the cap. Still using caps from 30 years ago usually work the same as with modern caps.

[shut up]

I'll assume that my bolt mod didn't go as planned, since there's a bunch of crap rolling around inside of there now.

There's not supposed to be anything rolling around there after a bolt mod. Open it up and double check your work

They feel a lot lighter and quieter on the terminal board.

Could be because of bolt mod. Unicomp caps are subtly different than some IBM ones (and there have been numerous changes to the mouldings over the years: a quick check of this is to see (on one piece caps) if there is a stabilizing bar between the round hole for the barrel and the front of the cap. Still using caps from 30 years ago usually work the same as with modern caps.

No, it's the white one that has the bolt mod done to it (IBM). It didn't work before the bolt mod, and I just did that to see if it would work after the bolt mod. Which it didn't.