Kinesis Contoured Model 120?

[stian]

I just bought a second Kinesis and realized it's a lot older than what I thought. It's an old model 120 from 1994! Welp! I currently have a replacement firmware in my Advantage and looking to do the same with the 120, but according to Kinesis themselves the electronics have changed significantly since then.

I've seen the internals of the model 110 I believe and they're quite different, but afaik I'm still looking at a matrix design and a replacement firmware should certainly be doable. Just wondering if anyone have any information on this model? I've read through the big Kinesis thread.

Will provide pictures and internal shots when I get the keyboard.

[stian]

I received the keyboard in the mail and started cleaning it yesterday. It's apparent that it's old and sun exposed. I'm going to try to use retro bright (or a similar concoction) to whiten the plastics.

Please have a look at the Google Photo's album for pictures of the internals and tear down :https://goo.gl/photos/NLiFogjPUmzTxoNm7

This is post cleaning:

[QuincyJones]

The advantage sure has a face only a mother would love, but damn they're comfortable to type on letting your fingers rolll around instead of having to lift. What physical differences are there on old one? I can't see any?

[stian]

Different electronics, different microcontroller, controller board and overall pcb design is different. Newer models are overall more refined (compared to the newer Advantage). Other than that, not much.. The older models have double shot keys. I'm sure there are other differences too, but overall pretty insignificant.

Keyboard works great by the way, I got a PS/2 to USB converter and wired it up with jumper cables to the header on the controller board. I agree they're not exactly sexy keyboards but man, typing on them is like walking on soft clouds and kisses.

[QuincyJones]

There's so much space on the case for 'mods' that I'm tempted, but I'm too scared! I've seen some great hacks at deskthority. I'd like to put a large touch-screen on it for layers / mapping / additional hot keys etc. Those rubber F keys are... unfortunate though.

[stian]

The rubber function keys can easily be replaced with real mechanical switches, at least on this one, the entire F-row can be taken out leaving room for normal keys. You just need the switches and wire, more or less. I'm not sure what the future of this keyboard will be but certainly I'll likely mod this over my other one, but I genuinely appreciate having two keyboards, one at home, one at work, so we'll see.

[zombiegristle]

I know Kinesis says those older ones "may" need refurbishing from them because of hardware iterations they've done since then; you may want to just shoot them an email and get the DL on that, might get some cheap upgrade parts to play with from them. Just watch out for the ribbon cable connections if you get new keywell PCBs for modding; I learned the slow way that they reversed the ZIF connectors on the controller board at some point in the last 14 years or so (mine is 2002 vintage) so I had to fold one end of the ribbon cable over to avoid reversing the pin order and causing some very fascinating symptoms when the keywells were connected.

The case for these is really modder-friendly, so much space to work with. I'm planning to add an internal RFID reader to mine and possibly a trackball between the thumb clusters.

[QuincyJones]

The case for these is really modder-friendly, so much space to work with. I'm planning to add an internal RFID reader to mine and possibly a trackball between the thumb clusters.

Apparently Kinesis are also friendly when it comes to helping modders and will happily answer questions from people wanting to hack it. So huge props to them for that.

[zombiegristle]

The case for these is really modder-friendly, so much space to work with. I'm planning to add an internal RFID reader to mine and possibly a trackball between the thumb clusters.

Apparently Kinesis are also friendly when it comes to helping modders and will happily answer questions from people wanting to hack it. So huge props to them for that.

Yeah, they're staffed by some upstanding folks. When I emailed them asking about switch replacement, they gave me the exact parts I'd need and sold them to me for a song. I think I paid like $40 shipped for both keywell PCBs, ribbon cables, plastic frames, and the PCBs/cables for both thumb clusters. I've been tempted to just order a couple spare sets for future use, they're so cheap.

[stian]

The case for these is really modder-friendly, so much space to work with. I'm planning to add an internal RFID reader to mine and possibly a trackball between the thumb clusters.

Apparently Kinesis are also friendly when it comes to helping modders and will happily answer questions from people wanting to hack it. So huge props to them for that.

Yeah, they're staffed by some upstanding folks. When I emailed them asking about switch replacement, they gave me the exact parts I'd need and sold them to me for a song. I think I paid like $40 shipped for both keywell PCBs, ribbon cables, plastic frames, and the PCBs/cables for both thumb clusters. I've been tempted to just order a couple spare sets for future use, they're so cheap.

Funny you mention that. I've been speaking with their technical support for a bit. They don't have much information on these older models though as most of their manuals date back to 96 (at least digitally).

I'm having a strange issue with it now after I modded a Ps/2 to USB adapter inside. On the left keywell the zxcvb buttons literally are asdf and the N button is upper case, as well as ,. is Shift <>, I suspect something is shorted but I can't find out why or what's causing it. I've gone over the connections and tested the switches with a multimeter, no actual issue with the switches themselves.
I have a DIN5 to PS2 converter in the mail, so will need to try that as well to find out if it's a board issue. Could be that I've screwed something up.. Ironically it worked great yesterday and this morning before bringing it to work.

[zombiegristle]

The case for these is really modder-friendly, so much space to work with. I'm planning to add an internal RFID reader to mine and possibly a trackball between the thumb clusters.

Apparently Kinesis are also friendly when it comes to helping modders and will happily answer questions from people wanting to hack it. So huge props to them for that.

Yeah, they're staffed by some upstanding folks. When I emailed them asking about switch replacement, they gave me the exact parts I'd need and sold them to me for a song. I think I paid like $40 shipped for both keywell PCBs, ribbon cables, plastic frames, and the PCBs/cables for both thumb clusters. I've been tempted to just order a couple spare sets for future use, they're so cheap.

Funny you mention that. I've been speaking with their technical support for a bit. They don't have much information on these older models though as most of their manuals date back to 96 (at least digitally).

I'm having a strange issue with it now after I modded a Ps/2 to USB adapter inside. On the left keywell the zxcvb buttons literally are asdf and the N button is upper case, as well as ,. is Shift <>, I suspect something is shorted but I can't find out why or what's causing it. I've gone over the connections and tested the switches with a multimeter, no actual issue with the switches themselves.
I have a DIN5 to PS2 converter in the mail, so will need to try that as well to find out if it's a board issue. Could be that I've screwed something up.. Ironically it worked great yesterday and this morning before bringing it to work.

I had some similarly-weird issues when I wired up my Gateron mod; turned out I was reversing the pin order on the ZIF ribbons. Maybe you have pins misconnected inside the adapter wiring?

[stian]

I had some similarly-weird issues when I wired up my Gateron mod; turned out I was reversing the pin order on the ZIF ribbons. Maybe you have pins misconnected inside the adapter wiring?

I don't think so, it was working great last night and before biking with it to work. It could be the ribbon cables that have come loose or something. Will need to investigate

[stian]

After going through the wiring probably close to 20 times, checking each and every single trace on the board as well as every switch I found the error actually was with the saved macro's and remapping. It's possible I caused something bad to be written to the on board memory when wiring up the PS/2 to USB adapter, but after resetting the internal storage and remapping the ZXCVB row to itself it works fine again. Phew!

[stian]

Still experiencing some weirdness. The , key will automatically do Shift ,  producing <

Could it be an issue with the onboard memory? I had an issue earlier where right shift was producing left shift as well but it all was sorted out when I reset the onboard memory.. The issue mentioned above also clears itself by resetting the memory. Any tips anyone? I really want to do a firmware replacement on this one but since the onboard microcontroller is vastly different and the PCB vastly different I'm not sure where to start.
I imagine I could use the existing socket and modify a current Kinesis Advantage replacement firmware to match the pinout of the CMOS?

[stian]

Bump? I'm starting to suspect that there's something mechanically wrong with the keyboard. After usage ranging from 5 minutes to an hour the zxcv row becomes zxdc (mirroring the row above was an issue I had early on), and sometimes the on board buzzer will start emitting the clacking sound when you type, as standard on the Kinesis Advantage series.

Could it be the FRAM that's gone bad? I have a logic analyzer, so I could have a look at the output from the on board memory it self. My initial thoughts however is that it could be a bad capacitor causing voltage drops on the FRAM. The FRAM itself is supposed to last 30+ years so we're not quite there yet..

Any other things I can do? I'm fairly certain there's nothing wrong with the connectors nor traces on the PCB's.