Hello Folks, need some newbie suggestions

[cowboysfan]

Got myself an IBM Model M a few months ago. It's a unicomp version so not a classic. Got it for about 40 bucks. I love the buckling springs. Poor quality photo but great keyboard.


I'm looking to make some modifications to the KB. First I wanna add some EL wire under the keycaps to illuminate it. I really wanted to make it backlit( but don't think that'll happen). But from a quick google perusal, the EL wire illuminating looks great on some kbs but others looks crappy. Any tips on pulling it off?

I also want to change up the colors on the keycaps. Where can i get keycaps for the model M. Another option is for me to dye it. But i'm looking for new caps and haven't found much luck.

[mike52787]

If you like your model M, you'd love a model F, a true classic ) As for the caps, if youre interested in blanks, unicomp will sell you full blank sets. I dont know a thing about the el strips, but it interests me. Im not a huge fan of backlighting, but I think a backlit m would look cool

[rowdy]

Welcome to Geekhack!

Nice keyboard, and USB built-in?  One up on the classic Model M

There's a thread about backilghting a Model M, with a link to one that Phosphorglow partly backlit, might give you some inspiration.

There's also this page that talks about making a backlit keyboard with EL wire: http://lifehacker.com/5609060/make-your-own-backlit-keyboard

[cowboysfan]

Nah, Usb Isn't built in. It's an adapter. I considered modding it to be bluetooth, but then i realized how heavy this thing is and i'd get nearly no benefit with BT. I'll be sure to try out EL wire soon. Will post pictures. 

[xtrafrood]

$40 Unicomp huh? You can't really go wrong with some EL wire. If you happen to mess up the case while modding you can always buy a shell from Unicomp. Welcome

[rowdy]

Nah, Usb Isn't built in. It's an adapter. I considered modding it to be bluetooth, but then i realized how heavy this thing is and i'd get nearly no benefit with BT. I'll be sure to try out EL wire soon. Will post pictures. 

There's enough room in the case for a BT adaptor and some batteries, but you'd have to open the case each time to change the batteries, and it's definitely not facilitating portability )

[cowboysfan]

Nah, Usb Isn't built in. It's an adapter. I considered modding it to be bluetooth, but then i realized how heavy this thing is and i'd get nearly no benefit with BT. I'll be sure to try out EL wire soon. Will post pictures. 

There's enough room in the case for a BT adaptor and some batteries, but you'd have to open the case each time to change the batteries, and it's definitely not facilitating portability )

yup exactly. If it were an HHKB for example i'd definitely mod it to have a bluetooth chip. I'd probably add a li-poly battery and a microusb charging port. No batteries to change.

in other news i bought myself some EL tape. It's gonna be a fun little project. I gotta figure out how to cut this stuff though. It's too wide to fit in between rows.

[rowdy]

Nah, Usb Isn't built in. It's an adapter. I considered modding it to be bluetooth, but then i realized how heavy this thing is and i'd get nearly no benefit with BT. I'll be sure to try out EL wire soon. Will post pictures. 

There's enough room in the case for a BT adaptor and some batteries, but you'd have to open the case each time to change the batteries, and it's definitely not facilitating portability )

yup exactly. If it were an HHKB for example i'd definitely mod it to have a bluetooth chip. I'd probably add a li-poly battery and a microusb charging port. No batteries to change.

in other news i bought myself some EL tape. It's gonna be a fun little project. I gotta figure out how to cut this stuff though. It's too wide to fit in between rows.

There's a Bluetooth mod or two for the HHKB, and also an HHKB with native Bluetooth now, although I understand that you do have to change batteries on it.