Unicomp red escape keys

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I was discussing with Jim at Unicomp what my options are for keycap colours, and he attached a chart of available colours for (I think), the square keys only:



I'm going to ask him about whether he'd take orders for single red escape keys – I would imagine he would. I will be grabbing one if possible.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Wait, you have a whole stash of red escape keys for Unicomps?

Oops, didn't see the image in the notification e-mail :-) Did you order that whole stash from Unicomp? The advantage of them making one is that it should have Esc printed on it -- the blank, red keycap from The Keyboard Company in the UK just looks silly. (Though I'd ask for PANIC written on it instead of Esc.)

I'd like a keyboard with all 80–90% grey keycaps, but it doesn't look as though you have anywhere enough ultra dark grey ones to make up a whole keyboard, so I may have to settle on pebble grey, which is the darkest grey on offer. I think the black/very dark grey subtlety would look really nice.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I should ask for F1–F12 to be orange, as an homage to the BBC Micro. They don't have a suitable dark olive green for the arrow keys though.

Something like this, with apologies to kliclak:



Don't know whether Unicomp would let me have the red LEDs. From what I can see of the Customizer's case, this should be possible too:



(Edit: nope, it's not, not without paint anyway)

I wonder if Fentek could do the appropriate shade of olive drab for the arrow keys?

[ch_123]

I should ask for F1–F12 to be orange, as an homage to the BBC Micro. They don't have a suitable dark olive green for the arrow keys though.

If they could do that italicized F, that would be awesome.

Also, a backspace with the Selectric symbol -

[sethstorm]

You can also order a printed one at Unicomp, as shown elsewhere on this site by skcheng.

Which post are you referring to?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Ah, looks like the beige and black won't work. Too bad -- I think it would be a bit garish, and I plan on getting a Spacesaver anyway, even if the Customizer looks "designed" -- it's a lot more attractive.

(Oops, see pics added to previous post.)

[ricercar]

Seems appropriate to say thank you to skcheng for the red ESC key. S: I was expecting a Cherry; am VERY pleased to have a Model M red ESC key!

EDIT

[sethstorm]

Here.

Thanks.  Looks good, if only a bit hard to read.

[Half-Saint]

Actually Unicomp guys are pretty cool and Chuck seems to be very cooperative I recently ordered five printed red Esc keys as well as some printed lavender keys Will see what they look like when then get here.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I looked around their site previously and didn't see any suggestion that red keys were available, printed or otherwise.

What I really want, is white printed letters, but that would require a custom order of minimum 100 keyboards; nor do very grey keycaps.

In particular, I want the function keys labelled f0–f11, as the BBC Micro curiously numbered the function keys f0–f9, with white lettering on the bright orange keys.

Since I can't order anything remotely like what I want from Unicomp, I need to decide what the closest is that I want. I don't really like blank keys, and I can't have any dark keys, so I don't know.

I hope that I can at least have red LEDs.

[ch_123]

They're sorta like Cherry keycaps, except the cross is much wider...

[Half-Saint]

You can replace the LEDs yourself. As for the "white print on red" idea, I would like that too but it can't be ordered from Unicomp... maybe someone else can do it.

[ch_123]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong - but isn't the problem here that dye sublimation with white text doesn't work well? Or is it dye subbing onto dark colours?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

What about finding a way to mount the BBC keys on your IBM.

The keyboard layout is completely different, physically and in terms of labelling -- there isn't even a shifted form of 0 or @ as both keys are single symbol only. The keys are the wrong size and shape, and many keys don't exist, such as F11 and F12, alt, Win, pause, print screen, insert or backspace.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

You can replace the LEDs yourself. As for the "white print on red" idea, I would like that too but it can't be ordered from Unicomp... maybe someone else can do it.

I know it's possible, but I'm not a practical person, and the last thing I want to do to an expensive new keyboard is destroy it with my first attempt to solder anything in 14 years (and I sucked at it even then, at school).

I know a lot of people here are adept at this sort of thing, but I'm not, and I'd rather have the manufacturer build the keyboard to order. It's just that I tend to want things different to what's available.

Now, I am very happy with how FILCO keyboards look, but they just have no feeling, while the Spacesaver I got (and gave away) must be the best keyboard I've ever used. I just want one that's actually attractive :-)

[clickclack]

You can replace the LEDs yourself. As for the "white print on red" idea, I would like that too but it can't be ordered from Unicomp... maybe someone else can do it.

hmmm... maybe...

Someone correct me if I'm wrong - but isn't the problem here that dye sublimation with white text doesn't work well? Or is it dye subbing onto dark colours?

basically, its just not that effective.

It would be like RIT dying your keys white.  Like impossible....

Pretty much,  however just for giggles I  think a homogeneous mixture (colloidial type) of sub micron metalic particles under pressure with an alkiline base pigment would probably do the trick... anyone? Well I don't have the equipment on me, so...
=)

I am currently testing a new bonding technique for putting legends on keys (more like in the key though). It's essentially thicker than dye sub and more dense, but not as thick as say dual shot. The problem I am having atm is getting any kind of consistency with it. The smaller the legend (design/logo/illustration, yes I said illustration) the harder it is to keep the tolerances. I am going to keep working on I though. =)

[EverythingIBM]

I was discussing with Jim at Unicomp what my options are for keycap colours, and he attached a chart of available colours for (I think), the square keys only:



I'm going to ask him about whether he'd take orders for single red escape keys – I would imagine he would. I will be grabbing one if possible.

COOL! Lavender key caps! Ya' know what would be really cool? Getting black key caps for everything, and then two lavender enter keys
With a black case of course.
So I can take ripster's idea here:

Get all black keycaps, with lavender enter keys, and voila, IBM "black" business style.

[clickclack]

Hey webwit,
does it make us sick, evil, or awesome that we have keyboards that look like a bag of skittles ralphed all over it?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

COOL! Lavender key caps! Ya' know what would be really cool? Getting black key caps for everything, and then two lavender enter keys

As I understand it, only the square keys (if this is what he means by "single unit") can be coloured; Jim wrote:

Yes, we can make all the single unit one color, but what color would you want the other buttons?  Most of the control buttons (windows, shift, backspace etc) are only available in metallic gray, Pebble gray or black

Obviously this hasn't stopped webwit, but he may have sourced his keys from Fentek where this restriction does not apply.

[Half-Saint]

Has anybody tried to apply Letraset to blank keys? Should be ok with a layer of clearcoat..

[skcheng]

As I understand it, only the square keys (if this is what he means by "single unit") can be coloured; Jim wrote:



Obviously this hasn't stopped webwit, but he may have sourced his keys from Fentek where this restriction does not apply.

Unicomp can provided printed keycaps for just about any color.   I was waiting to see my dye sublimated black keycaps (Chucky tells me it didn't work.....but it didn't work for Re^lforce either LOL) before posting a thread on what I was able to get.

The problem is that not all keys are available.  The space bar for example is only available in certain color.  Black and beige.   And certain keys aren't available in certain colors.   No red caps lock.  And no "nibbed" colored F and J keys.  

Anyway, I have full Space Saving keysets in blue, red, and orange.  The colors are really bright and somewhat distratcing.  I now know why there aren't more keyboards with all yellow printed keys and I've actually grown to respect the IBM beige/grey more for it's subtle functionality.    A Space Saving Mini with blank beige/grey keys is simply gorgeous in my humble opinion.  

And yes, you can order printed Esc keys.   It turns a .25 key into a $2 key, but it's well worth it.  You'll get a dye sublimated genuine Model M key that will hold up to all kinds of abuse forever.  

skc

[Daniel Beardsmore]

No I got these from Unicomp. Leftovers from POS and custom boards.

Well, it does indicate that the green is far too bright for what I was thinking, and the orange is a bit bright too.

[ch_123]

Yeah, the BBC's keys are more a bright red than an orange -

[kishy]

Lavender has to be the ugliest colour for a keyboard key...unless the rest of the board and keys are black, of course.

[EverythingIBM]

Lavender has to be the ugliest colour for a keyboard key...unless the rest of the board and keys are black, of course.

There are the "ancient sage" variants of IBM keyboards which had dark grey keys and a sort of weird dark blue lavender colour for the enter keys.

[ch_123]

[quadibloc]

And yes, you can order printed Esc keys.   It turns a .25 key into a $2 key, but it's well worth it.  You'll get a dye sublimated genuine Model M key that will hold up to all kinds of abuse forever.

I am very interested, now that I have heard this. While I may still have to be judicious in my choice of colors, not having the ability to get exactly what I want, still, it should be possible to obtain an equivalent of the kind of functional coloring scheme I prefer...