Smith-Corona Ultrasonic I Plus

HaaTa · 13 Sep 2014, 20:18

If there is any keyboard that defines 2014, it's this one.
When I went to WierdStuff (Sunnyvale, CA) with damienG (mostly on GH), I bought this pleasantly clicky typewriter.
I wasn't sure what was in it, but didn't matter, it clicked

Smith-Corona Ultrasonic I Plus by triplehaata, on Flickr

It sat in my apartment for a few weeks until I had some time to figure out what really made it click. They typewriter worked perfectly, but I needed to dismantle it. For science

I'll leave the surprise till the end of the post, but try and figure out how it works just by looking at the pics. I nearly shat my pants when I realized it.

Smith-Corona Ultrasonic I Plus by triplehaata, on Flickr

Smith-Corona Ultrasonic I Plus by triplehaata, on Flickr

The simplicity of the controller is the first hint. Oh, and those big things, high wattage resistors.

Smith-Corona Ultrasonic I Plus by triplehaata, on Flickr

Smith-Corona Ultrasonic I Plus by triplehaata, on Flickr

You've already seen the connectors to the keyboard. Your first guess, don't worry it's wrong.

The next pictures are just of the keyboard portion. Nothing is missing. This alone is sufficient to create a keyboard with a Teensy.

Smith-Corona Ultrasonic I Plus by triplehaata, on Flickr

Smith-Corona Ultrasonic I Plus by triplehaata, on Flickr

You've seen everything you need to know to figure it out.
Still not enough? Perhaps a video will help you ring some sense into it

Spoiler:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/triplehaa ... 9444527936

rindorbrot · 13 Sep 2014, 20:20

It's one of these days where HaaTa spams the Pictures subforum, those are great days!

Nuum · 13 Sep 2014, 20:48

Those days really are great, especially when something like this comes up, with such a weird activation mechanism.

nourathar · 13 Sep 2014, 21:06

excellent !

BlueBär · 13 Sep 2014, 21:20

That's an amazing mechanism

Hak Foo · 22 Nov 2014, 07:07

Side note... I recently found an Ultrasonic II Dual Pitch at the local thrift shop. It looks very similar externally, but the key mechanism is definitely different. The cap stems are cruciform, there's a spring under each cap, and it gave me the distinct impression of a noxious VIC-20 style board. From feeling underneath it, it's definitely nowhere near as thick as the assembly you have. I haven't figured out how to disassemble it (since I sort of wanted it AS a typewriter), but I don't think it uses the same exotic mechanism.

Interestingly, a handful of keys-- those which are likely to auto-repeat, like period and space bar-- appear to have discrete switches. They're all white, linear, no exposed spring-- the overall look is sort of like SMK Vintage Linear, but the stem is cruciform, but the horizontal part is about twenty percent narrower than the vertical part,