Anybody familiar with this chinese IBM keyboard?

[fossala]

Ah, my importer. You don't like this keyboard. Bleh, it sucks.

Someone else got first refusal first. They PM'd me hours ago. I was hoping it would be a model f, but I will see if I like it anyway.

[webwit]

Are model f rare now? They used to grow on trees.

[Half-Saint]

Now they grow on bushes in Australia.

[bhtooefr]

XTs do still grow on trees.

It's the terminals that are rare (especially outside of the US, it seems), and those have always been somewhat uncommon, it's just that before Soarer released his converter firmware, they were also nearly useless (yes, you could install a hacked keyboard driver or recompile your kernel to work with them, but that's a pain), so they had no value.

Because they have a fairly modern layout, though, and are now useful, they have value.

[Icarium]

Can you point me to one such tree please? :p

[bhtooefr]

Plenty of them on eBay US, even some for reasonable prices.

[Icarium]

Yes, but you have to add about $40 for shipping and another 20% import VAT. :/

[fossala]

Anyone in the US recived theirs? Mine is still in Chicago.

[REVENGE]

Just got it about a minute ago. I'll un-box in about half an hour. It came directly in the original IBM box.

[REVENGE]

These alps (pic is not of this specific board)(pic courtesy of HaaTa):

Parak (and HaaTa) were, of course, spot on. Linear old style ALPS, and the board itself appears to be ALPS OEM. NEC controller. Speaker on the bottom with what might be a volume adjustment knob + pot on the right side. Caps are your standard variety spherical double-shot with the big cruciform stem that appears to be compatible with vintage / industrial Cherry/ etc. as well.

Plug suspiciously resembles that of a particular IBM terminal, so I think bhtooefr's hunch is probably correct as well. It seems that the trend of IBM using Asian OEMs and parts instead of their own buckling spring design for boards in that market continues to hold true.

I'd take pics, but my DSLR's battery is dead at the moment. Dis-assembly was a cinch.

EDIT: Uh oh, I just realized that the board I have is slightly different than the one pictured in the listing. The part numbers are different and the characters and radicals on the key caps are different. I suspect I may have a Japanese part rather than a Chinese part. The un-boxing instructions use both Chinese characters (汉字) and hiragana/katakana. It also says "ENTER" on the board in English.

[Parak]

There are at least two boards like this with slightly different part numbers; one is chinese other is japanese. Seller likely only read one and assumed the rest to be identical. I have a chinese one FWIW.

[fossala]

Just got it about a minute ago. I'll un-box in about half an hour. It came directly in the original IBM box.

He repacked mine on request.

[fossala]

Just paid import tax on mine 20gbp ($32) on a $25... It will be with me on Wednesday as I have to go to hospital tomorrow so I wouldn't be in.

[Soarer]

Yeah, I had to pay about 14.50 GBP. Bloody customs sticking a random amount on

Arrived double-packed, although just with the IBM box rattling around in a bigger box with some token packing thrown in.

The IBM box is still stealed with original tape, maybe I'll hold a fire-lit ceremony on the 21st to open it