deskthority

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taylorswiftttttt wrote:

Harshmallow wrote: This weekend is turning out to potentially be another good IBM day for me - don't wanna jinx anything so I'll post more next week lol.

On a Beamspring, SSK, 4704 level?

elecplus wrote:

andrewjoy wrote: i call the 104s

You must have liked the unsavers from the group buy?

I already craved one but that just made me want one more.

taylorswiftttttt wrote:

Harshmallow wrote: This weekend is turning out to potentially be another good IBM day for me - don't wanna jinx anything so I'll post more next week lol.

On a Beamspring, SSK, 4704 level?

No not quite. I'm not as fanatical about the Beamspring or SSK. I definitely want to add them to my collection, but in due time. I'd probably take a 4704 before a beamspring too - especially the F77 or F107. I'm going on a bit of a road trip tomorrow. I'll write more after that depending on the condition of the stuff I'm looking at. It's not a big haul at all, just a couple items for me - so please, no one get overly excited haha.

Couple photos of the result of my road trip today

Mmm, IBM P70.. Nice finds!

Harshmallow wrote: Couple photos of the result of my road trip today

Hey, I need less vintage computer collectors around here! (the Toronto area I mean) I like the Panasonic. I don't have one yet.

Back on topic, I found this little beauty that is "farm fresh". Needs a bit if a clean up but should arrive tomorrow...

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!!

And it looks like you have the whole diagnostics station to go with it? Interesting.

Congrats snuci, that's some find!

snuci. Please.

Darkshado wrote: !!And it looks like you have the whole diagnostics station to go with it? Interesting.

That is a bit of as sore spot for me.

I did find the whole system but this is the first time I've personally separated a keyboard from it's computer and I'm not happy about it. Shipping the computer/monitor was just not feasible because of various factors including the size and weight for shipping and the collectibility factor. I am not a "cat lady" who will take any stray that walks in but i will do my best to do whatever I can for the interesting ones.

In this case, the original owner was looking for any offer at all on the complete Mopar Diagnostic System. It was on Craigslist for over two months with no offers. I did my best but it was just not practical to take the whole thing. However, all is not lost quite yet as I will be getting all of the software and documentation and even the VHS set-up tape to see if the computer is an particular model of IBM I can identify. The entire system is IBM, not just the keyboard.

snuci wrote:

Harshmallow wrote: Couple photos of the result of my road trip today

Hey, I need less vintage computer collectors around here! (the Toronto area I mean) I like the Panasonic. I don't have one yet.

Back on topic, I found this little beauty that is "farm fresh". Needs a bit if a clean up but should arrive tomorrow...

Spoiler:

IBM_Mopar_SSK_1200x900.jpg

Don't worry, I'll likely never be any competition haha. I can't really manage to work on more than a collection of keyboards and portables/luggables with a basement apartment anyway, but I do what I can and don't like separating vintage computers from their peripherals if I don't need to.

That's quite a find though with that industrial SSK! I could see why getting the whole MOPAR terminal would be tough, it's huge.

Wow snuci ! Congrats you desserve it fully.

snuci wrote: I am not a "cat lady" who will take any stray that walks in but i will do my best to do whatever I can for the interesting ones.

I hear ya, there are limits to what we can do as individuals with our collections, be it because of space, money, or common sense

Was this from a Chrysler dealer in some capacity, or say, a K-Car enthusiast? I did drive an Aries once, poor thing, you could see the pavement rushing by through a hole in the floor!

(I wonder how many such units might still be out there, waiting to be found)

Harshmallow wrote: Couple photos of the result of my road trip today

I have a P70 with the same carry case, not quite as mint as yours though.

Which switches does the Panasonic Exec. Partner have?

Darkshado wrote: Was this from a Chrysler dealer in some capacity, or say, a K-Car enthusiast? I did drive an Aries once, poor thing, you could see the pavement rushing by through a hole in the floor!

(I wonder how many such units might still be out there, waiting to be found)

This one was purchased by someone who got it from a dealership that was being sold off. I would think that the obsoleted diagnostic machines would have been replaced and destroyed. I think you'll only find these in odd circumstances. This was a private buyer who had it in his garage for a while and decided he needed the room. I doubt there are many of these systems still floating around but it's just a guess, on my part.

Just bought a nice HHKB Pro 2 for a decent price (£170)
How hard is it to get used to the backspace being in a strange location?

It's not that hard. Trouble begins when returning to a common ANSI/ISO board.

alh84001 wrote: It's not that hard. Trouble begins when returning to a common ANSI/ISO board.

Ha, that's the same for me. After a weekend at home with the HHKB coming back to work, I need some hours to get used to the normal ANSI boards I use there!

I just ended up using AutoHotKey to remap backspace to backslash for all my keyboards.

2 5251 beamsprings... 114$ shipped

Among some other things, I have in the mail a fairly cheap 1391401 with unusual keycaps. RGB legends for the mods!



The use of standard Helvetica for the legends of the nonstandard caps made me initially think Unicomp as the OEM; however, this 1391401 was manufactured in 1992 and apparently in storage for "many years". The seller could not offer a solid figure as to how long. The keycap color looks like the proper pebble as well!

Does anyone know if they could have been done by Fentek, Hooleon, or some other company?

With that potato photo it's impossible to say. Send more when it arrives.

41 different types of Clare/Pendar switch, covering pretty much the entire range and more (there are at at least two types not covered by the catalogue).

31 types from NSI in Belgium, all unlisted old stock; it's taken since October to arrange getting these:
10 types from STRONIC in France:
Neither company had SIL (low-profile illuminated), but I got some SIL 1101 from 10ko in Bulgaria and I'm still arranging getting his other type, SIL 1104 (heavy type, also not in the catalogue), for a grand total of 43 types, ironically all never seen in one single keyboard ever.

I was going to keep these largely secret until I'd completed the principal photography, but I am not sure what I'll be photographing any more.

The big ones also don't want to come apart — I tried to get apart one of the more interesting ones and scuffed it instead. It seems like a huge amount of force is required to force in the retaining tabs that hold on the base. The small ones come apart fairly easily.

In total:

Clare SF 1101, SF 1501, SF 2101, SF 2102, SF 5000, SF 5001, SF 5102, SF 5501, SF 6011, SF 6101
Pendar SF 1103, SF 1111, SF 2105
Clare SG 1101, SG 5101, SG2101
Pendar SG 5103
Clare SH5101
Clare SI 11L1, SI 1502
Pendar SI 1503, SI 2104, SI 5104
Pendar SIX 5105
Pendar SK 1104

Clare SFL 1501, SFL 3501, SFL 5101, SFL 5501, SFL 6101, SFL 6102
Pendar SFL 5103, SFL 5502, SFL 6102
Clare SGL 1101, SGL 1102, SGL 3103, SGL 5102, SGL 6102
Pendar SGL 5101
Pendar SIL1101

That's a truckload of knowledge.

Almost the entire range is already understood from the catalogue. Type SIX isn't known, and I don't yet know what makes it different. An L in the second pole position is also new. Weight 4 isn't documented for S*L and weight 5 is undocumented entirely (as you'd imagine, it's heavier than 4).

Many of them were made by Clare but branded Pendar, and I'm guessing that a load of surplus parts were transferred from Clare to Pendar/CEDI/ESM (whoever it was at the time) when Clare's Belgium factory closed. The Pendar name was retained even when Pendar became CEDI and then ESM, before closing for good in late 2015.

The S*L types can be damped either with a rubber mat (as per the North American Series S880) or with a set of six damper arms on the slider, two large for the downstroke and four small for the upstroke. Omron don't refer back to any Clare/Pendar/GI patents for their reimplementation in B3K (Romer-G) so maybe it was never patented.

The large types, I don't presently plan to disassemble due to the risk of cosmetic damage that would upset any photos, as I only have one or two per type. They'll remain a mystery for the foreseeable future.

ohaimark wrote: With that potato photo it's impossible to say. Send more when it arrives.

The keyboard arrived yesterday and got it cleaned up by today. Came out very well. Apologize in advance for the still somewhat potato-y photos:





Got it mainly for these (note that the Alts are original IBM keycaps):



The keycaps are definitely not IBM/Lexmark nor Unicomp, the molds are unlike anything I've ever seen. So maybe Hooleon or Fentek? Hoping someone can shed some light on this. The custom keycaps do appear to be meant for some terminal emulator though.

Biggest surprise was this:
More photos of the custom keys below:
EDIT: Added an additional photo.

I bought those beauties:
They seems to be Tesla keyboard with reed switches (this review convinced me to buy them).

I bought those for a summer project: I want to make new housing for them and maybe make them work with a modern PC if I feel crazy enough.

I bought a giant metal box!
I don't plan to fill it with keyboards as it can get quite hot in there in the summertime. I do plan to move a bunch of stuff out of the garage so I can move the keyboards into the garage.