Model M keyboard from 1986. I got it working on my modern PC!
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- čas přidán 11. 05. 2024
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My new keyboard is nearly as old as I am!
In this exciting episode of Veronica Explains, I share my most recent vintage computing find, an actual factual IBM Model M keyboard!
This keyboard - an IBM Model M 1390131 to be precise - is a legend for excellent feel and longevity- this one is from 1986 and feels (and sounds) like a dream. The retro computing community loves this keyboard for good reason!
It's not just show-and-tell in today's episode, though- I'll be going into how I got it set up with my modern USB-only computer using a Soarer's Converter- an excellent adapter which lets me remap keys, program macros, and other fun stuff.
With this awesome adapter, you can easily remap keys on your Model M, and it works on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
It's super neat and I hope you enjoy it!
Links referenced in the video:
🛍️ eBay store where I bought the converter: www.ebay.com/str/barcodemaverick
📌 Very helpful website which explains how the Soarer's Converter works: sharktastica.co.uk/guides/soa...
✈️ Geekhack with Soarer: geekhack.org/index.php?topic=...
🔩 GeekHack wiki bolt mod: wiki.geekhack.org/index.php?t...
🦐 PJRC's Teensy adapter: www.pjrc.com/store/teensy.html
👂 PJRC's HID Listen: www.pjrc.com/teensy/hid_liste...
⭐ Adafruit pinout for AT connector: learn.adafruit.com/convert-yo...
Commands:
Packages needed for Linux users:
Fedora: `sudo dnf install libstdc++.i686 libusb-compat-0.1.i686`
Ubuntu: `sudo apt install libusb-1.1-4:i386`
Soarer's Converter tools format:
First, create a binary with `./scas [layout file] [target binary]`
Second, flash the binary with `./scwr [binary created with scas]`
Chapters:
00:00 Introducing my Model M
00:46 History of the Model M
04:34 Price and comparison with Unicomp
05:54 How'd I get my Model M?
09:48 Cleanup Montage
11:12 Why use a Soarer's Converter?
14:41 Remapping keys with the Soarer's Converter
21:06 Is the Soarer's Converter worth it?
22:32 Ask Veronica
#ibm #retrocomputing #keyboard - Věda a technologie
Admiral Shark here! Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad my site's content was helpful! It always means a lot to hear my work has helped someone.
Oh my wow, thank you for the awesome site! It really is helpful and I highly recommend it!!
@@VeronicaExplains my apologies I was zapping on the 24 minute video, I guess I mised those three seconds you were typing! :)
Your site has been an invaluable repository of information for me as well, and it's aesthetically pleasing to boot. I don't know of another with such an exhaustive catalogue of models. Thanks.
@@VeronicaExplains Thank you! :)
@@bsadewitz Thank you for your kind words, glad you liked it!
The ironic thing about this is back in the day, when I owned and used an IBM XT, PC magazines of the time had numerous advertisements and reviews of alternate keyboards. Not everyone liked the original keyboard at the time. Now they are nostalgic and in demand. It's a little bit like old camera lenses that had various optical flaws, reviled by their owners at the time, but now sought after to recreate and remember the "character" of the old lenses.
I never was much of a fan of the Model M, tho I had at one time accumulated a hefty stash of 'em from dumpster-diving at work. I like a bit less resistance when I type, and my wife hated the noise (an issue when you're up half the night trying to fix stuff at work from your desk at home!) I've managed to build up a healthy stock of later membrane IBM 'boards, some ps/2 and some USB, which should last me 'til I run down the curtain and join the Choir Invisible.
Back in the day PC Magazine and PC Shopper gushed over the NorthGate keyboard which took the IBM PC and AT keyboard layouts and basically combined them giving you a bunch of keys where the XT function keys were (far left) as well as the row of function keys at the top. They gushed over it's utility and the fact that it had just MORE keys. I think they had Macro capability on these extra keys. There are gaming keyboards in the modern era that to me seem like descendants of the Northgate OmniKey keyboard. If I could find a nice working OmniKey at a good price, I'd jump on it, for the pure nostalgia. I had one back in the day.
The “Open Apple” terminology comes from the Apple II line, where there were “open apple” (an outline of the logo) and “closed apple” (filled in logo) modifier keys. Some early ADB keyboard are used on both Macs and the IIGS, so had both symbols.
The Apple key got replaced with the knot Command symbol on the Mac 128k. Steve Jobs saw an Apple logo as part of every keyboard shortcut listed in the menu, declared “We’re using the Apple logo in vain,” and had Susan Kare come up with an alternative. She found the ⌘ symbol in an international symbol dictionary. It comes from Sweden, where it’s used on road signs and maps to mark a point of interest or a campground.
I did not know that. I never knew what the heck that ⌘ glyph was for. I mean I know it means "Command" but it's a dumb/unexplained bit of Mac cult.
That's pretty cool.
I don't have any words of wisdom about your keyboard; I just want to say how cool it is that you found a Model M! My Dad had an IBM computer (not an AT) in the mid '80s and we had a keyboard just like that. Awesome channel!
Hearing someone refer to the command key as the Open-Apple key unlocked a whole bunch of memories! I remember teaching my fourth grade friends what copy and paste was, and them chanting "Open-Apple X, Open-Apple C, Open-Apple V, V, V!" like a rap song 😂 must have been around 2004. The school had a room crammed with Bondi blue iMacs loaded up with the At Ease launcher (to stop people like me from missing with the settings... I used to get around it anyway 😅) and a bunch of edutainment games!
I always snap back to computer lab with the Apple II, learning how to type on some Word Processor, and the teacher talking repeatedly saying "Open-Apple-S will save to disk" to all of the kids. In my mind it'll just always be "Open-Apple" and not Command. :)
Bought one back in the nineties in CompUSA for 99 dollars... and rescued some from my old job that were going to the trash. Still in use today daily.
Just found your channel recently, and I love the videos! I just bought a Unicomp Model M a few days ago, and am so excited to see it arrive. Can't wait to see more videos in the near future!
Love the editing in this video, the new intro rocks aswell!
Really huge thanks for going through this. Finally got to prodding around on this project for my Model M, and you REALLLY helped. Much appreciated! (:
The classic keyboard really brings a satisfying experience of its own. But it also could test the relationship with your partner 😄
Oh yes. That's why I have two keyboards at my desk! 😂
your content arrived in Brazil and hit me hard. thank you so much for these wonderful videos.
I always enjoy your videos so much. Very informative for the enthusiasts. Thank you
I had one of these keyboards growing up and your channel makes me nostalgic.
You're so agnostic, potent and to the point! Probably one of my favorite linux channels, hat's off my dear.
Great video, go ahead with the modifications when you rebuild this keyboard ! Always enjoy your content.
How did I not find this channel earlier, this is my favorite kind of content. Awesome stuff!
I worked on IBM mainframes for decades. I had a few of these over the years; I think I finally got rid of the last one a few years ago. I believe these keyboards were very similar to the ones supplied with the old 3278 and 3279 terminals, at least as regards to the actual build quality. I wrote a lot of COBOL code back in the '70s & '80s!
I dunno about the comparison to the 327x keyboards. I never had to do the "pick it up a foot or so and drop it" repair (keys on the 327x keyboards would get stuck if the keyboard got dirty or had something spilled on it, and picking it up and dropping it would invariably unstick the stuck keys) with a Model M.
I discovered your channel today. I love your content! Best wishes to You, for continued success! From London, Ontario, Canada.
Lovely keyboard thanks for the video really enjoying your uploads
thank you so much for making this video
Just found your channel. I love your delivery and video editing. You got another sub.
Your t-shirt is absolutely brilliant! Love it!
Finally you're back! This is not just about the writing experience. But also that look! and that clicky sound. Sure the Unicomp is a good keyboard, it just doesn't sound right. The model M was the first keyboard I ever used, on THE AT and then ps2. I still miss that keyboard. It was is the definition of the PC keyboard. I wonder how much impact the IBM typewriters had on the design. Those typewriters had marvelous keyboards. Thank you for another great video. ❤️
Love the history lesson here! Please do more!
I love how you cite your sources in the correct format by including the date and stuff. Very cool.
I happen to have two PS/2 models M’s. One made in May 1987 and the other made in 1992/1993.
I use one and have been keeping the other as spare parts, but now I may try and offload one so I can spring (punny) for a Unicomp version. I can’t imagine it would be substantially different.
That's a great pun. And some folks say the Unicomp ones are very different, others disagree. Totally depends on your perspective and comparison, I suppose. I'm no expert, but my understanding (could be wrong) is that Unicomp's designs are based around the later models, which are different from the early ones. Lighter, different key feel, etc. Again, I might be wrong- sources are *highly opinionated* and I tend to just say "use what you like".
What I like about my Unicomp is the super/menu keys and the USB. Keyfeel is similar, although this IBM Model M certainly feels like I'm pushing "less hard" to actuate a keystroke (although not significantly less).
@@VeronicaExplains I have both. The Unicomp ones have an all-in-one keycap/stem. You can't swap the keycaps the way you demoed in the video, and I don't think the sound is quite the same, but the feel is nice!
P.S. This was the first video of yours I found, and I very much enjoyed it! So cool that you're doing COBOL. Very few people know where the 80 column limit came from-one Python job I had enforced the PEP-8 style, which limits line length to 80 characters, and when I joked that we were writing punchcard-compliant code, I just got blank stares!
The Unicomp i bought is now dead after 3 years. Some of the scanlines seem to be broken.
It had the same feeling but the mechanical quality is not the same as the original.
So i am back on the original M without extra keys.
I have 2 M's and i hope i can use at least one of them until my retirement.
I hope the 87 one is the daily driver. There's no reason to sell an original to get a Unicomp if there's nothing wrong with it.
They are most like the later Model Ms because Unicomp was founded by former IBM employees and were manufacturing Model Ms for IBM after they stopped making them themselves and sold their tooling to Unicomp.
Never had one of these myself, IIRC, but a bit before I moved to PCs from a C-64, friend of mine had an IBM XT and the moments we spent smashing that keyboard definitely still bring a tear to my eye. Just seeing the keyb fills me with joy. Remembering games like Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego, alllll the Sierra games, Eye of the Beholder etc. A+ memories.
Love this video, it has all the snark and I am here for it!
Thank you!!!
Actual the best feature of the soarers converter is supporting the terminal keyboards (layer 3 protocol). For normal model M it is a bit of overkill, as the DIN->PS/2 adaper and a PS/2->USB adaper work quite well and are extremly cheap (or still flying around anyways). So if you do not need makros or remapping, that might be the way to go (esp. if not changing the keyboard between different OS or computers).
But terminal keyboards are a totaly other world - and sometimes a lot cheaper. I spend about 40€ a few years ago in good condition, while the normal model M already passed the 150€ mark. Soarer's converter was not available as "ready 2 use" solution back than. I had to solder it myself using a Teensy. But it worked perfectly. As I am from germany, many symbols often used are not available on normal keyboards - like the typographicly correct quotation marks. While using word, you can set an option to automaticly replace normal quotation marks by typographicly correct ones for the german language. But sadly, it becomes hard to use the normal quotation marks than (for code f.e.). So with all those extra keys, it was easy to set them to macros, to simply send the alt+keyboard number unicode. So no need to remap anything, as there are a lot of extra function keys. Of course, if you do not have this specific problem, I would still recomend to use terminal keyboards for example for OBS. Just use the extra function keys for switching scenes. Pretty usefull, as you do not need fancy combinations as hotkey, still can use the keybord for normal typing but call scenes without problems by one keystroke. As I used an old version I do not know if there is a function to make use of the unused I/Os, but it would actualy nice to trigger a KMV-switch by the capslock key, to use the keyboard on two computers....
Wow thank you so much! I was thinking about getting a terminal/RJ45 connector Model M but I was unsure if it works with modern computers. Hopefully a Soarer converter would work as you say!
Your videos just keep getting better.
I once worked on the original IBM PC AT with Model M keyboard - now use a Logitech G series mechanical keyboard - love the clack but at work for courtesy to my colleagues is a MS Keyboard.
Thanks for more excellent content.
This video was excellent, I really enjoyed watching it. You have some very extensive knowledge about these keyboards.
On the subject of bolt modding, I would only recommend it if the plastic rivets have broken off. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it since a bolt mod doesn't really affect keyfeel, it's more of a repair.
I first used one of these keyboards back on 1989, when the company I worked for got me a new PS/2 Model 70 (top of the line, with an 8514/A graphics card for a whooping 1024 x 768 resolution :) ... I kept that keyboard for many many years, carrying it on to the newer PCs that the company used over the years, no newere keyboard was better and the windows key didn't meant much to me. When I retired, I did so with that keeyboard among my stuff, and used it for many more years on my home PC, until recently, when motherboards dispensed with the PS/2 interface .. it was really durable, lasting in constant use for over 25 years. Love your channel btw. Cheers!
Thank you so much!
Thanks for the video ! 🙂
very good, as always. Thank You
Love this channel, have learned some things I never heard on other sites.
I will now have to do this with my old IBM key board just because it can be done.
I was told that COBOL and Fortran was still used because of the accuracy of the mathematical computation that is necessary
in things like aerospace and banking, where even a small rounding of numbers will become a big problem.
The bean-counters love having their software in COBOL on IBM mainframes because the S/360 and its descendants have BCD math capabilities in hardware, so you didn't suffer the uncertainties of converting your dollars and cents into floating point binary.
I had one of those, I loved that thing!
Yellow card - minus 10 points for not using the phrase "kitty wampus" once in the video! 😉 Seriously though, great video. I used the Model M for years and a few years ago got the Unicomp as a holiday gift and love it, except my aging fingers and arthritis didn't like the keyforce required after a while and I've settled on shallow Cherry Blues which are fantastic. But I'll always have fond memories of the Model M. Also, the Model M is not open work environment friendly, but perfect for a private office/at home alone.
Awesome video; the first Christmas present my wife got me back when we were dating was an old model m that was sitting in a run down shack on her property. It was disgustingly corroded but she knew that I had wanted it. It was unfortunately not functioning, but after some tinkering and exploration, I managed to use some parts from a rubber dome model m to repair it and then bolt mod them together. I love it so much! Can't say how a bolt mod feels in comparison, but it helped in the teardown.
I actually have a Lexmark model M buckling spring keyboard with the two Windows keys on a PS/2 connector. It has always been my favourite keyboard. Only a few weeks ago I discovered that this was a collectible item, even though I'd picked it up at Goodwill for $2. Thank you for telling us the fascinating background to this classic.
Believe it or not, those are the *worst* of all the IBM buckling spring keyboards in terms of build quality. And by that I mean, of course, that they're excellent. 😂
Pretty sweet that you got like a 98% discount, haha.
The model Ms from the 1980s are significantly more robust--some have steel backplates, IIRC, or at least considerably thicker plastic. The IBM 4704 banking terminal keyboard's body is thick CAST ZINC.
@@bsadewitz I don't think anything held together with plastic rivets has good build quality.
I have a few 4704s, mostly repros.
@@xb0xisbetter Why not? They don't become a point of failure until they start disintegrating. Plus, you're comparing them to a keyboard made of cast zinc alloy. How many of those are there, one? Not everyone has $500 per keyboard to spend. My father ran a business with a large warehouse years ago, and they had all model M keyboards at every terminal as well as their desktop PCs. He never mentioned the slightest bit of trouble with them.
That intro was sooo sick let alone the entire editing on the vid
You said it yourself, the model M is very much a capacitive MECHANICAL keyboard with the switch on the bottom and a buckling spring. Unique design for a switch but it does make it mechanical rather than membrane or optical.
Awesome t-shirt!!! The Ethernet colors cables mapping for me is like as a nursery rhyme.
This made me want my old model M keyboard back, even more than I already did! It's easily the best keyboard I've ever typed on.
thank you straight to the point
I have two similar ones in my office, one with a PS2 connector and one with an AT connector. This makes me want to get it working. It feels so satisfying!!!
definitively, I love this video, I came here because I had the curiosity on whay if I use a model m, or any classic ibm keyboard without a power key, not the answer I waited, but Much better on what I thought
This is the best Model M video. Love it!
Thank you so much! I very much appreciate it. :)
I just stumbled over your channel. Somuch fun! Thanks.
Amazing!!!
yes, this bring back memories indeed...
First off, Veronica, you are awesome. I am saddened the algorithm hadn't drawn me closer to you sooner.
Second, creators, especially women and other non-men, should be able to perform the following actions online and in front of the camera without comment nor controversy:
• Use whatever editors and other tools they so choose
• Use whatever indentation that pleases them
• Apply thermal paste in a way that suits them
• Learn and demonstrate things in a way they deem most effective
• Play the games they want to play
• Relax with the media they wish to wind down with
Women and other non-men folk should also be able to say things without having to skirt around nor preface the controversial nature of these things, nor acknowledge the contentious nature of such items.
edit: oh gosh I just found your entire video on this very subject, h*ck yeah! :D
This channel is awesome.
Great video. Thank you!
Good one Ronnie! Many thanks, N.C. from sunny Oz land'
Nice video, good memories from those long gone days (age 51 here). Thank you!
Great work, very nice video :D
I fished my Model M from the trash at AAA, which I worked for back in 2010. Thoroughly cleaned it. Have been using it at every company I've worked for since, and still going strong.
I was so lucky to use that Keyboard on an Aptiva 486. I missed so much "that" keystroke sound with the spring totally releasing at the end, is a part of my childhood.
Nowadays I have a Keychron K2 with blue-switches (the clicky ones) but It is not the same.
My personal choice, Model M for PC and Extended Keyboard I for Mac. I'm happy with this combo 😊
Ohh. Love the old keyboard. I still use an early PS/2 IBM Model M on my machine.
I have an unforgettable memory of sliding the back plate off of a first generation IBM Model 5150 PC keyboard and having all eighty-something springs fly away randomly. No CZcams how-tos in those days. Two hours later the last spring was found and I could proceed with repairing the broken circuit trace that brought the beast to my shop.
I'll look for bolt mod videos to remind me what the inside of those keyboards look like when a more prudent person opens one.
I bought a Unicomp New Model M in early 2021. Had some issue with its USB controller, but was able to get a replacement. Overall a very good keyboard. The only thing is I wish they would have offered a beige color scheme.
I don't have experience with the bolt mod but this keyboard has a "history of use", so in my book it's a candidate for modding. Great video, fun stuff. There are enough of these keyboards in museums. Letting this thing sit unused would be more of a travesty.
I know my comment is too old but I modded 8 Model Ms and I had one model like Veronica's and the barrel plate cracked
I found a way to mod that will not crack the barrel plate.
When I think about tabs and spaces my brain short circuits and I just start chanting 'always blue! always blue!' Thank you for another great video!
How nostalgic. I have my model m from a boat anchor ps/2 server that I rescued from a company I worked at. They were closing down a building and I took a truckload of good stuff. My model m has been diligently serving on my HP Z800 for several years. We shoiuld all work so well after 35 years.
My dad bought 2 Model M keyboards in the early 2000s before they were cool. He put APL keycaps on one of them. It is a geeky coolness at a whole other level.
And Model M keyboards were ALWAYS cool. ;-) My dad was in charge of a branch office of a company that used all IBM hardware (like the desktops, and also an AS/400 with terminals all over the place). They had a huge bin in their warehouse with PILES of extra model M keyboards in it (because they just don't die). Everyone in our house had one. That bin would probably be worth easily $10,000 now.
Believe it or not, the model M was actually IBM going all "cheapo" back in the day. Seriously. They were designed with cost savings in mind over the model F. The IBM 4704 banking terminal keyboard from the 80s had a body of CAST ZINC. And the buckling spring mechanism was itself designed as a less costly substitute for "beam springs", which is what they used in the 70s into the early 80s prior to the introduction of the PC for their mainframe terminals, etc.
deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?t=16725
www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/images/overlay/4506VV4024.jpg
LOOK AT THAT BEAST!
You can still order the APL keycap set from Unicomp :)
Lord does that take me back! My dad was compulsive about APL, to the point of equipping one of his early PCs with the STSC APL interpreter that came with a character set ROM for the MDA.
I use to work at a UPMC hospital and we had a storage area with old model m keyboards with stickers just like that on the keys. It was used with some old word processing software that they used to check people into the ER.
Your disclaimers made me chuckle several times here. One of those Grail keyboards. But as a tool it's a bit steep $$$ to get. I did wonder about the remapping of keys 👍
The clicky keyboards were awesome. That is THE keyboard.
I'm glad to see another "remap capslock to esc" person!
Love the shirt!
I do love the feel of model M but your sound test reminded me how much better modern, high-end mechanical boards are at controlling for all the noises that drive everyone around the typist nuts.
But, wow, great job cleaning it up. They still look great after all these years.
It is the mid 90s, I'm from the UK and in college. I eventually, in about 1994, get onto a computer course. A year later eventually get a 386sx. Some how we end up with a keyboard like this, a clicky one but feels nice. I think nothing of it as I know no better. Years go by and it gets shelved and, sadly, eventually binned. I then have memories of that nice keyboard I had that was a bit clicky. Little did I know it was a sort after keyboard and I'd skipped it :(
I picked up an '88 model M around 2000 and kept it around. I couldn't resist the fact it weighs five pounds and feels like it's made to survive an apocalypse. And now I can adapt it for something that doesn't have an AT connector! Not before the kids are out of the house. I don't want to lose any more key caps.
Hi. Thanks for this. I started out on mainframes back in the late 80s and I loved those keyboards. Then I got an IBM PS/2 with the same keyboard in the 90s. Kept it for years until someone nicked it 😢
Might have a look at the Unicomp keyboards.
Yep I’m getting emotional looking at it, I was 14 programming QBasic on for schools PS/2 my passion for IT was sparked.
I have a ThinkPad T430 that I've modded with the Tx00/Tx10/Tx20 keyboard, including reflashing the EC firmware to properly map it. Best mod ever, nothing beats a 7-row keyboard!
The algorithm giveth! Thank you for this overview of the best keyboard that has ever been made.
I love your music 🤩
Love my Model M's, have them on my PCs at work and home. I've not bolt modded any of mine yet, though one might need it, it's not quite as "tight" as the others I have, I suspect some of the plastic rivets might have failed. I have been using mine with just cheap USB adapters, but I really want to get Soarers adapters for at least the 2 I use daily.
IBM Selectric. Pure pleasure. Every key feels different, so you know if your hands are too far left or right.
My Model M (built like a tank) came with an RJ45 connector and both a PC (*not AT as you mention) DIN connector cable and a separate PS/2 cable to be able to plug into both style of connectors. Both cables are wonderfully long too! Hardware mapping is also awesome when using Synergy or a KVM switch, so much better than software.
Sitting beside a 250+ word-per-minute typist on a model M is like sitting in a bunker with a machine gun (or so my coworkers told me).
COBOL rocks! Shared memory with some JCL FTW!!
Very cool video... I've been thinking about getting my mom a mechanical keyboard because she is an old-school typist (trained in the 1960s on a typewriter as a proper keyboard Jedi, unlike me: a crude, self-taught barbarian who somehow has managed to internalize a vaguely efficient convulsion haphazardly since the 90s...)
I was trying to convey to her how some online now allege that keyboard technology has actually degraded / gone backwards and lately there is the whole mechanical revival (such as the cherry switch ones that are trendy now...)
I will definitely consider this alternative which you have proposed! She still spends a lot of time inputting bytes and I think it would be cool if she had a moment that was like "awww, yeah, this really was better back in the day... now I remember!" When older people listen to their favorite music, adjacent memories become more accessible, etc.
Been using a unicomp one for 2 years and really like it
Your statements at the end about legacy software is spot on. Programmers of Cobol, Fortran and even Assembly language will not be out of work soon.
I'm not a retro nerd but there's something very attractive about this keyboard, I've always loved the way it looks
The ASMR of this video alone -- LOVE IT! I remember learning BASIC on the original PC, and the clickety goodness was just so wonderful.
I suppose you're not going to cover the original PC jr. keyboard -- which was the evil stepsibling to the Model M? :)
Thank you! I don't have a PC jr. around, but I could imagine having some fun with one at some point!
Well Done.
This video really delivered. In uni in the 90s we had an IBM AIX terminal lab with buckling spring keyboards. I cherish the memory of the exquisite keyboard racket caused by a bunch of nerds chatting on IRC.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
What kind of terminals, do you remember? 3151s or 3161s? Or the really ancient 3101s?
@@mrz80 I believe they were Xstation 120. In retrospect, a workstation as opposed to a terminal.
I did an ergogen project where i designed and printed my own keyboard based on my hand shape. It was neat!
I am a 90s kid and used a hand-me-down model m keyboard with a hand-me-down 386. I had no idea that the hardware I thought was lame because it was old had so much cachet until I showed photos of my childhood bedroom to my keyboard enthusiast coworkers.
That is a fine keyboard. Good luck with the bolt mod... Only you can say if it feels better for you, subjectivity is a thing. Good luck.
love the shirt with the rj-45 wiring!
Thanks! I sell them on my merch store: vkc.sh/merch. It's how I fund the channel fun!
I've had both an IBM Model M (UK PS/2) and Unicomp Model M. I managed to damage both with liquid spillage which corroded the key matrix layers, causing repeated/missed keys. I used a Filco Majestouch 2 for about 10 years and now use a Keychron K8.
I just got my model f and I love it. Give one a try if you ever get a chance. Also there’s the brand new mode f project too
Great video and I love your solution to connectivity - the Soarer's dongle thingy. Much more a hacker solution than having to do the same software mod on every machine you want to use the thing on. Do once, use everywhere.
My son bought me a DasKeyboard years ago which has the same layout and wonderfully clicky keys - and completely blank keycaps so it's unusable by anyone who is not a touch typist. :) Behold my elitist smugness. I love it and though I'm often tempted by other more compact keyboards I can't give up my DasKeyboard. It's just so good.
1390120 1986 model m owner here.
Yes, bolt mod. If enough of the rivets fail, the keyboard will become unusable. The more rivets fail the more that the affected section collapses and becomes less responsive. I bought mine from an e-waste retailer and had it both modded and it was probably the best decision I made for it because I now know it's not going to have rivet issues ever again.
Jason
My other half used to love her Model M keyboard. Sadly her Mum threw it out when her (then very obsolete) PS/2 Model 80 was replaced with a newer, more modern PC. I don't think she ever forgave her Mum. *8')
We now have dozens of dead and discarded keyboards in our garage, from trying to recapture that long lost dream. These days however, practicality has edged out nostalgia, and we've settled on Keychron Q6's as our daily drivers. After finally finding a keyboard that she both loved and lasted more than six months, she bought me one for my birthday this year. The Q6 has the same sturdy feel I remember of those early IBM keyboards (being a viable weapon for self-defence), with all the modern bells and whistles, while also being completely configurable (with QMK) and eminently hackable. Neither of us are keyboard snobs, I use my Q6 stock, and I'm very happy with it, but she's played with all sorts of upgrades, getting it into a state better than her memories of her Model M, while being a *lot* quieter.
I never had a model M. My first PC was an original IBM PC, that I scavenged from an office fire. I ended replacing everything but the case, PSU (which amazingly survived) and keyboard, stripping the Model F keyboard down to the PCB to clean up all of the soot clogged contacts. It was only after I bought a new motherboard for that system that I discovered that with newer 8 slot motherboards, only two of the slots lined up with the old 5-slot IBM case. *8')
Oh, and I'm going to steal your idea of remapping Capslock to ESC, I already use QMK to remap Caps lock functionality to fn+caps lock, to avoid accidentally SHOUTING, but re-using it for ESC makes a lot of sense. Also, TIA/EIA-568B for the win, just say no to T568A!
Congratulations on getting the Model M! It's an outstanding keyboard. I'm using one myself to type this comment as well :)
As far as bolt modding is concerned - I was forced to do it, as my keyboard's membrane got dirty inside and I had to take it apart and clean it thoroughly. And once you open the membrane assembly, there's no way to get it assembled together other than bolt-modding it. However, if all you want is use your keyboard, you'll be completely fine with leaving the original plastic rivets in place.
Anyway, you may want to take the outer cover off anyway, as it makes cleaning the keyboard much easier. And really, the Model M sounds and types A LOT better when it's absolutely clean.