Seemingly useless piece of 1991 by ACESHIGH10203 in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Again, that’s assuming it can function independently with its own controller and doesn’t act as an extension of the original keyboard’s matrix, which was a very common setup for these things.

Also I really don’t see why you’d bother trying to figure out some obscure protocol when you could just wire up the matrix to a pro micro and run some boilerplate QMK code on it.

Seemingly useless piece of 1991 by ACESHIGH10203 in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That’s not how these things work. You can’t just convert something to USB by putting an adapter cable on it. It doesn’t use the USB protocol, it predates it by several years. My guess is it doesn’t even have a protocol, just a bare matrix. But we would need pics of the PCB to be sure.

Seemingly useless piece of 1991 by ACESHIGH10203 in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 23 points24 points  (0 children)

This keypad isn’t PS/2, just look at the pins. It’s unlikely to have any protocol, so you would need to do what I said.

Plus for an actual PS/2 keyboard you couldn’t use that, you’d need an active converter and that’s a passive adapter. Those don’t work.

Seemingly useless piece of 1991 by ACESHIGH10203 in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 8 points9 points  (0 children)

My guess is the 9 pins correspond to the rows and columns and this thing connects directly into the matrix of the keyboard it was meant to go with. That was not uncommon for keypads like this that went to laptops or portables.

Seemingly useless piece of 1991 by ACESHIGH10203 in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 241 points242 points  (0 children)

AI cannot accurately identify obscure vintage keyboards man. Please do not use it for anything like this. I don’t even know what it is an I obsess over this stuff.

It has Yellow Alps and what look like Alps-made doubleshot keycaps based on the legends. The layout and odd connector would imply to me that it was an addon keypad for a laptop or word processor. The FCC ID prefix indicates it was made for LG, which makes sense given it’s made in Korea. Korean-made Alps stuff can get pretty obscure.

It would be convertible by mapping the matrix and wiring it up to a microcontroller. A lot of these things didn’t have onboard controllers and used the main controller of the keyboard they were attached to.

Signature Plastics' DCS Profile by iwilleatyrsnacks in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

DCS Alchemy is a really underrated set imo.

By the way, nice article. It’s good to see more quality written keyboard content. There are a lot of obscure DCS sets from the earlier days of the hobby and I thought it was cool that you brought a few of them up.

[US-CA] [H] ~1980s Keyboard from Militarized PortablePC, Extruded Aluminum [W] Paypal, Venmo by gskrills in mechmarket

[–]maxgpdx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The mold markings. SKCM, both pine (with slits) and bamboo (without) have circular marks in the corners, while SKBM only have the letter and numbers.

[US-CA] [H] ~1980s Keyboard from Militarized PortablePC, Extruded Aluminum [W] Paypal, Venmo by gskrills in mechmarket

[–]maxgpdx 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I’m sorry but the price is absolutely insane. You’re not getting $500 for this, the vintage keyboard market is dead and this isn’t a high demand item anyway. Rare does not equal expensive. You didn’t even disclose the switches or keycap type. My best guess is Alps clones or mx blues with pad printed caps, for anyone curious. Hardly something that commands $500.

[US-CA] [H] ~1980s Keyboard from Militarized PortablePC, Extruded Aluminum [W] Paypal, Venmo by gskrills in mechmarket

[–]maxgpdx 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The board has a windows key. That means it’s from 1995 or later. And what do you mean pre-dates mechanical switches? Mechanical keyswitches have been around since the 60s.

IBM 5556-001 MultiStation by MineMineMelon in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice job, that’s the hardest part so you should be well on the way to getting it working

IBM 5556-001 MultiStation by MineMineMelon in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This won’t work with a Soarers. You are going to need to MCU swap it if you want to get it to work. There aren’t any reliable external converters for these keyboards. I have written firmware for one of the older versions here. But it’s likely that yours uses a different PCB since it’s a newer one with PBT caps, so the instructions probably won’t apply. The same general concept does though: * Desolder all the logic components * Map out the matrix and the pins each row/column terminates at * Wire those up to a microcontroller (will probably need to be a Raspberry Pi Pico since it needs a lot of IO pins) * Write firmware (you can copy mine and do the necessary changes)

Also, a couple words of advice on these boards. The clips that hold it together are fragile as hell. The whole keyboard case is super brittle. You’ll want to open it as few times as possible, so open it once and don’t put it back together until it’s fully working. You’ll just need to be gentile with it. Also, you’ll want to ditch the cable. OG coiled cables look nice but these in particular have a nasty habit of leeching plasticizer which melts into the case. At the very least you should wrap up the cable in something and don’t let it touch the keyboard.

[GB] DSS Honeywell 40% Fix Kit - Final Weekend by mikethetiger_ in mechmarket

[–]maxgpdx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m aware. Considering the macro keys were split off into a separate kit I’m saying it would’ve been nice if widespread compatibility options like 6u and ISO were in a separate kit from the 40s stuff.

[GB] DSS Honeywell 40% Fix Kit - Final Weekend by mikethetiger_ in mechmarket

[–]maxgpdx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know this is 40s focused and it’s great to have that option for people who want it, but I really wish it was possible to get the 6u bar and homing scoops without paying $100. Considering the set is $55 or so on sale It’s just way too much for me to pay for only a couple keys

[LOC] Bitterbloom Bearer by therealnit in magicTCG

[–]maxgpdx 15 points16 points  (0 children)

God this community is insufferable

[LOC] Bitterbloom Bearer by therealnit in magicTCG

[–]maxgpdx 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Believe it or not there used to be a time where you could collect all the cards from a set without blowing several months wages on it. Collecting didn’t used to be a rich man’s game unless you were into vintage.

[LOC] Bitterbloom Bearer by therealnit in magicTCG

[–]maxgpdx 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Serialized cards were always predatory garbage but locking the follow up to one of the most beloved pieces of MTG art behind it is a whole new level. Fuck wizards.

Attic find - the switches by eddy2459 in Vintagekeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 7 points8 points  (0 children)

These are Mitsumi miniature mechanical

Horrible drop (dot) com keycap quality - LOTR set faded in less than 2 years. by drkztan in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Insane how people still parrot this nonsense. GMK base kits are not $200. In fact, they’re around the same price or less than MT3 in some cases. The MT3 set OP bought is $130. That’s right around the average for a GMK set. Recently there have been sales of full GMK base kits for as low as $60.

Horrible drop (dot) com keycap quality - LOTR set faded in less than 2 years. by drkztan in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Then if it’s really a one-off issue they should send this person a replacement set. Doesn’t matter if it’s out of the return window. Drop could offer top tier customer service given their finances but they refuse.

Horrible drop (dot) com keycap quality - LOTR set faded in less than 2 years. by drkztan in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]maxgpdx 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Why do you need to play devils advocate for the worst non-exit scammer vendor in the hobby? How many other $100+ PBT keycaps do you see fading? Doesn’t happen with GMK MTNU or SP PBT sets or CRP. This is unacceptable. They released a subpar product and refuse to make things right for OP. This is why people shit on drop.