New toy...

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crfriend
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New toy...

Post by crfriend »

I've had a steady diet of membrane-based keyboards sitting in front of me for as long as I can remember and I detest them so I finally did some research and opted to up-gun to a proper mechanical keybaord, and Oh My Word what a world of difference!

I wanted to see if I could interface my old IBM "M" keyboard to newer stuff, but it's a PS-2 interface and I was unable to locate an in-stock USB male to PS-2 female adapter, so the "M" still sits on the floor waiting for me to fix the power-supply for the X-station that it belongs to (or to see if the RS/6000 220 still spins up)... The power supply, no doubt, has failed electrolytic capacitors that need replacing, and bloomin' IBM riveted the thing closed so I need to find/borrow a drill and sharp bits to drill the rivets out before even thinking about troubleshooting. Foo!
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r.m.anderson
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Re: New toy...

Post by r.m.anderson »

Your mission Mr. Phelps is to fabricate an interface from keyboard to PC without leaving a warranty issue with rivets removed or tampered with.
Good Luck !
And as usual the secretary will disallow any knowledge of this contrived activity.
This (tape) message will self-destruct in 10 seconds or sooner if those bloody rivets are filed grinded tampered with popped etc.

Something here with backward compatibility and wired connections in this wireless day and age ! LOL !

Where is that Radio shack store when you need it ?
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Big and Bashful
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Re: New toy...

Post by Big and Bashful »

crfriend wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:06 pm I've had a steady diet of membrane-based keyboards sitting in front of me for as long as I can remember and I detest them so I finally did some research and opted to up-gun to a proper mechanical keybaord, and Oh My Word what a world of difference!

I wanted to see if I could interface my old IBM "M" keyboard to newer stuff, but it's a PS-2 interface and I was unable to locate an in-stock USB male to PS-2 female adapter, so the "M" still sits on the floor waiting for me to fix the power-supply for the X-station that it belongs to (or to see if the RS/6000 220 still spins up)... The power supply, no doubt, has failed electrolytic capacitors that need replacing, and bloomin' IBM riveted the thing closed so I need to find/borrow a drill and sharp bits to drill the rivets out before even thinking about troubleshooting. Foo!
Looks like there are plenty available, as long as you don't mind praying to the great God Amazon, pray to them and all your wishes will be fulfilled, or something like that!
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skirtedbrit
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Re: New toy...

Post by skirtedbrit »

my alternative pc is not connected to the internet to keep our financials safe. That keyboard dates from about 1990 and works just fine, anyone better that?
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Re: New toy...

Post by Fred in Skirts »

The keyboard on my Packard-Bell desk top dates back to 1978 and the PB still works but is soooo slow that I seldom even start it up anymore.
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crfriend
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Re: New toy...

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Fred in Skirts wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 5:35 pmThe keyboard on my Packard-Bell desk top dates back to 1978 and the PB still works but is soooo slow that I seldom even start it up anymore.
1978? What is it? PeeCees weren't introduced until 1981, although there was a very, very vibrant world of small computers at the time that the PeeCee drove extinct almost overnight.

My computer history group has a Packard Bell 250 that dates to April of 1961. It's implemented as a bit-serial machine with a 22-bit effective word size and uses acoustic delay-line memory. Programming it is roughly analogous to programming a drum-memory machine.
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Fred in Skirts
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Re: New toy...

Post by Fred in Skirts »

crfriend wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:00 pm
Fred in Skirts wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 5:35 pmThe keyboard on my Packard-Bell desk top dates back to 1978 and the PB still works but is soooo slow that I seldom even start it up anymore.
1978? What is it? PeeCees weren't introduced until 1981, although there was a very, very vibrant world of small computers at the time that the PeeCee drove extinct almost overnight.
I checked the back of it and found that it dates to 1988. Since I am almost 80 years young sometimes mt mind and my eyes get out of sync, so whats the worry the damn thing still works but takes about 10 minutes to fully boot up. I do have some things on it that will not run on todays machines so I keep it around just for kicks..... :lol:
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crfriend
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Re: New toy...

Post by crfriend »

Fred in Skirts wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:50 pmI checked the back of it and found that it dates to 1988.
No worries, Sir! I was just curious because 1978 was when the microcomputer field was wide open and there was a lot of innovation and creativity in the air. That all ended when IBM intorduced the "PC" and set the industry back by ten years. Mickeysoft added a deficit of five years on top of IBM's ten.

It was a very bad time.
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Re: New toy...

Post by Faldaguy »

People draw blank looks when I mention computerizing our office in Kona in about 1981 with the latest hot PC -- a "portable" Osborne with 5" monochrome CRT screen,64K of RAM and DUAL floppy drives! It used a CP/M OS and since we were doing head-hunting and needed mainland resumes and files, we had what the technician/sales person told us was the ultimate modem that could ever be given the technical limitations -- at 1200 baud! Along with a dot matrix printer the whole thing set us back about $3,000.00 1981 dollars. A bit of history here: https://history-computer.com/products/o ... -computer/

Maybe not quite as impressive as the (I think Toshiba) calculator with an 8 digit display (selectable 2 decimal place setting) and 2"? tape printer, that would add, subtract, multiple, divide and keep a Memory tab too that we bought 10 years before for 'half-price' as a year-old close out for $1200.00 CND in a Vancouver, B.C. office --sure beat the old Friden! [Something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S0BETniokI]

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Re: New toy...

Post by Gusto10 »

I do recall the intruduction of the WANG in 1984. Before, in '75 I tried te get the grasp of working in Basic. I think my mind was to much analog.
early in the 80's the introduction of the commandore 64, I still have somewhere a Compaq 286 slt with multimate and frameworks, prior to which I worked on an IBM with floppy disks which made life easier working with SITA instead of the telex.
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