Making A Model M SSK

 In July 2013 I realized that every keyboard that I owned was scrub level and wanted to do something about it. Naturally, I went for overkill and  found that I had three IBM Model M keyboards with not enough desk space. After falling in love with all things mechanical keyboards with a preference for the buckling spring I did all sorts of searching for home made modifications and other versions of the Model M.


I found out about a model that IBM made specifically to save desk space called the Model M SSK. Unfortunately, these keyboards were not as popular as their full sized brother and were not in production very long. As a consequence of this, the keyboard is difficult to acquire and usually sells on eBay for upwards of $200. Instead of saving to buy one of these, I decided to make one using one of the three full sized keyboards I already had.

Thankfully, or rather unfortunately, one the keyboards I had was a "rubber dome" version of the Model M defeating the entire purpose of the keyboard so I didn't feel terrible potentially destroying it. The biggest part of the project was learning how to "Nut and Bolt Mod" and finding the tools I needed to get it done.

This, clearly, is the fully disassembled keyboard and you can see that the keyboard is rather simple. It's a steel plate, plastic housing for springs, and a three layer plastic trace for each key.

The goal at this point was to successfully bolt modify the keyboard and then move forward with removing the number pad section of the keyboard to imitate the SSK.

Here are just some of the various stages of the project. In order to bolt modify the plastic housing drilling through holes was necessary to replace the molded plastic fasteners. I think there were somewhere around 25 to 30 drilled holes.





The second stage was cutting the steel plate that is used as the foundation of the keyboard to the correct length such that I could remove the number pad.

The third stage of keyboard destruction was trying to get cut the case so that I could keep as much of the edges so that the keyboard looked seamless.

The final stage of the whole bolt modification process was reassembling everything together so that it would be sturdy once everything was put in place. I used a rubber cement epoxy and some vinyl house siding to help the separate case pieces stick together better. The clamps always help.




 
Once everything was cut up and properly fitted, the rest was just to fold over the switch membrane underneath itself and fix it all up. Here are some remaining photos that I kind of liked that sort of debut the rebirth of my keyboard-stein.

Here is the keyboard comparison to the full sized and the SSK that I created on the bottom. At this point I didn't have keys just yet because I hadn't ordered replacements. The ones that originally came with the rubber dome Model M were solid with no place for the spring to fit into.








Here is the completed project and I still use this keyboard now, not that should be any surprise. I do love my keyboards. The only thing that I'm upset with about this project is the seam that can be seen at the top of the keyboard above the scroll lock key. It just takes away from the beige magnificence.

Ozark Patrol Regenerative Receiver

In 2014 I earned my amateur radio license as a General operator. To teach myself a little more about amateur radio, I purchased a regenerative receiver kit from the ham radio group Four State QRP Group that was designed by David Cripe(NM0S). It's pretty simple and was not super expensive($46.00), but I haven't been able to hear any broadcasts with it so far.

Anyways, I finally got around to soldering it a few days ago so this project of mine is a little more recent than my last post, but I'm probably going to jump around at first because I would like to get material on here first for others to see. Later on I expect to be more consistent and current with my projects.

This was a lot of fun and I was able to practice fearless soldering as I call it. The philosophy of soldering without fear. Maybe explanation was not necessary.

I have been using it to pick up weird noises, but I was unable to tune in to anyone broadcasting yet. If I get to tune in to anything I'll try to post a video.









Here's a small video of the receiver being tuned, but it does concern me that maybe I've accidentally made a musical instrument for electro-techno. Also I have to apologize for the quality of the video, I took the video with my potato phone, but I think it shows what I've built well enough.

BFO Metal Detector Project

 Here is an old project from 2013 when I was still an undergrad at Purdue in ECE 306. The project objective was to combine what we had gone over in the lab course of the semester. I can't remember what all sorts of things we had gone over now, but I do have a lab manual somewhere. I may include it later, but it's not terribly important what we went over specifically in the lab. The main point I'm trying to get at is that rather than the standard full semester's worth of predefined labs, the last month of the semester was dedicated to a project of our(teams of two students) choosing.

Somehow or another, my partner and I decided to make a beat frequency oscillator metal detector. There's all sorts of information about this stuff that you can search up on the internet. I remember referring to this Talking Electronics website an awful lot. I guess I should mention Charles D. Rakes and Colin Mitchell because both are somehow related to the website/information on it.

At any rate, I wanted to include some photos of the project.

The Metal Detector

The metal detector was made from a wooden dowel rod and a wooden plate. I don't remember exactly how many copper windings were made, but to make the Faraday shield I used a aluminum tape. Overall, I think the whole project cost less than $20.00.

The Circuit

 The only interesting thing worth mentioning about the circuit photo is that I used a pill bottle to wrap copper wire around which can be noticed at the top center above the breadboard. For some reason, I remember being rather proud of how symmetrical the circuit was after I had built it for the third iteration.

Here is, for the most part, the finished project on my desk at home measuring... something. Most likely the sound it would make if I had included a headphone jack.

The project on my desk

 The end results for the project were also pretty good. If I remember correctly, the detector could detect metallic objects around 2 inches (about 5 cm) under the my desk. I think I have a video of our success in the lab somewhere, but it's probably super embarrassing so I don't think I'll post it. This project was a lot of fun and I think I finished the course with an A.

No "I" in Steve Introduction

As sort of an introduction to this blog, I'll probably put little bits of information scattered around in posts until I can get more used to blogging and documenting my projects. Some of the things that I'll be putting on here are old projects and while I have all the photos and data and junk, I don't really want to spend lots of time formatting just yet because I'm still not used to posting things I've done. So there are going to be lots of mistakes and missing information, but hopefully I can get it together once I start to post more.

Also, I imagine a lot of my older projects are going to be scattered through out the blog as I find photos of things. I guess... if it looks like it's out of order it's because I'm posting it as I find photos and things, not because that's how I completed things. If there are questions, feel free to comment and ask.

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