Project status summary – what has been going on lately and over the past year, when is my keyboard shipping, etc.:
(I recommend clicking the link at the top right of this email to view in a browser - so many updates since last time that many email programs will cut off much of the email otherwise!)
The prior newsletter update from August (including the Chyrosran22 New Model F review, lots of project photos and videos, and more) can be found here:
***Now that the rest of orders are going out over the coming months, if you have a new shipping address please do email me your order numbers and the new address. Check your order email and our email communications (if applicable) to make sure the latest address I have on file for you is the correct one.
For those who have not been following recent updates and frequent postings over on the Deskthority and geekhack project threads, I will note that there is still time to customize and order your Brand New Model F Keyboard and/or add on to your order with any accessories like the First Aid Kit for future repairs, solenoids and solenoid drivers, transparent relegendable keys, extra key sets, inner foam, extra flippers/springs, Model F key pullers, custom made 3 meter USB cables compatible with these keyboards, and other parts. Also I will note that the keyboards have been shipping – it does not mean that your keyboard will be shipping right away! There is still a ways to go to get everyone’s keyboard out.
To add accessories to an order that hasn’t shipped yet, you can choose (when placing a new order) the free/other shipping method, immediately before clicking Place Order. This way you can save on shipping – big savings especially for international shipping. However if in the US and if you can pay the shipping charge, please do so as shipping charges are far higher than what was planned for when pricing was set.
Regarding the shipping notification emails, everyone receives one as soon as your order ships. You would receive one email per order that ships, so you may receive more than one email.
The major news is that I’ve QC’d and shipped out 1900+ keyboards so far and am continuing to send out keyboards. Now that the shipping is going into full speed mode, split shipping is no longer available; please hold off on split shipping requests which were designed to fill in the down time and reduce the backlog before the printed keys arrived.
"When is My Keyboard / Order Shipping?"
This is the question everyone wants to know. There are a lot of steps that go into the production of each custom made Brand New Model F Keyboard. All of the parts need to be manufactured and made sure they pass quality control standards. Then we have all of the assembly and dye sublimation - more than one million parts assembled by hand for the most part (though we do have machines to help with some steps as shown on the project's youtube channel. The process from here on out is that the shipping container is loaded on to the container ship this week, and then the container ship departs the port at month end or just before month end. Then it is at sail for 4-6 weeks, maybe longer depending on port congestion (I am in NY where the ports are not as congested as in some of the west coast ports, so I don't expect significant delays). After that, the containers all need to be unloaded from the ship and the goods need to be delivered to me by truck (might take days to arrange this). After that I need to receive and organize the goods so I know where each keyboard variation and part is located - otherwise I can't mail out the orders efficiently. This may take a week or two. After that I start mailing out orders from the current container shipment. The general priority is orders with the custom/low serial add on first (with this broken down into the single digit serial supporters, all double digit/F77 under triple digit supporters, and the remaining low serial supporters), and then all remaining orders in sequence of when the order was placed (earliest orders go out first, for those who have been waiting the longest). As noted before, this is not a strict sequence where I would hold up all orders to keep the sequence perfect; the goal is to move through the backlog as quickly as possible. Many low serial orders remain to be shipped because they did not make it on the prior container shipments - they will be prioritized now that they are in stock. With about 2,000 more keyboards and lots of non-keyboard orders to ship, it is going to take me several months (April, May, June, July?) to QC test each keyboard, gather each order, and ship each order.
Important note: as explained above, it is not possible to tell when any one order is shipping,. Please do not ask when your order is going out or about separate shipping. Sorry I can’t be more specific just yet from what I noted above or let anyone know exactly where they are in the queue. I expect all orders to go out around mid-year or earlier.
As some of you have asked me, it’s not really possible to estimate how long it will take to get up to a particular point in the backlog line because it depends on how quickly a keyboard can pass my final QC inspection and how quickly I can repair it if needed, along with the complexity of particular orders (putting together additional accessories and individual keys) slowing down the throughput time. However as noted above it should take a few months once the next batch is in hand for me to go through it, now that I won’t be waiting for parts to complete an order (so it is “all in stock”) at that time. Many folks ordered another keyboard and/or additional accessories in separate orders later on, which usually means these later orders can move ahead in line and ship in the same package as their earliest shipment. Over the past two years of mailing keyboards, some days it seems like everyone might have ordered extras while other days I can (relatively) zoom through keyboard-only orders. Either way a keyboard typically takes ~20-30 minutes to fully inspect, program, repair if needed, get the packing slip and keyboard/box birthday labels, and ship, and that time does not count gathering accessories. An electric counting scale is a big help, especially for those who order 100+ extra flippers with springs :)
The shipping container is holding an almost unbelievable 20,000 pounds of goods, including thousands of keyboards, key sets, and other accessory parts! The factory has improved their QC and assembled the first aid kits so this should save me a lot of time and help me to mail out everyone's orders much faster than last time. Everything is expected to be ready to go this time and we are not waiting for dye sublimation to start like we were last time. As noted before I ordered slightly bigger keyboard boxes which will save the time of me taping up and mailing the little key set boxes. This means that my throughput will be full speed with this container ship.
This week the factory finished the first 200 F1-F12 front print sets which they expect to air mail me this week so I can mail out to those who aren't waiting for anything else anymore and are just waiting for those keys. They're working on the Industrial SSK blue 12 key sets with the hope that they also are included in this week's air shipment. The remaining key sets and custom keys will be worked on while the container ship is sailing and will then be air mailed to me.
Here are some more photos from the keyboard assembly process. Several hundred thousand parts needed to be assembled for the current container shipment leaving at month end. As shown in one of the videos on the project's YouTube channel, the final inner assembly step is for the custom made pneumatic machine to press the bottom inner assembly with PCB onto the other parts. The photos show the more authentic XT style foam being used for the current container shipment, as opposed to the foam used for prior shipments. As the new foam is less dense, I expect it will result in sound quality that is slightly less muffled, but this may not be noticeable. For those who prefer the higher sound dampening properties of the older foam, all of the extra foam is still that style (there is no option to factory install the old foam or get extras of the XT style foam at this time, besides the foam for the IBM XT keyboard itself which is still available).
The factory did a great job with the sublimation and Zed has done a great job getting the legends to be in line with the IBM legends. This particular legend is even a deeper shade of black than my reference 1984 F122 6110344 one piece set! I did not expect that. The legend design, alignment, and sublimation are of such good quality that it is difficult for me to tell whether both keys were made by IBM or whether one is new and one is IBM. Please pardon the poorly lit, cell phone quality photo and shallow depth of field blurring the keys - I did not scan both keys with a flatbed scanner as with my prior comparisons.
The factory also did a great job with the transparent relegendable keys shown in the second photo below - about 1,000 have been ordered so far and there are still lots remaining. These will arrive to me as part of the current container shipment.
What has been going on in the past year 2021 for this project:
As we are in the first month of 2022, I am almost entirely wrapped up with the shipments of keyboards and in stock accessories that arrived earlier this year with the second container shipment and in various express air shipments. A number of the keyboards that arrived in prior container shipments arrived with significant case damage, incorrect variation number labels, while others did not match the specifications of that variation (different color, layout, etc.) and some failed my testing requiring complete replacement of certain assemblies. So as to avoid delays and get as many keyboards out as soon as possible, I prioritized mailing out all of the “good to go” keyboards and then the other keyboards, and I will be spending time repairing these other keyboards and replacing entire circuitry (controller+ribbon cable+large capacitive PCB+USB cable) to continue getting out the keyboards. Recently the replacement parts arrived by express mail from the factory.
I want to note that the factory’s delay this year with production and assembly of these remaining keyboards of the early bird round was in no way a bottleneck for the 2021 keyboard shipping as the key sets and I were the two bottlenecks for the year – I was still (and still am) getting out keyboards and accessories from the prior container shipments. The only other remaining bottleneck since last year is the custom and international key sets and one-off type keys which required extensive quality control especially with all the special characters on the top and bottom areas of the key top surfaces, all of which are being finished up soon (some have already been completed). By the time I am done there will not be much downtime as we wait for the next container shipment to arrive to me. Prior to February 2021 we were still waiting on the factory to complete the new XT quality dye sublimation; orders with sublimated keys only started going out less than one year ago – will be going full speed once everything from the factory arrives (keys, etc.). The remaining sublimated keys should be completed in the coming weeks. For these reasons, I expect the pace to be far faster than it has been previously while needing to wait for sublimated keys to arrive. Once again I thank everyone for their patience with the factory and with me as I go through the backlog.
While I was busy getting everything out, the factory has been very busy producing the remaining dye sublimated key sets (including the international, front printed, and miscellaneous smaller sets and individual keys) as well as finishing assembly of the next batch of keyboards that are part of the early bird round of this project, many of which are the ISO-type keyboards and key sets that some of you have been patiently waiting for. This will all be going out as part of the third container shipment, which was not expected (initially the expectation was one round all in one container shipment, but waiting for everything to be finished would have significantly delayed the project even more). The third container shipment of all these parts and keyboards was delayed significantly this year and should be going out around the end of this month (January 2022), arriving to me around the end of March 2022, depending on port congestion. This is about a month later than what the factory was expecting in November, as noted in the prior update. It will then take several months for me to send out the remaining keyboards from this batch, which will finally bring me up to date without a backlog at that point. In other words, I expect to wrap up getting all the orders out over the coming 6-7 months from now. In this upcoming shipment, the factory is hoping to get in all the remaining keyboards that were not completed before the earlier container shipments departed the port. We are still in the early bird round; the final round is expected to start later this year. After my backlog is all gone and I’m caught up, I’m expected to open the window to order the Brand New Beam Spring Keyboards (half of the first batch of 300 is in stock currently, with the other half shipping and arriving to me in a few months from now). Please do sign up on the Beam Spring interest form noted below as that is the only way to reserve your spot in line for a Beam Spring keyboard.
Updates on die cast tooling
Due to the skyrocketing price of raw materials in recent years, in 2021 the project switched over to die casting instead of CNC milling each of the compact cases, despite the significant cost of the new tooling. Now both case types (compact and classic style) are die cast, not just the classic style cases which were die cast from the start of mass production. This allowed us to make the cases one solid aluminum piece + the bottom plate instead of two CNC milled aluminum pieces and the bottom plate, thus improving the construction quality of the cases. With the old design, the case screws had only 1-2mm of threads in the top part of the aluminum cases. Now the screws have several more mm of threads which should make them even more solid. (The flat bottom compact case plates are still CNC milled as it is just a flat plate)
Besides that extra parting line, the case design is identical to the original cases and inner assemblies can be switched from one case to the other. The factory completed the die cast tooling and production for the aluminum, ultra-compact cases last year. These cases will be used starting with this third container shipment.
Also by popular demand the compact cases have switched to the tougher powdercoating finish mentioned before, using a paint that most closely resembles the anodized look of the originals, as much as is possible by paint. While the anodized look of the keyboards is really nice as well, an even tougher coating should allow the newer keyboards to hold up cosmetically even longer than the anodized cases which have less scratch resistance.
Update on zinc case powdercoating
For the classic style zinc cases, the factory has gone with an improved, reformulated powdercoating finish that retains the full texture and finish of the original IBM powdercoated Model F keyboards. This should make the cases a bit more durable than those in the earlier two container shipments, though I still chose to avoid offering the ultra-tough modern powdercoating on the original style cases in order to keep the reproductions in line with the originals in appearance. As with any textured, uncoated paint the case finishes will continue to wear down over time just like the IBM originals, but should hold up better to usage.
Requests for help and expertise
I am still looking for some help on updating the open source xwhatsit controller PCB design and ideas for beam module pullers (for my updated beam module design) – please see my prior update post for more details.
What are the other very minor changes in the current shipment?
As noted earlier the bottom and top inner assemblies were modified a tiny amount to allow for a slightly tighter “sandwich” which I believe will offer a slight improvement in the snappiness of the XT-quality typing experience. Full compatibility has been maintained with existing cases and inner assembly parts so you can replace your inner assembly if needed, or switch between new and old cases and mix between old and new inner assembly plates.
The golden yellow finish of the older batch of bottom inner assembly steel plates (and of the IBM originals) has changed to a bluer finish due to a recent factory error. Since it’s inside the keyboard and not really seen I did not want to delay all the keyboards by 1-2 additional months to remanufacture these parts. For the final round I expect to go back to the original color.
The boxes have become a few inches larger to accommodate fitting a full key set inside the box. The artwork remains the same. Previously I put the key sets in separate boxes even if they were ordered with a keyboard.
Launching the Beam Spring 104+SSK Reproduction Project! First Batch In Stock, Shipping after New Model F Project
Announcing the Brand New Beam Spring Keyboards Project! Of course I will continue to mail out the Brand New Model F Keyboards before the beam spring project continues. To repeat, the new beam springs don’t ship and are not a focus until I’ve sent out the new Model F Keyboards.
This project is based on reservations. You need to sign up on the interest form to reserve your Beam Spring Keyboard so please sign up if interested. I expect to offer these keyboards first come, first served based on the timestamp of when you signed up on the interest form! So far nearly every single spot is taken but please do register to reserve your spot, whether for this round or the next round!
I would like to share (with permission) a nice customer image of the Off-White/Beige and Industrial Gray F77 keyboards with the key color combinations blue/pearl and 60% Dark Gray / Blue / Black.
I am also sharing (with permission) another nice color combination that someone sent me, with the plan to install the custom 12 Key Industrial SSK set when it is ready (the factory is still wrapping up the remaining custom keys and sets and should wrap things up by the end of February 2022 - the approval process has taken longer than expected for these sets but I'd rather see adequately-aligned sets before rapid sublimation can start - every offered key set style has its alignment and content checked to make sure it is good, before the remaining sets can be sublimated).
A reminder on solenoid configuration if you are doing your own layout modifications:
Some of you may notice that the solenoid doesn’t work as well if you flash your own adjusted firmware made with the QMK configurator web site. Other times when someone adjusts the solenoid throw bracket, they may align the bracket slightly wrong so that the solenoid cylinder has friction with the hole of the throw bracket – please make sure the solenoid cylinder moves freely by hand before proceeding.
To set the correct required dwell time for the solenoid, did you check out the manual’s new solenoid section as well as the firmware flashing instructional video? Here’s part of the written documentation:
If you are using any of my premade hex files for either QMK or Via, the correct dwell time setting is done for you automatically. However if you use the QMK Configurator web site to make your firmware, import my JSON template file for your configuration and flash the firmware (see the firmware section of this manual), and while the keyboard is connected to your computer, hold down the keys Fn+Spacebar++= (the + = key next to backspace) which has been preprogrammed to increase the Solenoid dwell time by 1 ms. Press it 20 to 25 more times to get it to the minimum required amount for full power. You can also press the following options:
Fn+Spacebar+T–>Toggle the Solenoid On/Off
Fn+Spacebar+ -_ Decrease Solenoid dwell time HPT_DWLD.
Refer to the two solenoid videos at the top of this page for a visual guide. To program this into your own keyboard, for QMK drag the Any key to the key and layer you want, and then type in HPT_TOG to toggle, HPT_DWLI to increase the dwell time 1ms, or HPT_DWLD to decrease it. Each key has to be in its own box of course.
As a test you could also flash the original firmware linked to in the manual, which is preprogrammed for full solenoid operation even with super fast typing.
To customize your keyboard further I recommend starting from the pre-made JSON files in the posted zip file in the manual on the project web site and making adjustments from there for split space bars or other custom split keys.
Via open source alternative: Vial
Please take a look at NathanA’s informative posts on getting Vial to work with the Brand New Model F Keyboards. Vial is a great offline GUI program to edit the layout of your keyboard.
Interesting historical documentation on keys for keyboards:
Here is some interesting information that someone sent me recently regarding details about keys and keyboard layouts. The links are good to check out too. The below text is quoted directly:
Some people have asked if there was a standard for naming keys.
I thought that was a valid question, and here is an answer.
The W3C publishes the main web standards, and it includes standards for referring to both physical keys
and the different meanings associated with pressing one or more of those keys.
From the docs:
CODE
code holds a string that identifies the physical key being pressed.
The value is not affected by the current keyboard layout or modifier state,
so a particular key will always return the same value.
KEY
A key string that corresponds to the character typed by the user, taking into account the user’s current locale setting,
modifier state, and any system-level keyboard mapping overrides that are in effect.
It is acceptable for multiple keys on a keyboard to generate the same key attribute value
Is anyone interested in helping to update the xwhatsit controller to add support for 3 LED lights and a solenoid driver at the same time?
This was brought up as a suggestion now that the Brand New Beam Spring Keyboards have 3 LEDs and some people also want a solenoid. Currently xwhatsit’s header limits you to two LED lock lights if you also want to use a solenoid. This of course won’t be for the first round of already-produced beam spring keyboards but will be available for the next round. Sorry Scroll Lock LED with solenoid!
The plan is to make the controller slightly wider, add 3 pins to the right side, and move most of the components rightward while keeping the ribbon cable positions, two ground pads, and USB connector exactly where they are now for backwards compatibility with the F77 and F62 keyboards.
That way the 6 pin xwhatsit header is unchanged and a spot for a 4 pin header is added to the left hand side of the controller. The 6 pin header would work the same as it does now, the new 4 pin header is for the LED expansion of existing boards, and the additional 3 ribbon cable positions are so that the next beam spring keyboards’ LEDs can be attached directly through the ribbon cable and traces on the large capacative PCB instead of by wires as IBM did with the PC AT keyboard. So the boards will support both the future beam board LEDs connected by extra pins on the ribbon cable (totaling 33 positions) as well as the expansion header for existing 30 position boards. There is of course some experimentation needed – will the LED traces interfere with the capacitive sensing with all those traces at the top of the board?
Keeping clearances for the F62 and F77 bottom inner assembly plates and “arms” is also important. Photos of the installed controller: https://imgur.com/a/xaPg4Z0
Also for the new controller: I’ve been chatting with pandrew who suggests removing the “103” 745C101103JP chip and using the atmega’s internal pull up resistors. This would require a firmware update as well, since the pull up resistors are higher value than 10k.
Attached is the latest wcass diptrace file of the xwhatsit controller. As with the xwhatsit, of course all derivations of xwhatsit’s work are GPL3 open source as well. (The gerber files are published in the project manual in case someone prefers to work in kicad or another program: https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/updated_PCB_files.zip and wcass published the gerber files on another thread last year)
The “103” 10k resistor pack was removed as suggested by pandrew, and 5 10k resistors were added in their place (might be removed for the next revision). The updated file is attached. For the engineers out there, are there any errors? Hopefully the schematic has not changed by mistake if a line was connected incorrectly for example.
Any other xwhatsit PCB suggestions are of course welcome.
If interested please do contact me and I can provide the latest files, just in case there were any changes.
3D scanned Brand New Model F Keyboard!
Deskthority member snacksthecat shared an interesting project of scanning and sharing a 3D scanned Brand New Model F Keyboard, as well as sharing a behind the scenes look at the project – please check out the two links below and feel free to download the 3D model on Sketchfab, with the links shared in the below posts.
Here is part of a recent Deskthority post discussing the art of space bar installation:
As a note I install and test each space bar on the keyboards that go out, but sometimes they require adjustment after the keyboards are bounced around in shipping – sometimes they are bounced so much that people have found the space bar separated from its keyboard barrel!
It’s a matter of slightly bending the space bar so it performs optimally. Definitely more of an art than a science. When the space bar gets stuck in my QC process, I usually take the wire with two hands, with the long part of the wire closest to my thumbs, and use both thumbs to very slightly push up the wire – I do this about 4-5 times but not too hard that the bend becomes noticeable. That way the wire is pushed out of the way enough of the metal stabilizer tabs so that there is a little room, maybe 0.5mm to 1mm. If they’re too close to the back of the metal tabs, the space bar wire can get in the way of normal operation. This will also make the space bar stabilizer wire ever so slightly wider in the two places where it connects to the space bar itself – this also helps adjust the looseness vs. tightness of the space bar while in operation. And as mentioned in the manual, the metal space bar tabs should not be pressed down so far that they cause the space bar to get stuck, nor should they be parallel to the top inner assembly plate, where they may get stuck on the end of the space bar.
As part of the initial install process, if keys are not clicking you may have to adjust the springs as shown in the QC secrets video. Sometimes the keyboard should be tapped gently or the springs pushed down gently by hand to make sure the springs move as low as possible from the perspective of the keyboard held vertically, space bar side up.
XT foam now in stock and available to order:
Last year I ordered a stamping tool for the IBM XT foam as quite a number of folks were asking for it, and now the foam is in stock and ready to ship.
Besides almost everything being an exact reproduction of the original, even with the same type of foam material and similar dark gray color, there were two changes made – one, the removal of the vestigial foam covering part of the attached controller, and two, the pin registration holes were changed from 1/8″ to 3/32″ to provide an ever so slightly tighter contamination shield for the PCB.
Brand New Model F Trackpoint Mod!
Here is a great video and instructional post on someone’s trackpoint mod for their Brand New Model F keyboard:
