I’d love one of these as well thanks @packetbob. Should be in Tuesday.
Cage match for keyboards…
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yeah, please don’t take all of them. Those are a hot commodity 
I’d love one too
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I think these are Alps boards - IBM 5576-001 Keyboard - Deskthority wiki
The good news is that the switches are still being made and should be able to be replaced if there are any issues.
I may have been too soon with the searching - is this by change a model F terminal keyboard? The f keys are split apart in 3 sections on the Alps boards, but not on yours.
If so, switches aren’t as easy to find, but the proprietary connector to USB conversion is a great Arduino project! GitHub - osresearch/modelf: USB interface for the IBM Model F AT keyboard
Super cool boards!
I have left the 4 keyboards with Ryan…
He/You all can fight it out…
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I’m here to help!
4 boards:
- Model M 1394100 (taken by me, sorry!)
- Model M 1394100 (needs cleaning)
- Model F 6110668 (needs cleaning)
- Model F 6110668 (the dirtiest)
Luckily we have an ultrasonic cleaner, which should make short work of the dust + dirt.
Note that the keycaps on these are two pieces in order to easily change the labels on them
Model M info - IBM Model M - Deskthority wiki
Model F info - IBM Model F - Deskthority wiki
Arduino project for Model F - IBM Model F Bigfoot with arduino micro, win7 64bit - deskthority
Arduino project for Model M - IBM Model M USB Controller · antonizoon/archivis.me Wiki · GitHub
There’s a lot more that can be done with these, and I’d love to help!
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What do people think of the ErgoDox?
I’m thinking of ordering the following parts from Taobao:
- ¥580 – PCB, case and accessories
- ¥140 + ¥10 + ¥10 for 78 switches
- ¥149 – keycaps
I’d add some stabilizers, but that case doesn’t come with holes for them … at least in the pictures 
I built an ergodox at VHS a few years back, parts from one of the early Massdrop runs.
Good keyboard, and I liked it, but I eventually moved to the (very similar, but contoured,) Kinesis Advantage when one popped up for a good deal. I still miss the split hand aspect of the ergodox. I had a stacked acrylic laser cut case, so it was pretty easy to modify, too - I laser cut stands to hold them at a tented angle.
They’re a pretty easy to solder project, and that taobao kit seems to have done the remotely challenging stuff.
I didn’t put stabilizers, and I don’t think it really needs or benefits much from them.
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Awesome, thank you for this super helpful background!
It’s here! It’s here! My first ever Taobao order arrived today!!
The consolidated packing job is horrific: Like they first unwrapped everything, threw it in a glorified shopping bag and attached a waybill. Luckily the case and the PCB don’t appear to be damaged, and the switch pins are just bent a little. Next time I’ll use dirtypcbs.com, not the Taobao official international logistics, like @TomKeddie said.
The big disappointment is that the shipment contained only 48 keycaps, not 76, as advertised. Hopefully I can get this sorted
I have these caps that I bought because they were cheap, are they any help to you. I have white with black text I think. I don’t really have a use for them.
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Hey thanks for this offer and wow those were cheap! Significantly, I’m missing the 1.5u and 2u (and some 1u) keycaps, so more 1u keycaps won’t help much (thanks all the same). The seller does seem ready enough to correct the problem, so I’ll see how that goes …
I’ll try to keep up with #mail-order. Please keep me in mind next time a Taobao order comes round, I can probably add items 
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I seem to be missing these replies, but I have made two Taobao orders since, and I’m about to get more switches, if that interests anyone? I’ll have to pay for fast-ish shipping, and the package probably small, but if you want switches, a good time to grab some
Nice. I finally bought my first mechanical, a Corsair K70 with MX brown switches.
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2nd son is wanting to make a custom mechanical keyboard, is there a place that has a parametric board design that can be configured to the number of keys you want?
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