Old Skool IBM'ers and 20-key rollover fans read no further.





I'm solidly in the USB keyboard crowd for convenience mainly. Plus, this mod will solve that pesky problem of straight SDL cords being rarer than M15s.

Now upfront let me say I "borrowed" the idea from Zevv's page here. But... a male connector sticking out of a keyboard is just wrong! On the page is a link to someone who did do it better but only got one out of two working (it looks like from his pics he shorted to ground the power line). There is also a mod here where someone is making a custom pcb controller but I don't know the status of that and Da Blue Cube is a known quantity. $7.29 is also hard to beat.

So, let's do this puppy right. First, you'll need the following parts:

One Blue Cube (buy a handful - never can have enough). First TEST IT to make sure it's a good one. Then take some pliers, squeeze, and pop it right open.



One Female USB connector of your choice. From left to right the always reliable Molex Type B, a NoName, a industrial strength orange one, and a Mini-B.


The HHKB uses the Mini-B but I find them pretty unreliable and prone to wear. The Orange one is designed to be hard to remove but unless you plan on hanging yourself by your keyboard its overkill. The cheap one is cheap.

Da Winnah. $1.72 at Mouser.


Two 3/4" 4-40 nuts/bolts/washers


Soldering equipment and 24AWG stranded wire (4 colors is best)
Some scrap tin type metal
White yogurt container - eat up, it's good for you

While waiting for parts to arrive read Talis's most excellent soldering tutorial. This is what I would call a moderate difficulty soldering job so practice would be good before tackling this mod.

Next up, Ahh.... the Smell Of Solder in the Morning!

CONTINUED IN THE DISCUSSION SECTION

Attached Images

	Model M USB Mod - 1.jpg (221.0 KB, 4386 views)
	Model M USB Mod - 2.jpg (230.9 KB, 1986 views)
	Model M USB Mod - 3.jpg (260.9 KB, 2126 views)
	Model M USB Mod - 4.jpg (318.4 KB, 1938 views)
	Model M USB Mod - 5.jpg (321.6 KB, 1980 views)

Created by ripster, 21 August 2009 at 01:24 Last edited by ripster, 16 October 2010 at 16:25 Last comment by ricercar on 24 November 2010 at 02:22 34 Comments, 5,385 Views (protected)