wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) (08/18/90)
Todd's article about assembling keyboards for Unix PCs at C-T struck a nerve with me. I have a 3B1 that came with one of the keyboards that does not have the function key label strip. The date code is 8552 next to the mouse connector. There is no QC stamp visible on the outside. The keyboard is a Taiwanese unit; the one that is wrapped in the foil blanket. I've had a lot of trouble with the keyboard with bad solder joints that have cracked. Hmmmm. I finally got disgusted and resoldered every single joint on the keyboard, which seems to have done the trick for the moment. Those of you out there with the function key label strip type keyboards are lucky -- they have a much better typing feel. At least on my 3B1, the keyboard is the antithesis of the original IBM PC-1 keyboard. This unit is feels like poking one's fingers into a bowl of oatmeal. The decision to put the control key next to the space bar (well, at least we can re-engineer that with softwrae)... I'd like to have a discussion with the person who thought of that layout. With the fancy design of the Unix PC case, I always thoguht it was peculiar that a better grade of plastic wasn't used .. especially in light of the original market price point. When AT&T serivced the motherboard on my machine several years ago under warranty, they managed to break off the locking tab on the mouse cable and one end of the keyboard cable, as well as chip off the corners of the case around the floppy disk while prying off the case top. I like the appearance of my Unix PC. Bill -- Bill Mayhew Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Rootstown, OH 44272-9995 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu ....!uunet!aablue!neoucom!wtm via internet: (140.220.001.001)