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Comment by dbrower | Hacker News Reader

The Selectric keyboard touch and feel was vastly superior to the best mechanical keyboard you can get today.

Truly fabulous.

I really wish there had been a terminal or keyboard based on that. I like my UNICOMP clacky, but I'd gladly pay $1000 for a Selectric-feel unit.

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> I'd gladly pay $1000 for a Selectric-feel unit.

The DasKeyboard Brings Back the Feel of an IBM Selectric https://www.pcworld.com/article/251792/the_daskeyboard_bring... "If you remember what it was like to type on an old IBM Selectric typewriter, you know about what the experience of typing on the DasKeyboard ($129) is like. The company actually had a couple of old IBM Selectric typewriters at their booth."

Turning A Typewriter Into A Mechanical Keyboard https://hackaday.com/2015/08/27/turning-a-typewriter-into-a-...

Relatedly: Turning An IBM Selectric Into A Printer https://hackaday.com/2012/06/13/turning-an-ibm-selectric-int...

> The DasKeyboard Brings Back the Feel of an IBM Selectric

No. Not even close. Das use Cherry MX switches of various kinds, none of which feel like a Selectric.

Daskeyboard, like most mechanical keyboard makers, uses plastic cherry mx keyswitches or the generic chinese cherry clones. Those will feel nothing remotely like either a selectric or a good mechanical keyboard such as a model F/M. The person who wrote that article has no idea what he's talking about.

Ha! I'm writing this on a DasKeyboard and have an IBM selectric ii on the desk next to me - they are worlds apart.

I read that the Model F keyboard were supposed to emulate the feel of the Selectric keyboard. Haven't bought one before, but heard a lot about these: https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/store/

I learned to type, and to program, on a Model F.

My mother also had a Selectric, and I used it sometimes. I mostly remember it being loud.

I don't recall the keyboards being especially different, but I was just a kid. I do know that it utterly spoiled me for dome keyboards, which I always hated; I hauled that Model F around for about fifteen years, before going full-laptop for awhile. I still have it.

At which point the mechanical keyboard renaissance was in full swing, so I use an Ergodox now. Cherry-type switches are good enough, but if someone made an Ergodox type board with Model F type buckling spring keys (fat chance), I'd have my grail.

Between the Selectric and the Model F was another IBM keyswitch design known variously as the "Beam Spring" or "Keyboard B" which was much closer to the Selectric in feel. It even used the same keycaps as the Selectric. The Model F was introduced as easier to manufacture and more compact.

See: https://deskthority.net/wiki/Beam_spring

If money is no object, the closest you can get is a "Beamspring" board from a '70s IBM terminal.

There are adapters you can bolt on to make them speak USB, but a lot of them are a significant effort of cleaning/derusting/repairing since many of them are "barn finds" in iffy condition. A nicely restored one will be in the 1-2k range.

I wonder if an alternative would be to take an actual Selectric, which are likely cheaper and more available, and tap into some part of the mechanism that parses the keystrokes and convert that to modern signaling. I could imagine a comical assembly that's basically one of the old typeballs with a few dozen contact switches, all wired to a Bluetooth keyboard module

Have to strongly disagree here... they were the best touch and feel for the typing speeds of those days, but that kind of touch would not be suitable for today’s 100+ wpm.

Have you tried a model F? They feel closer to a selectric than a model M / unicomp

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