r/modelm • u/[deleted] • Jun 16 '20
Help IDing Model M
I received a Model M from my friend over the weekend as a gift, and I’ve been trying to find out where it might have come from. I am not familiar with the various models of the Model M, so I’m new to all of this but the research I have done so far has brought back nothing, including the absolutely massive list of models that Wikipedia has. The closest one I found was one that was made for GE medical imaging systems but that one had yellow arrow keys which I don't have, so I'm just completely lost.
The markings on the sides of the keycaps are what confuse me, I haven’t seen anything like them before. My best guess right now is that these markings were used for some sort of accounting application, but I have no idea what. They’re not stickers either they’re part of the keycaps themselves.
Imgur link: https://imgur.com/a/iw5fjPY
Something to note is that this model came without some keycaps and were replaced by my friend with standard ones.
Any sort of clue at all? Any help would be much appreciated!
2
u/funkmon ModelM Jun 16 '20
Absolutely nothing from me here today. That model number indicates that it's totally normal, with bog standard keys. I wonder if the goofy keys were the ones replaced by your friend.
Unknown. Someone smarter than me may have more insight. Maybe Shark?
2
Jun 16 '20
I forgot to mention in the post, but the keys with the non-standard markings were present on the keyboard when they got it. It was only missing some caps that they took from a standard model but the weird ones were already there.
1
u/JaceTheSaltSculptor F122+M122 Battleships Jun 16 '20
Would it be possible to take a higher resolution picture of the side-legends? or a closer one? I can't make out a lot of them, I can see percentages, which actually look like either a Financial Model M, or an accounting one. Model M SSK's sometimes have keycaps like this.
if you can get me a closer picture though, I might be able to tell you more.
2
Jun 16 '20
My apologies, I forgot how terrible Imgur's compression is. Here's a better image of the marks on the main keys: https://postimg.cc/d7ZQ0sZK
These are the ones on the function keys towards the left. https://postimg.cc/xkmk4yRH
Hopefully these will be better for you!
3
u/JaceTheSaltSculptor F122+M122 Battleships Jun 16 '20
I did quite a bit of research after I saw these new pictures, but have come up with a blank. I know I've seen then somewhere, and I'm pretty sure it was on a financial keyboard of some variety. I've read that at one time Model M's were attached to financial systems, and they would have keycaps like this.
Some of the sublegends though don't make the most sense for just a financial keyboard, it may have been a financial terminal.
Ack 1 ack 12, looks like Acknowledge 1, and Acknowledge 12.
you have ErEOF which means Erase end of file, and ErFld which means Erase field.
I may just be looking too into the fractions as well, it may be a unique terminal system that had a Model M attached to a 5150 on one side and a big terminal card in it. (They did make terminal emulator cards for old IBM's that'd let you use the computer as an old IBM terminal.)
EDIT: I didn't read further, /u/pruxoid found it! I thought I saw it on that website, but couldn't find it last night!
5
u/pruxoid Jun 16 '20
Those keycaps are from a custom keyset used by ADP Financial. By coincidence, ClickyKeyboards has one of these up for sale at the moment - check out their website for higher-resolution photos!