# Old mechanical keyboard mod. Model: Ortek MCK-201 FX.



## r9 (Jun 2, 2012)

I came across a IBM model M mechanical keyboard mod on the youtube and got inspired. I was looking for model m but I could not find one instead model M found this Ortek MCK-201 FX which is great! 

*Sound preview.*
[yt]iiA6kCeqaMg [/yt]


*The keyboard dirty and plain.*





*Disassembled.*




The keyboard is din-6 or AT(as I know it) the standard is basically the same as PS/2 or mini din-5 so cable change was doable. The original cable was not soldered to the board it was connected via connector so I used multimeter to find out witch wire is leading were and using fourth picture I changed the connector from din-6 to din-5 PS/2 cable.








*The cables with connector moved to from din-6 to din-5 cable.*




*The mechanical switches are visible. As I find out they are white alps.*




*Back side of the keyboards PCB.*




*Left the keys in mixture of water and dish-washing liquid and brush them with a brush.* 




*Drying over night.*




*Keyboard case cut and spray painted with noprep paint for plastic*




*Assembled*




















I`m not sure at the moment that project is over. I`m still considering painting the keys black and red combo and applying the lettering stencil and finish with matte spray.


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## Hayder_Master (Jun 2, 2012)

impressive work


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jun 2, 2012)

Nice work there.


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## Yo_Wattup (Jun 2, 2012)

paint the keys black!


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## popswala (Jun 2, 2012)

Yo_Wattup said:


> paint the keys black!



^^^  Hope you got good memory cause you'll lose your letters

Does look better and much cleaner. The color of those oldies look so dirty and icky.


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## Mindweaver (Jun 2, 2012)

Nice! I like it and I may do this with a few of old IBM keyboards I have laying around.


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## r9 (Jun 3, 2012)

popswala said:


> ^^^  Hope you got good memory cause you'll lose your letters
> 
> Does look better and much cleaner. The color of those oldies look so dirty and icky.



Nostalgia my brother. I guess you never had commodore, amiga or 386.


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## Goodman (Jun 3, 2012)

Nice! i like the look of the original color key with the rest of the keyboard dark 

But why going to the trouble of wiring when all you have to do is buy an adapter for these old keyboard in to PS2 connecter 

I still have an old keyboard like that with an PS2 adapter & it works really good but now i may have to painted the keyboard dark color so it looks better...
Nah! it's a good idea but i don't use it anymore so would be a waste of time & paint...


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## Perra (Jun 3, 2012)

Nice work, but I would never do that to my own model M, I am too fond of the oldskool look myself


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## Altered (Jun 3, 2012)

Nice to see another board saved. Looks pretty good. I never had any luck with paint staying on plastic embedded with oils from hands hope it works well for you. I would never attempt painting the keys for this very reason. But you may consider something like Non-Transparent Keyboard Stickers 

Congrats and good luck.


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## r9 (Jun 4, 2012)

Goodman said:


> Nice! i like the look of the original color key with the rest of the keyboard dark
> 
> But why going to the trouble of wiring when all you have to do is buy an adapter for these old keyboard in to PS2 connecter
> 
> ...



It is not that much work and I wanted black cable anyways.


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## Goodman (Jun 4, 2012)

r9 said:


> It is not that much work


I know  it just that it's easier & much faster to use an adapter 



r9 said:


> and I wanted black cable anyways.


I didn't thought about that , it would be a bit of a pain in the butt to paint the cable black & not to mention an accordion cable... 

Changing the cable was in fact a really good idea


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## Mindweaver (Jun 5, 2012)

yea and plus those old cables are short.. Those cables are meant for old Desktop pc's..


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## Liquid Cool (Jun 5, 2012)

You can also dye the key caps with RIT.

LC


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## MilkyWay (Jun 5, 2012)

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/
Retrobrite that keyboard, it will take away the oxidization in the plastic.

ALSO that doesn't look like Model M switches to me, Model M use buckling spring type switches. THOSE look like ALPS switches.






Hope my information helps out.

AH right sorry, i missed the line in the original post about them being alps.


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## popswala (Jun 5, 2012)

r9 said:


> Nostalgia my brother. I guess you never had commodore, amiga or 386.



I had a commodore way back. I do still have a really old desktop pc with the huge kb that has the curly cord. I wish I had it near me to get pics of it up. I plan to restore it sometime.

The kb looks awesome.


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## SnoopKatt (Jun 18, 2012)

Crazy what a good cleaning can do!


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