Greetings and welcome to an LGR thing.
And you know what? Phones these days are pretty neat, I gotta say.
I mean, they've got this crazy productivity capability built right into them.
And, you know, you've even got styluses and stuff on certain ones.
But for the most part it's a touch screen if you wanna type things.
Sometimes, that's just not enough. So, maybe, you got one of these kinda things.
Nice little fold-out Bluetooth keyboards. Really handy, really convenient.
But they have these crappy, cheap, little Chiclet keys.
And, you know, if you're really serious about getting some work done, that ain't gonna cut it.
What you need is the IBM Model M! [laughs]
The undisputed champion of classic buckling-spring clicky keyboards.
[clicking sounds]
Ahh, it's just a wonderful thing.
So, I have a 1990 model IBM Model M here.
And I'm here to tell you that this thing will work just fine with your Android phone.
Maybe on others too, and let me preface this by saying:
Uh, don't try this at home.
Star, asterisk, all that kinda stuff because I'm not responsible if it blows up your phone.
Because there's one thing to keep in mind,
and, um,
that's that keyboards draw different types of power,
and the IBM Model M draws a heckuva lot more
than, like, a keyboard from the '90s.
And, actually, I got the idea for this topic
from Billy Coores' channel on YouTube,
so, go check that out if you would like to see the original video
and a bunch of other cool stuff that he's got there.
But he used an old Packard Bell keyboard.
And those are gonna draw a lot less power.
Well, I ended up tweaking the formula just a little bit to get the IBM Model M to work.
And it does, so...
Here's what you gotta do.
So, first up, you're going to need a sweet friggin' keyboard like this Model M.
Or, really, any clicky keyboard, but we're going to be using these 'cause they're great!
And, so, these actually have these little detachable cords on the back,
and some of them had AT connectors.
This one has a PS/2 connector, which is really convenient
because you may have noticed that, out and about in the world,
you have these little PS/2-to-USB adapters.
And, this one right here is the very descriptively titled "USB Adapter," made in China.
It's your typical USB-to-PS/2 adapter. It's made for keyboards only,
and, according to my research, it's one of the few that works pretty much guaranteed with a Model M keyboard,
depending, of course, on the port that you're going to be plugging it into,
which, again, is why I put out the warning.
The other you're gonna need is this USB on-the-go thing.
They come in cable forms as well.
I went with this little small one because I didn't think it through,
and, uh,
I would actually probably get the cable version but, yes.
You plug this keyboard PS/2 connector into the...
Yeah...
Right there,
and, there we go.
We can just hook that
into this micro USB adapter here.
So the USB on-the-go thing...
That's gonna plug straight into your phone!
And so it's gonna pop up with
some sort of little keyboard thingy at the top here; it says "keyboard connected" and "mouse connected."
You could plug in a mouse, too, if you have an adapter that has both a mouse and a keyboard thing.
This one's made just for keyboards. I figured that would be a little bit better,
Since I want ALL the power to go to the keyboard.
This thing needs...
something like ten times the power of a normal keyboard.
Heh heh heh...
Okay so, all I have open right here is a simple text editor on my phone.
And, uh,
[clicking sounds]
Yeah, it's wonderful!
You know, we got the keyboard shortcuts and stuff, if you want
you can like, Alt+Tab into different things,
if you want to.
Let's see, let's go down to right there,
back to where I was.
[satisfying clicking]
Yay.
Yep.
And you can also, even like the lights light up.
Although, I've heard that maybe that's not such the greatest idea,
since it actually draws a little bit more power if you do that, but, uh...
If you want to, you can, I mean...
What the heck. I haven't had any problems with this at all.
At least, on my phone and my computer that I've been trying this on.
But, mmm.
Just listen.
[satisfying clicking]
Oh, it's so great.
[satisfying clicking]
[laughs]
"Happaeeehh!"
Oh!
And, yes, in case you're wondering, it does actually work in the operating system itself,
so you can, you know, open things up and navigate around if you really want to.
Let's open up "Sonic 2" there.
And, while you can't exactly play it with this, you can move around as Sonic,
but I can't, like, jump.
And there doesn't seem to be a way in-game to configure it...
to do that. There's just no buttons. You have to tap somewhere,
which I think is over here. So, in theory, I could play it like this, which is stupid.
But, you can.
I'm sure with a keyboard mapper, you could just do whatever you wanted.
This...
[satisfying clicking]
Oh, isn't it wonderful?
What the heck?
"Gasprom!"
[satisfying clicking]
You know what?
I don't understand why every phone
doesn't come with an IBM Model M built in like this!
[satisfying clicking]
I mean, just...
[satisfying clicking]
imagine if you have a portable device
with a screen
and all sorts of hardware and capabilities and stuff with a keyboard built into it.
Maybe you could even flip it closed.
Man, that's a great idea. Somebody should invent one of those things.
Uh, anyway that's pretty much it for this right here.
Although, I do want to say
that it does work with all sorts
of IBM
keyboards.
The Model M variety. In fact, I've got, uh...
Oh, which one is this? This is a 1993 model right here.
Works well with that.
I've got a 1988 model.
Works pretty well with that. The only thing that doesn't work is when you do Shift and Space, it like,
does a weird combination of something on the screen. And then, uh...
I've also tested it on the Lexmark Model Ms, and it works fine with those, too, so...
Again, it really could vary though maybe on your phone or this--
This adapter, I think, is the biggest thing that makes
the difference
because
I've heard of people trying it and it, it, like either
[chuckles] blew up the adapter
or their USB ports. [laughs]
So...
You maybe don't do that.
But do check this one out, if you are *really* curious and do accept your responsibility for yourself.
And your own
actions
with your phone.
*pfft* But, man. Yeah, this awesome.
And of course, this does mean that this works with
computers and laptops indeed.
So if you *really* want clicky keyboard greatness
and you don't want to bother with, uh..
you know, Unicomp or getting something else more modern, then
here you go!
Although, those are all always good options, too.
But you know what, there is always something about the *original*
[mashing keys]
Aauggh!
[mashing keys]
[ecstatic grunting]
[mashing keys]
Alright, well that's it for this quickly made video on a topic that probably three people are going to actually try.
But you know what?
Uh, I don't care. I think this stuff is amusing. [laughs]
I've done some sort of similar things in the past with oddware and whatnot.
In fact, I got a couple of those linked right here, but--
Yeah, this is something that is a little more
relevant.
Sort of? [laughs]
Y'know, I don't really know. I'm making stuff up.
So yeah, get in touch with me on Twitter and Facebook, or whatever, if you want to communicate about
future topics or just *whatever*.
And there's also Patreon if you'd like to support the show monetarily.
And, as always, thank you very much for watching.