Classic Keyboard Apk
Seronica Barnes
MEDIA KIT / SUPPORT / DISCLAIMER
With its design originating from retro typewriters and crafted with modern features, the Azio Retro Classic is the perfect amalgam of past, present, and future. Evoking nostalgia with its round keycaps, this backlit mechanical keyboard is complemented with a durable metal alloy frame and a premium leather or wood surface. By combining genuine materials and innovative technology in a vintage-inspired form, a new modern line of creative tools is perfected.
I've owned the Retro Classic in elwood for one year now. I went through two other keyboards with failing keys and non-working spacebars before I decided to invest on something that would hopefully work for a longer period of time and look great on my desk. This keyboard is a gentle giant. It's definitely heavy. However, replying to emails is almost a joy with the tactile feeling of the keys reminding me of old typewriters. I also love the lighting detail whenever I turn on the keyboard. Besides the aesthetics, my favorite feature is the fact that I can use my keyboard on my Windows laptop and then -- from across the room -- switch it over to use on my Mac desktop. This is such a great function if you have more than one computer in your work/living space.
Today I decided to make a guide on how to install a classic T410/T420 7-row keyboard into T430s. I have even recorded some video commentary, but english is not my native language and while it sounds perfectly fine in my head, in reality it's absolutely terrible due to the lack of practice. And also my phone screwed up half of the recorded video resulting in broken files.
I have been looking to mod the keyboard on my x240, and found a few posts on this sub about a classic keyboard mod on X230s. given the similar form factor between the x230 and x240, would a similar mod be at all doable on the x240?
The W530, T430, T530, and the X230, was the first premium generation to use chiclet/island-style keys. While many prefer the classic keyboards, the general consensus is that the chiclet/island-style one doesn't feel far off. It does however have a different layout and is missing some keys. It does have a possibility of being backlit though, which the classic one does not. (Comparison: T430 T420)
All keyboards from the xx20 series are compatible. Refer here for the list of suitable FRUs. The first columns is ALPS keyboard (generally regarded as the worst), the second row is Chicony (regarded as good) and the third row is NMB (regarded at the best). The differences between Chicony and NMB are most likely minor.
xx20 and xx30 keyboard pinouts are slightly different, so first thing you need to do is to isolate pins #25 and #29 (grab a schematic to see where they are). The reason for it is that in xx30 keyboard these pins are separated, but in xx20 one they are connected all together, shorting VCC5M_KBD (pin #25) to ground through the keyboard cable. I disassembled the keyboard and covered #25, #27 and #29 with adhesive tape (#27 is redundant since it's connected directly to ground on the motherboard). Plastic cover on the top can be easily removed, allowing to access internal keyboard connector. Step-by-step pictures of this process can be found here.
Unless you also reflash the Embedded Controller firmware, some keys won't be detected at all and others will have different functions. All Fn commands will be the original ones (listed on the xx30 keyboard) instead of those shown on the xx20 keyboard.
Along the bottom edge of the T430 keyboard are four small nubs that fit into place along four idents in the chassis. These nubs help secure the keyboard into place, and make sure it is aligned correctly. The classic keyboard, however, has five nubs - and they're much thicker. Whereas the T430 nubs are only extensions of the metal plate covering the back of the keyboard, the classic nubs actually extend upwards and fit the entire thickness of the keyboard. The classic's fifth nub is located under the TrackPoint keys.
This allows the keyboard to remain in it's original state (minus the tape on the connectors, but that can be easily reversed). Simply make the holes that are intended for the keyboard nubs bigger (both in width and height). Be careful when it comes to height, as you may simply pierce the top layer of the plastic, exposing the holes. This will most likely be less visually impressive than the 2nd method, unless you do it very precisely.
If you don't want to reflash the EC firmware, you can still use the keyboard reasonably well, however not all of the keys work correctly, as detailed in the Keymap Table. However, if a key performs an action, that action can be rebound on a system-wide level to any other action.
The last remap in SharpKeys, Unknown > Turn Key Off, corresponds to disabling the Menu key (key 0x0075). Without this entry, my keyboard was making all left clicks act as though the Menu key was being held down. You may not need this entry, but if you do, be sure to add it. I believe this stems from the fact that there is no Menu Key on the T430 keyboard, but I'm not sure why it was constantly signalling itself as on.
Keyboards have been much in the news of late, largely on account of manufacturers like (and also mainly) Apple. In the race towards ever thinner, ever lighter laptops, designers have been taking risks around the mechanics of the keyboard, offering ever shorter key travel and flimsier action. Recent MacBooks, in particular, have been accused by users of being susceptible even to tiny dust particles, to the extent that individual keys can become unreliable or even fail altogether.
The AZIO Retro Classic Bluetooth keyboard, like the USB keyboard, has a numeric pad on the right-hand side, as well as the regular typewriter-style numeric row across the top. Which would you have used to enter the numeric Bluetooth pairing code? It turns out the digits have to be entered using the numeric top row keys.
A treasure trove of classical organs and instruments in a compact cabinet, the new C-230 is an elegant addition to any home, church, or music venue. An instantly selectable library of instruments is onboard, including coveted classical organ and bass tones, harpsichords, fortepiano, celesta, and more. The internal amplification system provides high-quality output, with two satellite speakers and RSS ambience technology for immersive, rich sound.
Elevate your keyboard setup to the next level with the CableMod Classic Keyboard Cable. Made for keyboards with a USB-C port, this coiled keyboard cable is sleeved with both ModFlex and ModMesh sleeving, and is the ultimate accessory to make your keyboard setup pop.
If you have a Lenovo ThinkPad T430, T430s or X230 and want to swap the stock 6-row chiclet-style keyboard for a classic T410/T420 7-row keyboard, this guide will show you how to do it. This should also work for X230t, T530 and W530.
The keyboard shown in the photos have already been modified, so read the descriptions carefully. Most photos also have captions containing additional information and details, so be sure not to miss them too.
The xx30 series keyboard has 4 retaining tabs at the bottom that slide inside the bezel and provide additional stability for the keyboard. The xx20 series keyboard however has an additional tab in the center right below the TrackPoint buttons. Simply cut it off with wirecutters so it looks the same as your xx30 keyboard and smooth out sharp edges with file.
The 4 remaining tabs provide additional stability for the keyboard and prevent it from wobbling during use. That's why I don't recommend cutting them off completely, even though it's the quickest way. Instead cut them partially so they resemble the tabs from your xx30 keyboard as closely as possible.
To do this cut the edges of each tab laterally to the bottom of the keyboard, so you could then use pliers to bend out the middle part. Bend it outward so it becomes level with the keyboard base plate and then cut off the excess part while leaving a little slack. This slack is your new tab. Smooth out sharp edges with file.
The shape of the xx30 series bezel is slightly different along the top border of the keyboard. If you install the xx20 keyboard at this point you will see that the bezel bends out right above the mute button. This doesn't look nice and can potentially interfere with opening and closing the lid.
Due to the fact that newer keyboards have backlight, there are minor electrical differences between xx30 and xx20 series keyboards. That's why you need to isolate several contact pins on the keyboard's ribbon cable using electrical, scotch or masking tape. Failure to do so will make several contacts short circuit and burn out when you power the keyboard on for first time. Interestingly, this will result in electrical current not being able to flow through them anymore, thus making the problem resolve itself.
While general consensus seems to be that it's ok to leave the contact pins as they are and let them burn out, there is at least one known case of keyboard circuitry frying as a result. Therefore I recommend spending additional 5-7 minutes to isolate the contact pins just to be on the safe side.
Now that you have performed all the necessary modifications, you can reattach the plastic cover and then proceed to install the keyboard the regular way. If you did everything right, it should snap in place with ease. If not, put it side by side with your xx30 keyboard and check if the bottom tabs are too big. If they are, file them down more, until they fit.
The only thing left to do now is to flash the modified EC firmware so all your top row and Fn+ keys work as they should. Until then, the keyboard functions the same way as the stock xx30 one, but with slight differences:
Thanks for this instructable.
It's getting harder to find classic keyboards, though - most of
the sellers are selling some kind of newer model (the backside looks
different from the ALPS/Chicony/NMB models) which seems to be a bit
inferior in quality. It has a sticker "CSD12 Backlit Keyboard" on the back. On that keyboard, the power button LED is not exactly in the center, the ThinkVantage label looks a bit crappy, and the typing feel is a bit mushy. I suspect it's made by some third party factory.
I got one of these, one new Chicony (which was last one available from that seller, and relatively expensive) and one used Chicony (which needed a lot of cleaning, would have preferred getting another new one). I couldn't find any NMB keyboard, even though that's the one I prefer (most of the keys in my X220 became polished to piano gloss black with usage, but it still works fine).
I've done the mod to two X230t tablets and one X230 laptop so far.
Instead of following steps 2 and 3, I used X220t and X220 palmrests which are rather cheap on eBay. Their shape nicely follows the arc of the TrackPoint buttons. I read that this is only possible with X230 model, a T520 or W520 palmrest wouldn't fit a T530 or W530. I can confirm it also works with X230t (which has a different palmrest than the non-tablet version).
Steps 4 and 5 are easy to do, on X230t they can be skipped if a X220t keyboard bezel is used (it fits). However, the X220 bezel doesn't fit X230. I used the X220t bezel on one of my X230t tablets and modified the keyboard for the other and the X230 laptop.
For step 6, I used Kapton (polyimide) tape, which is better than insulating tape in this case, because the Kapton tape is thinner, less risk of it's presence reducing the contact for the other pins. I skipped the mod for the "CSD12 Backlit Keyboard" out of curiosity, however the backlight didn't work for me. This keyboard itself works fine without the mod.
Flashing the EC update was a bit cumbersome, since I don't currently run any Linux.
First, I had to downgrade the BIOS to "last good" versions, after that I downloaded an Ubuntu image and used UNetbootin to flash it to a USB stick. I booted my daily driver X220 into Ubuntu, which provides a usable system without needing to install it. I then followed the steps to install the required packages, clone the thinkpad-ec GitHub repo, and create images for X220 and X220t, which I then flashed to another USB stick.
Following the EC update, I flashed unlocked BIOS using 1vyrain. This required first downgrading to even older versions of BIOS, which can be done very conveniently by booting Windows, downloading IVprep and running downgrade.bat. With BIOS downgraded, it's just a matter of flashing the 1vyrain image to a USB stick, booting from it and following the steps.
Note: If I understand correctly, it has to be done in this order: thinkpad-ec first, 1vyrain later. At least this is how I did it, and it worked. When you flash one of Lenovo's BIOS images, it flashes both BIOS and EC. Booting a thinkpad-ec image requires a not-too-recent BIOS, and it flashes the (patched) EC only. IVprep downgrades to a really old BIOS (requires for 1vyrain to work) but doesn't touch the EC. 1vyrain flashes the most recent BIOS (so I suspect thinkpad-ec might not work if done after this step) but doesn't touch the EC. If done in the order I mentioned, you end up with the unlocked version of the latest BIOS and the patched EC enabling the correct use of the classic keyboard.
Main benefits of using 1vyrain to install the unlocked BIOS: you get the latest version of the BIOS, which contains some security fixes. The BIOS is unlocked meaning you can use a more modern WiFi card. For my "new" X230 I installed an Intel AX210 using a Fenvi M.2 NGFF to Mini PCI-E adapter (Key E) and can confirm that it works fine with stock antennas (this particular adapter converts the antenna ports as well, AX210 antenna ports - I-PEX4/MHF4 standard - are connected to the adapter with the included super short cables, and the X230 stock antennas - I-PEX/U.fl standard are plugged into the matching ports on the adapter as well)