Extended Rabbits 042

Re… ’building’ the Apple Extended Keyboard II (AEKII), without …replacing it?

This is about the Apple Extended Keyboard II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Extended_Keyboard

Note: I have a lot of photos to share, but it’s Christmas Eve. I’ll need some time…

I’ve always loved the Apple Extended Keyboard II which appeared around 1989. Not purely in a nostalgic way, more because it was one of those things that just worked the way it should. The layout, the weight, possibly the way it sounds when you type on it? Okay, that really didn’t matter at the time. But nothing feels accidental about its design, however, muscle memory still plays a big part in this post.
I still have two original AEK II keyboards and I still use them, both adapted to modern Macs using ADB to USB adapters.

ADB to USB Adapter link here
Search for ADB to USB Adapters, I’m using the wonderful
https://www.tinkerboy.xyz/product/tinkerboy-adb-to-usb-keyboard-mouse-converter/

This project wasn’t about replacing those keyboards. I wasn’t trying to move on from them. It was more about asking whether something modern could sit alongside them and feel related, instead of feeling like a compromise forced by age or technology.

Why the form factor still matters

I don’t think the AEK II didn’t become a classic by accident, in fact it may be because it’s just that old. It’s a full-size keyboard, with a proper arrow cluster and a numeric keypad that exist in their own space. After years of working in print design, moving around layouts, entering numbers, navigating grids and forms, this layout stopped being something I thought about. It just became where my hands expect things to be.

Using smaller or more modern keyboards feels strange in a way that’s hard to explain unless you’ve spent a long time on an extended keyboard. Especially if you learned all of this back in the 90s, when this layout was simply a default that came with the computer, and not a specialty add-on item.

At some point after the 1990s, Apple keyboards became pretty difficult to enjoy. I’ve used them all: the clear ones, the white ones, the aluminum ones; yet none of them ever felt good for very long. The keys are shallow and the switch feels vague, and after a few months the plastic develops that shiny and slippery surface that makes everything feel worn out… even when it wasn’t. The modern aluminum keyboards look fine from a distance, but typing on them feels cold and unforgiving, like the experience was designed to be thin and quiet and modern-looking at the expense of actually being usable all day. I’ve tolerated them because they came with the computers, not because I ever wanted to use them. At a certain point, that constant low-level annoyance adds up, especially if you type for a living.

Earlier this year I picked up another AEKII off ebay to see if it had full function, just in case my older one busted. Yep, all working fine!

Fix the past?

I wasn’t trying to fix the AEKII necessarily. The original Alps switches are still great. They feel good, they sound good, and they were built well. That part isn’t the problem.

The issue is noise, and a few other things. In a shared office, an AEK II makes its presence known whether you want it to or not. What I wanted was something quieter, with new switches, modern connections, and the same sense of physical confidence, without trying to pretend the original never existed.

Actually, one issue this new keyboard did not fix is the persistent layout of the Command button and the space bar. The right edge of the command button should line up with the right edge of the X key. When it doesn’t, your left hand contorts into a claw when using common shortcuts like Copy and Paste with the X, C, and V keys.
Ah, well.

Holes & distractions

It doesn’t take long to realize that recreating an AEKII properly is a serious rabbit hole. To really do it, you’d need to somehow bring the old switches or accurate reproductions into the updated common switch design, custom keycaps with the right legends and tooling, hopefully plastic that matches the original color and texture… oh, and a new printed circuit board! …and a steel plate and internal structure that behaves the same way, likely with a lot of sound deadening. Then perhaps a rechargeable battery, oh, and USB-C! Bluetooth, too?

Once you start adding up prototypes, revisions, one-off manufacturing, and the time needed to get it all right, it stops making sense for something meant to be used every day. I wasn’t trying to build a perfect replica or a museum object (even now my mind is considering what that would look like!). I was trying to keep the experience (and the project) intact. Using existing parts that already solve most of the problem felt like the right boundary to set.

Keycaps

Speaking of keycaps, they turned out to be the hardest part of this whole thing. A lot of sets that reference Apple keyboards lean into novelty. Bright colors, playful icons, things that look good in photos but don’t really belong on a desk long term and certainly not on this approach. Other sets miss the point in quieter ways, usually with typography that’s more decorative instead of functional. I suppose I needed something in the middle.

What I was looking for was actually pretty simple. Beige, not white. Tasteful key legends in the correct position. Typography that felt like it was there because it needed to be.

Oh, here they are!

The PBTfans 1984 keycap set was the first one that felt close enough so I’d stop looking. The color lands in the right place and doesn’t try too hard. The legends use Univers Condensed Oblique in the lower left of each key, which immediately felt familiar in a way that’s hard to fake. Thinking deeper, perhaps that was an incorrect choice by Alps and Apple, since in the lower left corner of the keycap kind of hides the legend, and all keyboards that came before this range and after, usually have the legends back in the top left, likely for a usability reason. No matter. Here we are!

PBTfans 1984 Keycap Set
https://kbdfans.com/products/pbtfans-1984

When comparing this set to the original in front me, I found there is one detail that’s slightly off. The modifier keys use Initial Caps instead of all lowercase (while the alphas remain uppercase). It’s not perfect, but it’s close enough. Close enough that you notice it only because everything else is working?

The practicallity of making my own keycaps design to mimic the original is a bit far outside this project scope, yeah…

Modern switches

Switch choice mattered just as much to me as almost everything else. I wanted something quiet, something satisfying, and something that didn’t announce itself every time I typed …in the office. At home is okay, but this was for office work.

I ended up with Akko Penguin switches. They’re tactile, surprisingly, without being loud, and fairly subdued without feeling dead. For only $45 I ended up with 120 switches for a 108-key board. They are fantastically quiet and comfortable. Quieter than a macbook keyboard, by a large margin.

Akko Penguin Switches
https://en.akkogear.com/product/akko-penguin-switch/

The monster stand-in

Caps and switches sit in a Keychron Q6 Max. It’s a full-size keyboard with arrow keys and a numeric keypad exactly where they’ve always been for me. It works with a Mac without needing any workarounds, and it connects over USB-C, Bluetooth, or 2.4GHz wireless.

Once it’s set up, it mostly disappears. Which feels like the right outcome.

Keychron Q6 Max
https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q6-max-qmk-wireless-custom-mechanical-keyboard

Alternate approaches & time

I did spend time exploring and considering building this from scratch. Designing a custom PCB, or even hand-wiring a full switch matrix. Services like PCBWay make it possible in theory, and the control is appealing.

In practice, obviously, it quickly becomes a lengthy and expensive project built around iteration and …maintenance? Full-size keyboard PCBs almost always take multiple revisions. Hand-wiring trades cost for time and frustration, and one bad solder joint can take out an entire column. Both approaches make sense if the build itself is the goal, right? I was trying to cap my time and money on this, constantly.

That wasn’t the goal here. I wasn’t trying to prove I could build a keyboard, which I have with the numpad projects that Brian Warren and I built during the pandemic. I sure wish I could’ve done all of the other parts of that project, but that’s still on the shop desk. Here I wanted to use one, and fast.

PCBWay
https://www.pcbway.com

Backporting not retrofitting

I’m generally interested in taking older equipment and figuring out how it might fit into the present. It can be slow work, and usually more effort than it looks like. I recently saw someone take a four-dollar battery-powered FM radio from the 80s, rebuild the handle on a home CNC machine using walnut, plate it in aluminum, and replace the internals with Bluetooth and rechargeable batteries over USB-C.

The radio still looked like itself, mostly, just updated quietly. That kind of project is exactly what pulls me in. Not erasing the past, just letting it keep going.

I’m coining this as Backporting, but someone surely has a better name for it.

Quality

It’s hard not to notice how consumer goods have shifted over time. Older products were often heavier and simpler, sometimes overbuilt, sometimes inefficient, but usually meant to last. Modern manufacturing optimizes for volume, and that changes what durability looks like. …and feels like.

Mechanical keyboards are an exception in an interesting way. The industry nearly disappeared and then came back with better materials, tighter tolerances, and more thoughtful engineering. It’s not universally better now, but when it’s good, it’s very good. The mechanical keyboard industry and fan groups run deep.

Off to work

The first day I brought this keyboard into work, a coworker immediately razzed me for having a “fancy keyboard.” Which is fair, on some level.

But if you type for a living, the keyboard stops being an accessory and starts being infrastructure. Some people absolutely go too far with this stuff. For me, it feels no different than choosing a well-built bike instead of a basic department-store bike. Both work, but only one feels good every day.
Perspective and priorities.

Why this worked

This setup ended up nearly checking every box I had. It feels visually familiar, rooted in the design language I grew up with, but it also works quietly, reliably, and without fuss. It didn’t cost an unreasonable amount and it didn’t take over my life.

I think that balance matters more to me than perfection. Though honestly, it could have! Which brings us to…

The Three Rabbit-Hole Problem

A project like this starts by pulling in nearby ideas. You look at switches, then the PCB, then the case, and suddenly you’re imagining tooling, fabrication, group buys, and alternate versions of the same object.

I’ve started thinking of that as ”The Three Rabbit Hole Problem”. Once you open more than three paths at the same time, the gravity gets real. I’m very aware of how deep this could have gone. Choosing to stop wasn’t a lack of ambition. It was intentional limited, but the call is still out there!

This keyboard gives me familiarity, quiet, some modern reliability, and just enough restraint to keep it a tool instead of turning into something else.

Phew! Finally!

I now have a 5 lb solid block of aluminum, CNC’d out to house all current electronics, including USB-C, rechargeable battery, bluetooth, key remapping, modern media key functionality for common Mac features like music controls, etc., packed to the gills with multi-padded interior for great quiet sound-deadening, a rotary knob for volume and muting, and omg the switches are so satisfying, …and quiet.

Have any ‘attention divergences’ that turned into a bobby? I’d love to hear about it.