It’s impossible to tell what you’ll find on eBay, like an old keyboard and trackball originally designed to launch nuclear missiles.
As detailed Tuesday on Pointless Tinkering ‘s YouTube channel, an enthusiast bought the keyboard on eBay simply because it “looked amazing”and had “some interesting buttons”that said things like “TRANSFER”, “CANCEL”, and “INITIATE “.
The keyboard and trackball were part of a larger nuclear missile silo command center control system. Specifically, the peripherals were part of the console used to launch Minuteman III missiles in the 1980s as part of the US Air Force’s Rapid Execution and Combat Targeting (REACT) program.
As the Cold War history site Nuclear Companion explains and cites “a pointless exercise”: “There is one striking difference between REACT and the old command data buffer (CDB). Whereas CDB had two separate workstations, REACT has both teams side by side. In other words, they work on the same console as a keyboard and trackball.”
The keyboard has reed switches that use magnets to actuate. Other parts include an Intel MD82510/B chip as a serial controller, an Intel 8051 family microcontroller, and RS422 communication chips.
Grabbing a keyboard and trackball off eBay and learning about their history, the enthusiast set to work armed with tools like the Arduino Pro Micro (which ended up being fried) and a microcontroller programmer he purchased through Dromeda Research. He also repaired a trackball that stopped working after purchase and made both the keyboard and trackball work with modern computers with a USB port.
“All this reverse engineering led me to create this little interface that has an Arduino Micro that can simulate a mouse and keyboard,” the owner said. There is even dedicated software for the keyboard.
Of course, there is no RGB lighting here, but some of the keys do have LEDs.
According to the video, both the keyboard and trackball work like normal PC peripherals, with the exception of the Ctrl, Alt, and down keys, which makes the Nuclear Keyboard, as it was dubbed in the video, “very difficult to use as a normal everyday keyboard.”
“Senseless Retribution” said that he would try to address any issues that come up in the next video. Despite its shortcomings, the Nuclear Keyboard is still a breathtaking testament to the power of old technology and fresh minds.