Buzz
You must be incredibly fortunate to find on eBay a keyboard and trackball mouse accessory set used for launching nuclear missiles.
It takes real luck to stumble upon this keyboard and trackball mouse set on eBay. And the YouTube channel owner Pointless Tinkering is one such lucky individual.
In his latest video, Pointless Tinkering mentioned buying this keyboard on eBay because it looked fantastic and had some interesting buttons like 'TRANSMIT', 'ABORT', and 'INITIATE'.
This keyboard and trackball are part of a larger control system for nuclear missile command centers. Specifically, these two peripherals were once used to launch Minuteman III missiles in the 1990s and were part of the US Air Force's Rapid Execution and Combat Targeting (REACT) program.
Alongside standard character keys, the keyboard features various switches and specialized buttons. Other components include an Intel MD82510/B chip as a serial controller, an Intel 8051 chip as a microcontroller, and RS422 communication interface chip.
Watch the video on restoring the nuclear missile launch keyboard and trackball mouse.
The Pointless Tinkering channel has made several modifications to make the keyboard and trackball mouse compatible with modern computers. Previously, the trackball was broken and unusable. However, using this keyboard for everyday tasks is quite challenging due to some missing keys.
Naturally, the keyboard does not have RGB lighting, only a few keys are equipped with LED lights.
Pointless Tinkering mentioned that he will try to address the issues of this keyboard in upcoming videos. Clearly, the combination of old technology and new thinking always produces interesting results.
