Early Amiga 500 find/cleaning

Thereminz · 04 Dec 2017, 10:42

Here's an album of an early Amiga 500 I found. I also cleaned it up.
https://imgur.com/a/gZF8P
It has one-eyed white linear space invaders. The spacebar switch is neon green. The capslock is a white variant with led.
Unit might be rare (even more rare than regular early Amiga 500s) as a sticker on the back says it's a 'sample unit number 104' and 'not for resale' and that it doesn't meet FCC compliance so I guess I'm on the run from Commodore and the feds now.

Findecanor · 04 Dec 2017, 11:30

That's pretty cool! Too bad about the missing caps.

snuci · 04 Dec 2017, 14:02

I do like that early A500. I'll have to check my normal "run-of-the-mill" A500 to see what switches it has. I've never actually looked.

Oh, and if you'd like to "ditch" this Amiga because they are hot on your trail, let me know. I can smuggle it into Canada for safe keeping

Very cool.

Engicoder · 04 Dec 2017, 18:25

The "run-of-the-mill" A500's have the hybrid Mitsumis. The space invades version of the A500 keyboard is nearly identical to the space invaders stand-alone keyboard used with the A2000, 3000 and 4000. The A500 has a different pinout as it has power and FDD leds on the keyboard, but the A2000, et al does not. I believe the PCB is the same.
There was also a Cherry MX version of the A2000 keyboard, but I am not sure if a Cherry A500 ever existed.

Daniel Beardsmore · 04 Dec 2017, 22:04

Curious, that may be the first time that I've seen a non-pigmented LED switch. I have some photos from Guru of one of these keyboards, dated … "872" something — seems to be a backwards 4. I don't know what switch that has under Caps Lock. One day we need to narrow down when the switches started being pigmented.

snuci · 04 Dec 2017, 22:37

Engicoder wrote: ↑The "run-of-the-mill" A500's have the hybrid Mitsumis

I'm used to those having rubber sleeves but I pulled off the Help key and it had a spring. I only remember those on keys with LEDs.

Thereminz · 05 Dec 2017, 06:12

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: ↑Curious, that may be the first time that I've seen a non-pigmented LED switch. I have some photos from Guru of one of these keyboards, dated … "872" something — seems to be a backwards 4. I don't know what switch that has under Caps Lock. One day we need to narrow down when the switches started being pigmented.

yeah i thought it was going to be purple

Findecanor · 05 Dec 2017, 12:23

Engicoder wrote: ↑There was also a Cherry MX version of the A2000 keyboard, but I am not sure if a Cherry A500 ever existed.

The Cherry-made Amiga 2000 keyboard has a unique layout with 1u F-keys and space between the space bar and Alt keys, so the same board would not fit into a A500 case.

snuci wrote: ↑
Engicoder wrote: ↑The "run-of-the-mill" A500's have the hybrid Mitsumis
I'm used to those having rubber sleeves but I pulled off the Help key and it had a spring.

In general, stand-alone Mitsumi-made Amiga keyboards have rubber sleeves but integrated keyboard/computers had springs. For all I know, you could mix and match if you wanted to and I'm sure some people did.
Mitsumi keyboards with rubber sleeves for PCs were very common in the late '90s, so you might have seen those also.

czarek · 05 Dec 2017, 16:15

Yep, I have 2 of those keyboards, one in early A500 (like yours, white linear Space Invaders), and one dedicated for A2000 (yellow linear Space Invaders), which my RealForce reminds me a lot (looks similar, feels a bit similar, being slightly lower than normal travel due to silencing, and extremely smooth key action, oh and obviously gorgeous dye sub PBT caps).

They're really lovely. If I could get a PC keyboard in standard ANSI layout with those switches I'd be very happy

Daniel Beardsmore · 05 Dec 2017, 20:06

Thereminz wrote: ↑yeah i thought it was going to be purple

Hm … pigmented switch for space bar, but non-pigmented LED switch … Curious. With proper illustration (switch types and date evidence) it could be a reference for the very under-used [wiki]Hi-Tek Series 725 variants[/wiki] reference page.

Thereminz · 06 Dec 2017, 06:36

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: ↑
Thereminz wrote: ↑yeah i thought it was going to be purple
Hm … pigmented switch for space bar, but non-pigmented LED switch … Curious. With proper illustration (switch types and date evidence) it could be a reference for the very under-used [wiki]Hi-Tek Series 725 variants[/wiki] reference page.

I'd be happy to help if you want...I think I saw a sticker with may of 1987 on the board. so it would be one of the early amiga 500s.