IDENTIFY THE KEYBOARD thread

[Morning_Spirit]

Alright, thanks. I'll keep that in mind. Haven't noticed that also cause I currently live far from the USA.

[Drakiar]

Hello.

I have a huge problem . I am severely handicapped and type with an overlay keyboard. But i need a real keyboard for gaming. Yesterday my right shift key died(most used key). It's a very old one(10-15y+?) i don't even know the model. But no other has the stuff i need. I will try to describe it:

It's a black Cherry one with PS2. Top it has tiny symbols that light up, a 1 for Numlock, an A for Capslock and another. Below the arrow keys is a mute button and a button which opens windows media player(not programable). Can you identify it?

I would pay a lot for one or at least a finders fee. I am not joking. I can't do any gaming now Please help.

[SK-8K]

Hello.

I have a huge problem . I am severely handicapped and type with an overlay keyboard. But i need a real keyboard for gaming. Yesterday my right shift key died(most used key). It's a very old one(10-15y+?) i don't even know the model. But no other has the stuff i need. I will try to describe it:

It's a black Cherry one with PS2. Top it has tiny symbols that light up, a 1 for Numlock, an A for Capslock and another. Below the arrow keys is a mute button and a button which opens windows media player(not programable). Can you identify it?

I would pay a lot for one or at least a finders fee. I am not joking. I can't do any gaming now Please help.

Is it a Cherry-made board or does it just have Cherry switches? Can you post a picture?

There should be a sticker on the back with a number on it.

[Drakiar]

Got it, here: https://imgur.com/a/Q9egMjt

[inozenz]

Got it, here: https://imgur.com/a/Q9egMjt

looks kinda rubberdome

[Drakiar]

What does that mean? It is a Cherry.

[SK-8K]

Do you need the mute and media buttons in the same exact place? If so I can build you a custom keyboard with the buttons there but there are many other keyboards on the market that have multimedia keys, just in different spots.

[Drakiar]

Yes i need them there. 99% have them topside but i have VERY limited movement so i just grip around the arrow keys and can barely reach 1-2 keys away. Like Numpad 0, 1 & 4. Delete and End. Enter and 1 left of it. Right Ctrl and Right Shift. My body got used that even changing height of my electric wheelchair or keyboard it changes how fast my hand tires.

You can build one?

Edit: Gotta go to bed right now.

[Palatino]

Welcome to the forum.
The middle one, branded “Eagle”, has Tai-Hao semi-mechanical switches (not good, but the keycaps should be doubleshots if you want to harvest those)

Actually I’ve just received one of these in the post, and though I bought it purely for the keycaps, expecting to hate the keyboard, since Chryos in his review absolutely loathed it, I actually quite like it. Maybe he got a bad one. Mine has zero sticky or binding keys: it’s actually quite nice to type on. The switches have a hint of tactility if you press the keys one at a time, but when you’re typing properly it’s basically a linear feel. High actuation point and light: pretty Cherry-red like. Will post a full review when I get a moment.

[Morning_Spirit]

Wow! I would really love the see your review! Also thinking of getting it for the keycaps, but I just got a deal for a similar board to the Alps clone one for about 14USD although with some yellowing keycaps.

Spoiler:

yellowish.jpg (151.12 KiB) Viewed 7843 times

Compared to the deal I got on that board, the "Eagle" board is about 40ish USD which the seller is not even willing to negotiate because it is a "Peculiar" type of vintage keyboard (it's like 1/3 the minimum monthly wage in my city, pretty expensive for a keyboard).
Wish I can get both of them but having too many boards atm, need to get rid of some of it somehow

[Anaconda]

Hi people. Im looking for vintage brown switch donor boards on ebay (mainly g80-11800) and came across a board with this tag on the back.
I'd like to know what the date of manufacturing is on according to the tag and also how you read them. I saw the example on the wiki of the g80-11800 but I don't really understand how you read it.

[hellothere]

Assuming it's "J08," I'd say, 1996 - February.

How can I tell if my G80, G81, G83, G84 series keyboard is still under warranty?

The last three digits of the serial number are the date code. This can be found on the bottom of the keyboard. They will consist of a letter and two numbers. The letter corresponds to the year the keyboard was manufactured. Current sequence is as follows: Q = 2004, R = 2005, S = 2006 etc. The two digits that follow the letter correspond to the week number the keyboard was manufactured.

The date code R46 means the keyboard was manufactured in the 46th week of 2005.

This has the feel of truthiness, but if anyone else wants to comment, please do.

[TicTocTom]

Hello everyone. Can you help me ID these 3 Model M looking keyboards from this potato? Planning to go pick them up, but it's a bit of a drive. One ANSI, one ISO with windows keys, one Bigass enter. No badges visible. Classic colours and layout. Thank you. https://imgur.com/gallery/X4uaYbn

[Palatino]

None of those are Model Ms, I think it’s safe to say. The case shapes are all wrong, as well as the key sizes and lack of logos. The one with the wider Escape key is probably a BTC as that’s characteristic of them. The other two could be a whole lot of things based on the blurry photo, but not Ms for sure.

[Palatino]

Can you ask the seller for better pictures? I wouldn’t drive a long way unless he’s giving them away!

[TicTocTom]

Thanks guys. I got better potatoes: BTC-53 (foam and foil), Mitsumi KPQ (tactile dome), and Se Jin EAT 1010R2 (Futaba MA, reverse cross mount). It's gonna be a pass. Interested in checking them out, could have salvaged the BTC caps, but not worth two hours in the car. Not with gas at nearly $1.80/L. Cheers.

[John Doe]

Really appreciate it if someone could enlighten me what this is.

Spoiler:

A192DED3-4CEF-4AB0-914E-25EC72A89A8C.jpeg (3.34 MiB) Viewed 7342 times

7D697538-16C1-4342-828D-BEB75F7226EA.jpeg (2.43 MiB) Viewed 7342 times

6ABEA133-8161-4A9C-9E3F-768AE0EDC1B4.jpeg (2.59 MiB) Viewed 7342 times

[jsheradin]

Really appreciate it if someone could enlighten me what this is.

Spoiler:

A192DED3-4CEF-4AB0-914E-25EC72A89A8C.jpeg

7D697538-16C1-4342-828D-BEB75F7226EA.jpeg

6ABEA133-8161-4A9C-9E3F-768AE0EDC1B4.jpeg

Based on this it was made in America, week 41 of 1981. Visually it looks a lot like HP's line up from around that time but there were a handful of switches in use. Care to pull a cap?

I can't find anything that looks like it though. Closest I've found is the 2762A but it's definitely not that.

Spoiler:

[John Doe]

Visually it looks a lot like HP's line up from around that time but there were a handful of switches in use. Care to pull a cap?

Ofc if that help. Cherry m7/8 I believe, have seen it in otherr HP' 80s boards so not much surprised about this part. Thanks.

Spoiler:

08C32462-0560-415E-BEE7-585F1E748668.jpeg (427.59 KiB) Viewed 7216 times

[jsheradin]

Visually it looks a lot like HP's line up from around that time but there were a handful of switches in use. Care to pull a cap?

Ofc if that help. Cherry m7/8 I believe, have seen it in otherr HP' 80s boards so not much surprised about this part. Thanks.

Spoiler:

08C32462-0560-415E-BEE7-585F1E748668.jpeg

Any part numbers on the PCB? HP is usually pretty good about manuals and documentation for every PCB they make.

[light655]

This is a keyboard with Alps SKCM White switches that I recently acquired.

it has an Alps bigfoot style case, with plastic back.
The layout is a focus layout.
The alpha-numeric area white keys are double-shot ABS, while the grey keys are pad printed and have grey/red/green/blue legends.
All the F-keys are pad printed, though.

It label sticker has been peeled off, and just from the appearance I couldn't find a same keyboard online.
The closest I've seen is a Tai Hao 5539, but that has a metal back.
The PCB is labelled "E&E 101a".

[jsheradin]

Visually it looks a lot like HP's line up from around that time but there were a handful of switches in use. Care to pull a cap?

Ofc if that help. Cherry m7/8 I believe, have seen it in otherr HP' 80s boards so not much surprised about this part. Thanks.

Spoiler:

08C32462-0560-415E-BEE7-585F1E748668.jpeg

I thumbed through a catalog from that time period and I'm pretty sure this was part of an HP 3388a Reporting Integrator.

Spoiler:

hp.JPG (155.04 KiB) Viewed 7074 times

hp2.JPG (46.51 KiB) Viewed 7074 times

hp3.jpg (125.45 KiB) Viewed 7048 times

[alexandrufloca]

hello everybody. I'm new here, i have a large vintage computer collection in Romania I also have some spare keyboards i might part with and was curious about what they are worth, if they are worth anything, i keep them as spares but at the moment i am trying to downsize a little.

First one is a unknown keyboard, maybe someone knows more about it
Https://ibb.co/r3f4804

Second is a micro switch keyboard made for a romanian terminal
https://ibb.co/2hLs3hV
https://ibb.co/7vdfggR
https://ibb.co/KGsk8MC
https://ibb.co/L1T5Lbm
https://ibb.co/h96rmGf


third is an other keyboard, also from a romanian terminal, it has gold plated switches
https://ibb.co/68s7P9M
https://ibb.co/KrFj69H



and number 4, i have an unidentified switch (i have at least a couple hundreds of this switch) it is for sure from the '80 or early '90
https://ibb.co/kGRN2fs
https://ibb.co/nkqwfRB
https://ibb.co/Rcq1QqZ

[zrrion]

Last switch is some sort of futaba switch, doesn't have a name as far as I know.

2nd to last switch looks like cherry gold crosspoint (m7)

[alexandrufloca]

@zrrion you mean no. 4 is some sort of futaba switch and no.3 the gold plated ones are cherry gold crosspoint?

[zrrion]

Correct

[hellothere]

Thanks guys. I got better potatoes: BTC-53 (foam and foil), Mitsumi KPQ (tactile dome), and Se Jin EAT 1010R2 (Futaba MA, reverse cross mount). It's gonna be a pass. Interested in checking them out, could have salvaged the BTC caps, but not worth two hours in the car. Not with gas at nearly $1.80/L. Cheers.

Futaba MA is a really nice switch.

[Palatino]

Agreed. Plus I have a BTC 5100 foam and foil which feels really good to me - wasn’t expecting it to with all the anti F&F feeling. I’d make the drive myself- maybe. 2 hours round trip or each way, that’s the question.

[Drag0nFly]

Greetings everyone–

I came across this rather curious board, which – lacking much of any identifiable information (either on the front or back) – has proven to be a bit of a (perhaps short-lived) mystery. All I can discern is that the logo (if that is indeed what it is) appears to be three slightly diagonal bars (in the section for the lock lights), and a serial number which might be “KC7106829”.

It also has a quite interesting layout with a cross-nav, and an oddly-shaped enter (neither big-ass, nor ISO or the thinner ANSI, but more of a fusion between a big-ass enter and the ISO enter – or perhaps all three – if that makes sense). It also has an angled DIN-plug, which I can't say I've seen before.

Since the board has not appeared in physical form, it has proven a challenge to identify it from simply looking at pictures.
(what is at least 95% certain though is that it has ABS caps, as those are yellowed – or should I say – brownized beyond belief)

Any input would be appreciated. ^-^

keyboard_00.jpg (1.53 MiB) Viewed 6616 times

keyboard_01.jpeg (1.12 MiB) Viewed 6616 times

keyboard_02.jpg (1.85 MiB) Viewed 6616 times

[John Doe]

Greetings everyone–

I came across this rather curious board, which – lacking much of any identifiable information (either on the front or back) – has proven to be a bit of a (perhaps short-lived) mystery. All I can discern is that the logo (if that is indeed what it is) appears to be three slightly diagonal bars (in the section for the lock lights), and a serial number which might be “KC7106829”.

It also has a quite interesting layout with a cross-nav, and an oddly-shaped enter (neither big-ass, nor ISO or the thinner ANSI, but more of a fusion between a big-ass enter and the ISO enter – or perhaps all three – if that makes sense). It also has an angled DIN-plug, which I can't say I've seen before.

Since the board has not appeared in physical form, it has proven a challenge to identify it from simply looking at pictures.
(what is at least 95% certain though is that it has ABS caps, as those are yellowed – or should I say – brownized beyond belief)

Any input would be appreciated. ^-^

keyboard_00.jpgkeyboard_01.jpegkeyboard_02.jpg

Most info of this board is in dark, but atleast it's alps switches.

Spoiler:

1D4598D5-6380-4113-8D76-030CF4BAA4CD.jpeg (248.43 KiB) Viewed 6504 times

3855F701-B498-467E-8C61-3EA607FE993F.jpeg (500.22 KiB) Viewed 6504 times