IDENTIFY THE KEYBOARD thread

amospalla · 13 Mar 2016, 17:29

Yes, it makes think so, but looking at a Focus 2001 it is different.

u-ra · 13 Mar 2016, 17:37

Looks like FK-555, doesn't it?

amospalla · 13 Mar 2016, 18:21

Somebody is selling it for 5 euro, but only sells on its own city by hand. Is blue ALPS worth it?

Chyros · 13 Mar 2016, 18:36

Fuck, that looks like a Focus FK-555 Oo . Those are very rare. Should be blue Alps!

amospalla · 13 Mar 2016, 18:59

I already asked the guy if he is shipping it. He stated only sells on his city by hand, but maybe there is a price by which he ships it.

It comes with ABS keycaps as seen on the photo.

Anyway, wiki states it always comes with big ass enter, and this one hasn't, but for such a low price why not try?

Chyros · 13 Mar 2016, 19:18

amospalla wrote: I already asked the guy if he is shipping it. He stated only sells on his city by hand, but maybe there is a price by which he ships it.

It comes with ABS keycaps as seen on the photo.

Anyway, wiki states it always comes with big ass enter, and this one hasn't, but for such a low price why not try?

Indeed, it is in fact very rare for ANY Focus board to not come with a bigass enter xD . I'd say jump on it!

Brot · 13 Mar 2016, 19:35

it's a Mitsumi KKR-E99AC-9 but i don't know what type of switch this keyboard uses (linear,tactile,clicky)?

amospalla · 13 Mar 2016, 19:43

Huh, is that a PBT case with ABS keycaps?

Brot · 13 Mar 2016, 20:15

amospalla wrote: Huh, is that a PBT case with ABS keycaps?

It's from a online auction, i don't know

.

E3E · 13 Mar 2016, 20:30

amospalla wrote: I already asked the guy if he is shipping it. He stated only sells on his city by hand, but maybe there is a price by which he ships it.

It comes with ABS keycaps as seen on the photo.

Anyway, wiki states it always comes with big ass enter, and this one hasn't, but for such a low price why not try?

Any mechanical Alps board is worth it for 5 Euro.

Yep, that looks like an ISO version of the Focus FK-555 (you can also vaguely see the side printing on the Caps Lock and Left Ctrl) which is indeed not something you see every day on a board that, in and of itself, does not appear very often.

The board could either be Alps SKCM Blue or Omron B3G-S Cyan, but it's more than likely blue Alps.

Chyros · 13 Mar 2016, 21:17

Brot wrote:
it's a Mitsumi KKR-E99AC-9 but i don't know what type of switch this keyboard uses (linear,tactile,clicky)?

Should be Mitsumi hybrid switches, either linear or tactile.

alh84001 · 14 Mar 2016, 01:52

another focus-ish board, but that's all I can guess. anyone knows more?

photekq · 14 Mar 2016, 02:45

Looks the same as these. No idea what they actually are though!

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Din-5-Pol-METALL ... 4afaa8477a

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Din-5-Pol-METALL ... 4afaa8197a

scottc · 14 Mar 2016, 05:36

I saw one of these keyboards recently, didn't care about it enough to keep bidding though unfortunately. Those look like Cherry (maybe clone) caps. Seen these a lot recently. I'm interested in finding out more about them though.

ohaimark · 14 Mar 2016, 05:39

They look very similar to Chicony KB-5160s.

alh84001 · 14 Mar 2016, 09:58

Yes. The LEDs are the right size and the their lettering is right, except the power/scroll one Their outline differs, which makes sense because it follows those placeholders at the top. The small delete and big-ass enter also match. Did these have clones?

BTW I stumbled upon this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chicony-KB-5160AT-/131619763208
It's not mentioned in the wiki that they come with Cherry MX Whites as well.

Chyros · 14 Mar 2016, 10:00

No, I think it's a Focus FK-747. Even rarer Oo .

ohaimark · 14 Mar 2016, 15:22

alh84001 wrote: Yes. The LEDs are the right size and the their lettering is right, except the power/scroll one Their outline differs, which makes sense because it follows those placeholders at the top. The small delete and big-ass enter also match. Did these have clones?

BTW I stumbled upon this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chicony-KB-5160AT-/131619763208
It's not mentioned in the wiki that they come with Cherry MX Whites as well.

They do come with MX Whites... I know this because I'm selling one with MX Whites.

ohaimark · 14 Mar 2016, 15:25

Chyros wrote: No, I think it's a Focus FK-747. Even rarer Oo .

Looks like Chicony was another OEM for Focus. In any case, they're certainly not rare at the moment. Buy 'em up!

seebart · 14 Mar 2016, 15:35

ohaimark wrote:
alh84001 wrote: Yes. The LEDs are the right size and the their lettering is right, except the power/scroll one Their outline differs, which makes sense because it follows those placeholders at the top. The small delete and big-ass enter also match. Did these have clones?

BTW I stumbled upon this http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chicony-KB-5160AT-/131619763208
It's not mentioned in the wiki that they come with Cherry MX Whites as well.
They do come with MX Whites... I know this because I'm selling one with MX Whites.

Thanks for the info, good thing I did not buy that.

Chyros · 14 Mar 2016, 16:21

ohaimark wrote:
Chyros wrote: No, I think it's a Focus FK-747. Even rarer Oo .
Looks like Chicony was another OEM for Focus. In any case, they're certainly not rare at the moment. Buy 'em up!

AFAIK we do not know yet who made the Focus boards other than that it was originally a factory in Taiwan R.O.C. and it appears the same factory also made the Northgate Omnikey. Whether Focus, Chicony or someone else made these parts is, I think, not known. Chicony has nowhere near as many parallels with Focus' boards as Focus has with Northgate's, though.

seebart · 14 Mar 2016, 16:28

I'm pretty sure that Chicony was not a OEM for Focus, but I don't have proof of that right now.

E3E · 14 Mar 2016, 20:40

I agree. I don't think that Chicony is related to Focus at all. As for the 84 key board; it does look very similar to the Focus FK-747, but it also shares a similarity in its key caps with the later model FAME TH-5539, so it could very well be a Tai Hao clone.

Here's a Focus FK-747A:

As you can see, the caps are not the same here. They use dots instead of scooped caps.

Whether that is indicative of anything, I can't say.

This is the one that's speculated to be Tai Hao.

Thing about Tai Hao and Focus is that that distinctive F-row label is used on both the later model Tai Hao FAME and the Tai Hao APC series and obviously on almost all Focus boards and even the Northgate Omnikey. These all use caps sourced from Tai Hao too.

Confusing, isn't it? If you notice, the Scroll Lock indicator is different between these two, but then...

There's this other one that looks exactly the same in that regard as the FK-747A and this unknown board here.

It's very possible that these boards just all use the same case and such... It's weird that all of these examples seem to have the same layout... Nordic? There's some slight differences between them, but they all seem similar in that regard.

Dra · 14 Mar 2016, 22:01

Judging by the auctions i originally thought that the boards were the same, but the LED indicator windows are aligned by the top and on the bottom for the other one, also note that the 0 is striked through in one model while the other one has a normal 0

What doesn't match up with the FK-747:
A lot of keys do NOT match with the Focus board, namely Tab, Control and Enter as well as the side prints on Ü and +
Homing dots, none of our mystery boards have them
Back cover, our mysterious ones have a black cover on the back as opposed to the white one
Most importantly, XT/AT switch which is not present on the Focus

That being said, I'll most likely pick one up and unveil the mystery

terrycherry · 08 Apr 2016, 15:31

alh84001 wrote: another focus-ish board, but that's all I can guess. anyone knows more?

It's belong one of Chicony KB-5160 series Type1 Keyboard.
Type1 having the older black design on back case which some having the [(Clicky)Alps SKCM Blue]
Here's the Northgate Computer Systems old logo one:

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Type2 having the new white design on back case and some having the FCC ID label and Cherry MX White.

seebart · 08 Apr 2016, 15:33

Awesome thanks for the info terrycherry. I'd love to own that, sooo nice!

Redmaus · 08 Apr 2016, 15:40

Mmm that gold northgate logo.

I want it!

terrycherry · 08 Apr 2016, 15:55

Any idea of this switch of Half mechanical membrane?
[AT][CN][1991.09.20]COPAM+ K-904 keyboard. I believe it made by the China manufacturer Dah Yang.

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keycap · 08 Apr 2016, 16:04

terrycherry wrote: Any idea of this switch of Half mechanical membrane?
[AT][CN][1991.09.20]COPAM+ K-904 keyboard. I believe it made by the China manufacturer Dah Yang.

Looks like a vintage Cherry MY clone.. Not sure why anyone would want to copy such a bad switch.

Redmaus · 08 Apr 2016, 16:05

Looks like slider over dome Cherry mount