Page 1 of 1

1979 Cherry Keyboard Product Catalog and Price List

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 06:07
by CPTBadAss
This is a cross post from my Geekhack thread.

Shoutouts to jacobolus for pointing this out in the Great Finds subforum on Geekhack. I have obtained a Cherry product catalog and price guide, dated March 1st 1979. I've scanned and uploaded the catalogs so that everyone could read them.

I couldn't figure out how to resize images on Deskthority so I've put the images in the spoiler tags below.
Spoiler:
Image
This page really made me excited.

Image

Image
PDFs:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Cherry_cata ... Catalogues

http://deskthority.net/wiki/File:1979_C ... atalog.pdf

http://deskthority.net/wiki/File:1979_C ... e_List.pdf

Imgur Pictures:

Price List

Catalog

Just a heads up, the price list has an empty page one because I messed up. I didn't skip anything. And it does start the page numbers on page 3.

If you know how to edit the Deskthority Wiki, could someone please upload it to this link or educate me on how I can log in and do so myself? Thanks :D. Fixed this issue.

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 06:16
by the1onewolf
Sniff, sniff how nostalgic.

Re: 1979 Cherry Keyboard Product Catalog and Price List

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 06:48
by 002
Thanks for sharing, CPTBadAss :)
I can help with the wiki when I get home.

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 07:16
by HaaTa
Lol, so it was you who beat me out on this :lol:
No worries, it has been scanned :mrgreen:

Also, dropbox link doesn't work...

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 09:45
by Daniel Beardsmore
Interesting. So that gives us an earlier date for Cherry's solid state capacitive (i.e. foam and foil) from what we have presently.

It also lists M4, M5, M6 and M7 numbers together at once, without naming any series, and there's no logic that I can see for how they choose between those numbers. It looks like they may have consolidated all the numbers as "M7 Series" to differentiate that style switch from all the new switch styles that came out sometime around 1979–82 (M8 to M11).

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 09:50
by 002
CPTBadAss:
  • From the Main wiki page, press the 'Upload file' link under the 'Tools' menu (or click here).
  • Press 'Choose File', and browse to your PDF.
  • In the 'Summary' field, enter the details of the catalog, preferably in the format below (you can just copy and paste, then change the details):

Code: Select all

{{filedesc
| description = Cherry Switches & Keyboards Catalog C-73
| source      = [[Cherry|Cherry US]]
| date        = 1973
| author      = [[User:Daniel beardsmore|Daniel beardsmore]]
| licence     = ©1973 Cherry Electrical Products Corporation
}}
  • Press the 'Upload File' button.
  • Put the 'Cherry Catalogues' page in edit mode by pressing 'Edit' tab in the top-right
  • Enter the filename in the == Catalogues == section in the same format as the others (e.g. *[[File:Cherry Switches & Keyboards Catalog C-73.pdf]])
  • Enter a brief summary in the 'Summary' field at the bottom
  • Press 'Save page' button
  • Pass go
  • Collect $200

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 10:48
by mr_a500
CPTBadAss wrote: Image
The top two appear to be ADDS Consul replacement keyboards:

Image

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 10:50
by 7bit
Does anybody have a download link that works?

Ideally upload it to the wiki!
:-)

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 10:56
by Nuum
The colors of the keycaps are awesome, especially the orange/yellow, but also the purple of the small keypad! Round 6 maybe?

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 11:01
by 7bit
You log into the wiki with your username and password:
http://deskthority.net/w/index.php?titl ... =Main+Page

Then get here:
http://deskthority.net/w/index.php?titl ... e_1979.pdf

and upload the catalogue: "Source filename:" select your file in the dialog and hit "Upload File" at the bottom when done.
:-)

Thanks!
:ugeek:

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 18:02
by CPTBadAss
Crap...I thought the Dropbox link worked. I had a friend test it before hand.

I cannot log into the Wiki. Is there a special password or something? When I try and log in with my normal Deskthority password, it says that I have the incorrect password. However, I obviously can log into DT because I'm posting this...

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 18:07
by scottc
They're different logins, as far as I know.

Edit: Nope! I'm just silly.

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 18:27
by CPTBadAss
Hmmm, I found this old thread describing the same issue. I should be able to log in with my DT account but I'm having the same issue as what is being described in that thread. Seemed that there was issues with the special characters in the user's password. But I don't have ? or > in my password. Not really sure what's going on.

Ok, I figured it out. I had a & in my old password that the DT wiki didn't like. I've changed the password and edited the Wiki. Thank you 002 for that great walkthrough, I'm am mediaWiki challenged :D.

The links to the PDFs are now here.

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 18:52
by mr_a500
Excellent. Thanks for scanning the catalogue. Oh how I wish I could order from it...

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 19:25
by 7bit
Thanks for uploading it!
:ugeek:

Page 7 is interesting.

So there are mechanical and solid state switches (capacitive).
:o

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 19:38
by Halvar
Thanks for scanning and uploading! That was a nice read.

I stumbled over their distinction betwwen "mechanical" and "solid state", too. Quite odd. I wonder where the term "solid state" for those comes from.

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 19:41
by 7bit
There is no mechanical contact.

With this knowledge, we need to change the title from "mechanical keyboard club" to
"mechanical and solid state keyboard club".
:evilgeek:

Page 9, Standard fetures: "... 1000 key depressions per second!"
No excuse for the secretary to type slower because she sits at a terminal and not at a typewriter.
:o

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 19:47
by scottc
7bit wrote: With this knowledge, we need to change the title from "mechanical keyboard club" to
"mechanical and solid state keyboard club".
:evilgeek:
Maybe it should be "mechanical, solid state and electrostatic capacitive non-contact keyboard club"... :roll:

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 19:51
by Muirium
Capsense is a pretty good fit for "solid state", I'd say. Our troublesome word is still "mechanical". I can't figure out a way to define what we mean by it in words. It's more like we're saying quality keyboards, but we chose an awkwardly prescriptive term.

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 20:03
by CPTBadAss
mr_a500 wrote: Excellent. Thanks for scanning the catalogue. Oh how I wish I could order from it...
I have half a mind to call up the distributors that are listed just to see what would happen.

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 20:04
by scottc
Muirium wrote: Capsense is a pretty good fit for "solid state", I'd say. Our troublesome word is still "mechanical". I can't figure out a way to define what we mean by it in words. It's more like we're saying quality keyboards, but we chose an awkwardly prescriptive term.
I agree. It's difficult to define it well.

Deskthority club proposal: new logo and slogan:

Image

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 20:10
by Muirium
I back the slogan, but you can keep your artwork files to yourself!

If we were American, we'd make April 1 a big spoof day every year, and become the rubberdome keyboard club. So much easier to define!

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 20:13
by mr_a500
scottc wrote: Deskthority club proposal: new logo and slogan:

Image
"Really good keyboard club" sure beats the alternatives of "Somewhat average keyboard club" or "Mildly OK keyboard club". (with tagline "We're not too bad... when you think about it")

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 20:14
by CPTBadAss
I don't know, I really like the sound of Mildly OK keyboard club.

Posted: 04 Aug 2014, 20:21
by Muirium
Dirty Keyboard Club: Let me show you my potato pics.

Posted: 06 Aug 2014, 09:31
by ullr
Spherical keycaps are gorgeous.

Posted: 06 Aug 2014, 16:33
by bazh
yeah they had more 'curve' surface (sorry poor vocab) than that of SP family's now, the Cherry numpad caps is more like SP's DSA deep dish

Re: 1979 Cherry Keyboard Product Catalog and Price List

Posted: 15 Aug 2014, 13:21
by Josh
Nice