SHARP X68000

[Blaise170]

I created a new page for the [wiki]Sharp X68000[/wiki]. I tried adding as much information as I know about them to the wiki, but if anyone has some photographs or similar that would be very helpful in making it complete.

[seebart]

Thanks, I found this just now, hasu might let us use his pics for our wiki.

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=29060.0

http://imgur.com/a/N1yMX

[Blaise170]

I borrowed an image from Wikipedia since it was licensed under Creative Commons, I'll have to see about asking Hasu to use his images

[ohaimark]

Hasn't Hasu been absent from the keyboard world for a while?

[Blaise170]

Nah Hasu is still active. He was just on GH a few hours ago.

[alh84001]

@blaise, any chance of a (mini)-review of these? And how they compare to the usual Alps suspects - northgates, bigfoots, aeks?

[Blaise170]

Pretty busy these days but as a quick thought they are some of the best Alps boards I've owned. I'm pretty sure they are 100% Alps made.

[terrycherry]

Great job, fellow.

[Chyros]

Pretty busy these days but as a quick thought they are some of the best Alps boards I've owned. I'm pretty sure they are 100% Alps made.

Probably, I spoke to an Alps employee who had been making keyboards in the 90s and he mentioned they made Sharp keyboards in their Milton Keynes plant.

[alh84001]

Here are soma potato pics of mine. Unfortunately, I still haven't gotten the 7pin mini DIN connectors so I can make proper converters, so I couldn't have a typing session with them, but from just handling them around, they seem like really nice boards. Layout is a bit weird, but I don't think there would be many problems with getting used to it, except with that additional key to the left of right shift.



These pics were taken before they were cleaned, so excuse the dust, especially visible on black board.

Spoiler:

The keycaps are doubleshot ABS, except for the ones with LED cutouts. I guess these are pad-printed?



Two top left keys (BREAK and COPY) are really heavy. They have an SKCM switch that I dubbed Heavy Cream. I'll need to make a wiki entry for it.




That bottom pic has a mix of 16x nickels (5g), 2x 1HRK (5g), 3x quarter (5.6g), 1x 5HRK (7.5g) - so that's about ~115g, and it was close to bottoming out, but not there yet.

As for SKCL greens and SKCL yellows


Second pic is blurry, but there are two nickels more on SKCL yellow than on SKCL green.

I actually got two DSETK0016CE01 boards, and the other one has a tiny bit of a yellowing tint, but it also has that legend below the spacebar and it has some really nice stickers on the front side of the keys.

I also got the DSETK0024CE00 model. It's a real beauty of a keyboard

Spoiler:

There's just one "minor" issue - due to NMB switches it is an absolutely horrendous typing experience

[Blaise170]

Yuck, I've had that keyboard with NMB switches as well. Nasty switches those. Fortunately the secondhand X68K market in the US is great for resale, as I still managed to resell my NMB model for over $100.

[alh84001]

I thought I got stuck with a ~$150 paperweight, but it didn't take long after I put it on ebay to see it snagged by someone in Switzerland, for a small profit to boot. So no complaints there