Cherry G81-1281SAW
Posted: 01 May 2022, 23:18
It's been a long time since I posted an album of photos here. I've got lots of new things (including a few undiscovered things) that I'd love to share, but these days I always struggle to find the time to get my DSLR out. And Deskthority doesn't deserve shitty phone pics! 
Anyway, I got this thing the other day. After seeing it in person I knew that I wouldn't be able to resist getting my DSLR out. It's too beautiful to not share right away.
I'd been searching for one ever since scottc found the first one, almost 6 years in total! I truly never thought I'd find one, but here we are.
This lovely keyboard comes with Cherry's dye-sublimated PBT keycaps; the best of the best. They're in Polish programmer layout, but have lots and lots of tertiary legends that have nothing to do with standard Polish programmer layout. I've been trying to figure out what all of those were meant for, but I've had no luck so far! My best guess is that the systems to which these keyboards belonged (another mystery) had a very specific use case, which called for all those extra legends. If anyone has any clues or knowledge about that, please do post about it!
One mystery has been solved with this keyboard though - the legend of the previously missing key. It's not another EXT, it's not a standard 'Control', but instead a 'Ctrl'.
Aside from that and the Zenith branding, it's a standard G81. Nothing exciting, nothing worth photographing internally. I chucked a G80-1000HAU PCB in there to make it into a nice keyboard
Anyway, here's what you're here for. Pictures! The first two show the keyboard in its original condition.
I always struggle maintaining consistent white balance with these old boards, so apologies for any deviation.
Autocrop makes some of these look awful. Right click -> Open image in new tab.
Anyway, I got this thing the other day. After seeing it in person I knew that I wouldn't be able to resist getting my DSLR out. It's too beautiful to not share right away.
I'd been searching for one ever since scottc found the first one, almost 6 years in total! I truly never thought I'd find one, but here we are.
This lovely keyboard comes with Cherry's dye-sublimated PBT keycaps; the best of the best. They're in Polish programmer layout, but have lots and lots of tertiary legends that have nothing to do with standard Polish programmer layout. I've been trying to figure out what all of those were meant for, but I've had no luck so far! My best guess is that the systems to which these keyboards belonged (another mystery) had a very specific use case, which called for all those extra legends. If anyone has any clues or knowledge about that, please do post about it!
One mystery has been solved with this keyboard though - the legend of the previously missing key. It's not another EXT, it's not a standard 'Control', but instead a 'Ctrl'.
Aside from that and the Zenith branding, it's a standard G81. Nothing exciting, nothing worth photographing internally. I chucked a G80-1000HAU PCB in there to make it into a nice keyboard
Anyway, here's what you're here for. Pictures! The first two show the keyboard in its original condition.
I always struggle maintaining consistent white balance with these old boards, so apologies for any deviation.
Autocrop makes some of these look awful. Right click -> Open image in new tab.
