Hatsuko Electronics HEKB01 Data Entry Keyboard [Topre]

[002]

I've never been able to get my hands on a JUKI Celavi, but by chance I seem to have stumbled on the next best thing...and for a fraction of the cost

I took a gamble on the Hatsuko Electronics Data Entry Keyboard EM486 (HEKB01) when I found it on Yahoo Auctions in late February. The auction pictures weren't amazing, but it was easy to see that it had a lot of similarities to other Topre OEM boards; the "HiPro" keycaps, the Sony NEWS style labelling in the top-right, the back label format and generally just the dissimilarity to the very distinct Fujitsu data entry keyboards. Listed as BIN for 3500 yen (around $35AUD) I thought I may as well give it a shot - and I'm glad I did as it has lead to a new Topre discovery (party!)

Front. Doesn't look too yellow in this pic but it is pretty bad:




Not sure how they achieve this labelling on ABS plastic?:




Toggle switches:




Back. Strange that the cable exits there. You'd lose a bit of length routing back to the left:




Back label with Hatsuko's radical 80's font logo:




Two setting height-adjustable leg, and also my non-height-adjustable leg in the background:




Volume slider. Maybe it has some speaker output for keypresses:




Wear on the dye sublimated number pad. Shows how much abuse this beast has had over the years. The right half of the '5' is very faded:




And if you thought that was impressive, the '0' key in the centre is on it's way to being a cylindrical:




Side profile:

[Jmneuv]

Beautiful .. the levers are boss.

[7bit]

Wow!

A keyboard from the future!


When looking at the first photos I thought it is quite unused.

[Okeg]

Ooh, interesting.
Interesting layout, and the switches are very... Interesting...

What connector does it use?

[002]

It's an 8-pin Mini-DIN connector, like this one.

[nacho]

Nice stuff. Did you check/open the switches ?

[Parak]

Yikes, highly worn rubber domes

[Okeg]

Yikes, highly worn rubber domes

Here we go again! *hides from the shitstorm*

[phetto]

Nice find double-0. Did you make a thread already posting pics of your topre boards? If not, do it please:}

[CoolPenguin1]

Well this is quite the necro but I figured this is a appropriate place to post it.
A Fujitsu Leaf Spring version of the HEKB01 was found a few months ago and I've finally gotten around to putting it in the database so I figured I'd share it here. here's the original listing on YAJ and a imgur album of pics techbreezin took who was the one bought it and later documented it on discord for me.

[002]

Nice find