deskthority

As you can see, I have returned. This time I bring you a Clare/Pendar keyboard. I have a bunch more photos for your today, but you can probably tell that I have a sub-optimal setup. I have some pretty terrible lighting in my workshop, and the kitchen has the best light setup. I also am only rocking an 18-200mm Nikkor atm. As a broke student, getting a Macro lens, and a Lightbox, are on my to do list but obviously they aren't cheap. So for now this is the best that I can do. I am also experimenting with Lightroom, before I do my final touchup and watermark in Photoshop. Some of these photos I notice, turned out a bit darker then I like, so I figure it was something I might have done in Lightroom

Before I show off the keyboard, I have spent a few hours researching the origins of Clare-Pendar, and although confusing, it is quite interesting.

History of Clare-Pendar, DEFINITELY WORTH READING:
Again I recommend reading the history of Clare-Pendar that I dug up. I found it to be quite interesting... Either way, on to the keyboard!







There is a blue connector with pins on the opposite end, that attaches to these gold contacts here.


Here are all of the markings and identifiers I could find on the PCB:


T.I. P/N 959326 REV E (it appears it was previously stamped with "REV C" but was restamped and then hand changed to "REV E". Then there is handwriting that says "INS." and is underlined, I assume this means "inspected". I mentioned in the history part, that these boards were manufactured in Mexico, but there were Pollak (General Instruments? Texas Instruments? Stoneridge? Electro-Mech?) Quality Assurance people on the floor, who inspect everything. Sounds an awful lot like Razer QA inspecting their Kailh clones .

EDIT: Also noticed the "T.I." part. Possibly "Texas Instruments"?


CKJ5 BX 102K


"OG" circled? (They must have paid Ice-T to sign each and every keyboard... ) "C INC B"


"Clare-Pendar Code Identification Number 97564" handwritten: "-7345"
"Assembly Number 720731-K1. Serial Number." handwritten: "33439-C"


"eh" handwritten in cursive


"Final 81 INSP." Stamped into the PCB.


"PART NO. 700409-E129" handwritten: "-A"


"ISSUE 4-6-73" I assume this to be the production date.


Here is that Texas Instruments chip I mentioned in the history.

So in the History section I mentioned a distributer of Clare-Pendar products, named Visualux. If you take a look at their product catalogue you can find this PDF. It talks about a type of Clare-Pendar Reed switch. This adds to the likely possibility that HaaTa's reed switch keypad, is made by Clare-Pendar. On page 5 of the PDF it also diagrams and talks about a space bar designed for the Reed Switch. Although my switches are not Reed Switches, it shares the same space bar design.







Sadly I did not think to desolder this switch at the time (I will do so if there is interest), but the Capslock or "SHIFT LOCK" key is a locking key! It is actually quite nice, and smooth.




Now I have no clue why, but I seem to have completely skipped over taking a nice shot of the tops of these switches in my previous Imgur Gallery, AND this photoshoot! Luckily it isn't that incredible but this should suffice:



I desoldered a good few switches and the only thing that changed in the identifiers of the switches were the numbers in the very middle. They were all different numbers and didn't seem to have any physical differences. The 5 switch was the space bar switch, if that gives any help to anyone.













So the switch is a basic Gold Leaf switch. The plunger holds the 2 leaves apart and when the switch is depressed, the contacts touch and form a complete circuit. Just a basic continuity switch. They are obviously linear. The stem is a basic cross mount, but it is not compatible with Cherry MX keycaps, and vice versa.

To measure the actuation force, I broke out my high tech lab gear again.




The switch actuated with 2.5 oz of weight. 2.5 oz is about 63 grams. We will round this to 65g.

Finally the keycaps:





They are all double shot, and like I mentioned earlier, they are not Cherry MX compatible, no matter how close they appear.

Full Imgur Gallery Here

So there you have it! This is my Clare-Pendar keyboard and a tear down of the Clare-Pendar switch, and a bit of history thrown in too! These photo guides are a ton of fun to make, but also happen to take 5+ hours (this one, with the research I did, took closer to 10 hours) to make. At the moment I have a good bit of free time, and I have a bunch of more vintage keyboards, and will be going to a computer/HAM fest this weekend. I plan to pick up a bunch of stuff, and I will post what I have and you guys can chose what I teardown next. Darksouls 2 releases later today, a game I have been anticipating for a long time now, so I will be spending a good amount of time there. Basically, my point is that I enjoy making these posts but they take a lot of time, and I have a bunch of keyboards to show, so I am going to try and do as many as I can while I have plenty of spare time. Let me know if there is anything else you would like to know, or see with this keyboard!

I also noticed that this wiki page: [wiki]USw_LXBW01[/wiki] was made based on my original Imgur gallery I posted 5 months ago. I don't know much about who can edit the wiki, or how, or any guidelines surrounding that, but I am pretty sure this post organized and added a lot of information. So if someone else wants to add this to the wiki, or if someone could let me know how I could go about doing that, that would be great. Finally, would anyone be interested in the Osborne 1, Oak Switch Systems, Full Travel Membrane keyboard next?

I totally LOVE those keycaps. Really, that profile is amazing... I want to eat all of them like candies!

if only you'd refrain from adding the watermark...

matt3o wrote:I totally LOVE those keycaps. Really, that profile is amazing... I want to eat all of them like candies!

if only you'd refrain from adding the watermark...

Is it really that bad? I was told a while ago, that it was a good idea to, but I don't really care if people use my photos.

Besides reuploading all of the originals (which I can do), are there any that are particularly bad?

no, it's not bad.

simply, I believe they are meant to be reference pictures for future generations. They should be pristine.

You shouldn't do it for the glory, but for the cause I mean, I don't think you are going to sell these pictures, right?

I'd suggest to use the exif data to save your name/website/email/whatever.

Those old switches look like they are gonna melt your tendons :O

Another great quality post and an interesting read!

That spacebar stabilizer design looks particular interesting. Could you tell if it worked well?

Then there is handwriting that says "INS." and is underlined

I think that's just the same "INSP" stamp we see a few pictures later, only half-stamped.

pyrelink wrote:I also noticed that this wiki page: [wiki]USw_LXBW01[/wiki] was made based on my original Imgur gallery I posted 5 months ago. I don't know much about who can edit the wiki, or how, or any guidelines surrounding that, but I am pretty sure this post organized and added a lot of information. So if someone else wants to add this to the wiki, or if someone could let me know how I could go about doing that, that would be great.

The wiki is open for editing by all forum members.

It wasn't clear at the time whether the switch was Clare-Pendar or not (keyboard manufacturer does not equate to switch manufacturer), so I assigned it an Unidentified Switch code just so that it would have a permanent record — I lacked the time required to research Clare-Pendar.

I don't see any harm in watermarks in forum posts, but watermarks in wiki images are frowned upon.

Wiki help is very sketchy at the moment but you might find something useful here:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Help:Contents

The biggest guidelines are simply other pages, which also helps with global self-consistency.

pyrelink wrote:

How much did you pay for this thing? According to this May 1976 BYTE Magazine, it should be $45. Any more than that and you got ripped off.

Hey, I've found that keyboard again:
...and look at all those dials! The more dials the better, I say.


Edit: ....and here it is again: I guess that $45 deal was too good to pass up.

With a tiny little monitor like that shrinking the blocky text, the Altair looks almost like a useful computer! Of course, as given away by the papers lying on top, he was really using it as an accessory to his sweet analogue radio rig. Hence the vital dials.

mr_a500 wrote:

pyrelink wrote:

How much did you pay for this thing? According to this May 1976 BYTE Magazine, it should be $45. Any more than that and you got ripped off.

May76.jpg

Hah! Thats awesome. Sadly, in my case it doesn't narrow down, what purpose my granddad actually used it for. He had an Altair 8800 that he built, AND he had a SCELBI, so this board could have belonged to either one.

And felt like I should add that I have removed the watermarks, and posted up the gallery on Flickr... I am far too lazy to re-edit the OP to replace all the HTML links, so I am just going to leave it. I am going to add some info and some of the pics to the Wiki, and anyone can feel free to use them. https://flic.kr/s/aHsjXmN4f6.

From the orange RETURN key, the ASCII control labels, and the BREAK / HERE IS / PAPER ADVANCE cluster, I'm sure this is originally for one of the many variants of the TI Silent 700 terminal.

(The one here is not quite the same as the one in the ad — which is also shown in a small photo at CHM here — those don't have the BREAK key there pushing PAPER ADVANCE out past RETURN.)

How about this one?

http://www.electronicsurplus.com/unmark ... i-pin-lamp

That's marked simply "ASM. MEXICO" and has a Clare/Pendar look about it. I've mentioned this topic to Mu, who has some Belgian-made Clare switches.

I know nothing about General Instrument, except that they had a keyboard division that made TI-99/4A keyboards (with amber Alps SKCC switches), and their keyboards are marked "GENERAL INSTRUMENT | KEYBOARD DIVISION" and labelled "ASSEM IN MEXICO":

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/222187 ... rt-needed/

Two more:

http://wiki.xkcd.com/irc/Leopard — mentions Clare-Pendar, General Instrument and Mu's C P Clare (I don't know where the source material came from)

A new take on contactless that I've not seen before — inductance sensing with concentric coil springs:

http://www.google.com/patents/US4085394

really nice pyrelink, great find! At least in your case we actually know it´s a Clare-Pendar Keyboard+Switch!

Finally, would anyone be interested in the Osborne 1, Oak Switch Systems, Full Travel Membrane keyboard next?

you kidding me? Hell yeah!

See: http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/osbor ... t7855.html

Those are some very interesting links. That switch from electronicsurplus definitely has a Clare Pendar look to it.

Recently we have seen Mr_a500's Harris 8620 with Clare Pendars: http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/harri ... t8764.html

As well ass the possible Clare Pendars in Seebarts board: http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/can ... t9048.html

The patent for that contact-less switch is also really interesting. I wonder if those switches were ever produced?

From what I can tell, Clare Pendar derivative switches were pretty popular in late 60s/early-mid 70s keyboards, right along side Micro Switch (as that Keyboard article also mentions). Their linear switches aren't fantastic feeling, but I really love their spacebar design: https://www.google.com/patents/US377163 ... CEIQ6AEwBQ and I would love to know more about them.

Your second link references a PDF with the part numbers in for Muirium's switches! Thank you.

http://www.visualux.com/visualux2/clarependar.htm

They seem to be a distributor for Clare Pendar switches. I tried emailing them a while back about buying some, but I never got a response. As they are based in the UK, it might be a bit more advantageous if someone across the Atlantic were to give them a shout!

pyrelink wrote: ↑http://www.visualux.com/visualux2/clarependar.htm

They seem to be a distributor for Clare Pendar switches. I tried emailing them a while back about buying some, but I never got a response. As they are based in the UK, it might be a bit more advantageous if someone across the Atlantic were to give them a shout!

I was having a look at that earlier. As the PDF was last modified in 2003, I'm not sure how much hope there is, but I'm up for giving them a call. What exactly are you interested in buying? I might be persuaded to join you!

Honestly, I would be up for buying a nice sample size of what ever they still have in stock. Specifically their keyswitches, a spacebar assembly, and maybe some keycaps. Seeing as their phone line might not even still be connected, I will take what I can get, but please let us know if you do happen to give them a call!

The Companies House record shows Visualux Ltd are still trading, and their website references LED lighting products, so I'm convinced they're still there. Whether the Clare Pendar keyswitches are is another matter.

http://www.visualux.com/clare_pendar.html states "can be supplied individually or as part of a complete keyboard assembly."! Should I get looking at cases again?

Here's the big boys:


http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/topic9926.html

Anyone know when Clare and Pendar hooked up?

facetsesame wrote: ↑The Companies House record shows Visualux Ltd are still trading, and their website references LED lighting products, so I'm convinced they're still there. Whether the Clare Pendar keyswitches are is another matter.

http://www.visualux.com/clare_pendar.html states "can be supplied individually or as part of a complete keyboard assembly."! Should I get looking at cases again?

Now I am imagining a Clare Pendar keyboard in a Hammond case with real lightbulb illumination.

pyrelink wrote: ↑Now I am imagining a Clare Pendar keyboard in a Hammond case with real lightbulb illumination.

that sounds like "old school modding" to me.

Haha, you never know! Was too busy to call today, but tomorrow is looking better. I won't forget, promise!

I phoned Visualux this morning.

They don't hold stock of any Clare/Pendar keyswitches but can still order them from the manufacturer on demand.
MOQs would have to be met, though the manufacturer is flexible in offering small quantities providing setup costs are met.

The high profile SF series are obsolete as of 2012. Sadly this means no centrally incandescent illuminated switches.
The low profile SFL series switches are still available to order though. This may include stepped stems and incandescents.
The double shot moulded keytops are believed to still be orderable too.

I will write up a list of potentially orderable items and will post an IC on the Marketplace for specific bits and quantities.
The data from this could then be submitted to Visualux next week for confirmation of MOQs from the manufacturer.
That'll be "tomorrow" now as it's gone half midnight and I need to go to bed!

Hmm. Who's looking for a new project around here right now with a whole new switch & cap family?

Hint: probably not me. I've got M84s, Mitsumis, and potentially those high profile SF Clare switches all lined up already!

Oh, right, we're probably talking about just a few switches and caps? That word MOQ had me on another train of thought.

This is pretty awesome. I would love to know what kind of keycap ability to have. At least the ones on my board, are some of my favorite vintage caps. Depending on cost, stock, and outside interest, I might be in for a good amount. Even if it takes a while to get around to, it might lead to a fun project!