Cheery keyboard UB80 0180

[Skoobydo760]

Hi folks I'm new to this club.
I am helping restore a piece of ex forces equipment that has a couple of Cherry Keyboards within it to control the main computer. We have no circuits so we are a little in the dark. The keyboards have the following details on them 7101-00301C; Part Number UB80 0180. All we know is that they were supplied by Ferranti. Any information you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Skooby

[kbdfr]

"forces"?
Which country?

[Muirium]

Putting a different company logo onto a keyboard was common practice. Still is, actually. Ferranti was the middle man: which makes sense as they're a military supplier. Got any pictures of these Cherry keyboards? A lot of guys here know more about them than me.

[JBert]

No pictures of a label or the insides?

On another note, you might want to signal an admin to move your thread to the Workshop forum where more people might see it. And maybe ask to fix the topic title...

[Skoobydo760]

Sorry no pictures at the moment. The equipment is ex RAF so country UK

[Skoobydo760]

JBert thanks for that but not sure how to do it?

[JBert]

Click on an admin's name (or any user on this forum) to get to that user's profile page. Then search for "PM: Send private message" and click on the link of "Send private message".

That's only if you want your own topics moved though, reporting spam happens through the small button with an exclamation mark on the right.

[Muirium]

Here's a good shortcut: click a user name, then hit the PM button in the little panel that emerges. Then you already get a subject and quote to start off with: the contents of the particular post you picked.

But I am not an admin, just so you know…

[tinnie]

Hrmm! It sounds interesting.

[sixty]

It indeed would be easier with some pictures for identification of the keyboard. As Muirium said, oftentimes third parties involved (in this case Ferranti) slap on their own part numbers to re-badged keyboards, so getting more information on it might be hard without knowing the common Cherry part number. From your post I could only guess that maybe it's a 1800 series G80, but that is just a pure guess.

It might already help if you can explain the basic layout and number of keys on the keyboard to take a guess.

I also moved the topic to the workshop section for you.

[Skoobydo760]

Guys I now have a picture of a rather battered keyboard which we think are specifically made by Cherry. Can anyone identify the key switches?

[kbdfr]

Guys I now have a picture of a rather battered keyboard which we think are specifically made by Cherry. Can anyone identify the key switches?

Well, they are clearly marked "Cherry".
You could do your own research in the wiki:
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Main_Page
In the box "KEYBOARD SWITCHES", there is a line with links for Cherry M7, M8, M9, ML, MX, MY.
Comparing the pics of the different switches with the ones on your board will quickly give you the solution.
And once you have found it, just look at the table "All known variants" and look at the colour.

Spoiler:

Writing this post was of course more work than giving a two-character answer to the question,
but well, I think everyone should at least try to find the answer themselves before asking.
That's why we have a wiki after all, and the question really is more than trivial

[tlt]

Could that be anything other than MX blacks?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

More specifically, this is the place to start if you want to ID a switch: [wiki]Switch recognition[/wiki].

[kbdfr]

They look like MX blacks,
have diodes/LED exactly like MX blacks,
soldering points (see the two missing in the upper left corner) like MX blacks,
like MX blacks they have light rounded recesses on the inner side of the upper shell to let room for the keycap stems,
like MX blacks they have...

Oh wait, you are right!
They are not MX blacks, they are MX blacks rotated 180°!

[tlt]

More specifically, this is the place to start if you want to ID a switch: [wiki]Switch recognition[/wiki].

Haven't seen that wiki page before, nice illustrations!


I think it's great that the wiki can be used to research stuff but there is nothing wrong with asking questions either, no matter how simple they are for people on the forum to answer. If you have no knowledge haven't about keyboards it might not be so easy to find information for example you need to know the lingo, what is stam,, a mount, a key cap, and so on.


Please post more picture of how the restoration of the keyboard is going, let us see how it looks now and how it looks when its fully restored. I think there is a good chance that this keyboard can be restored to working condition, good luck!

[Halvar]

I think it's great that the wiki can be used to research stuff but there is nothing wrong with asking questions either, no matter how simple they are for people on the forum to answer.

I agree -- especially if we get nice pictures of interesting old Cherry PCBs in the process.

[kbdfr]

Considering a new avatar:



And now back to topic: obviously they are Cherry MX black switches

[tlt]

He he nice avatar