Commodore PC keyboard

[Findecanor]

I got this Commodore PC keyboard. It has a Swedish/Finnish layout but the legends for the Alt layer are like the first layers on a British keyboard, not as in modern Swedish layouts for Windows and Linux.

I believe that this version was sold with Commodore PC-5 and PC-10. From what I have seen on the 'net, the PC-10 II and PC-10 III have keyboards in Model M layout made by Mitsumi. There are also other Commodore keyboards with a Model F -like layout that are different from this, but I know nothing about them.

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Quite an unusal layout, don't you think? There are two Esc keys: on the main keyboard and on the numeric key pad. On most PC-5 keyboards that I have seen on the 'net the Num Lock and Scroll Lock keys are instead 1.5 units wide.

I can not see that this keyboard is very much yellowed. Commodore did use a beige colour scheme for their computers where the beige was quite yellow to begin with.

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There is no label on the back side. Only the "Commodore" sticker on the top. No model number.

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The case is held together with snaps. There are no screws other than the one that holds the EM guard.

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You may have guessed it already... The keyboard was made by Cherry. Artikel-Nr G80-0915/2.

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.. and it has black PCB-mounted Cherry MX switches, all of them with diodes.
The keys caps are nice thick double-shot moulded Cherry caps. The windowed keys are double-shot moulded beige and clear with what looks like dye-sublimated labels. There are red LEDs under the windowed keys.
The stabilizers are a little bit different from modern G80 keyboards. They are less stable, and they are bolted onto the PCB instead of snapped.
The Enter key is unfortunate in not only that it is far away, but that its stabilizers are vertical, not horizontal. That means that if you press the left end, you experience a little friction.

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Back of circuit board.

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The keys on the space bar row are higher than on the row above it. On modern Cherry keyboards, the keys on the space bar row have instead the same profile as the row above it.

The left Shift key has the profile of the right Shift of a G80-1800, and the right Shift key has the profile of the right Shift on a G80-11800. The F and J keys are indeed scooped.

... and yes, the keyboard does speak the PS/2 protocol, apparently. I am typing on it now.

[CeeSA]

great find, very nice

[wupi]

Made in W. Germany nice.

[nathanscribe]

Nice. I like the way the regular cream/grey Cherry colour scheme is reversed - dark for the alpha keys, light for the modifiers etc.

[Half-Saint]

I like it too

[Findecanor]

These vintage key caps sit tight. I took some off to see how they looked on another board (Cherry MX Clear switches) and when I pulled the key caps off my other board again, the tops came off several switches!
I did test with other Cherry double-shot caps on the board, to see if it was this particular board, but they were much looser.

[Gilgam]

nice keyboard !!

The color scheme is nice.
I love the layout too, fits well for emacs and vim with a large esc key and a control on the home row

any such Kb in azerty ?

[7bit]

.... any such Kb in azerty ?

Yes!

[andrewjoy]

Made in W. Germany nice.

My fridge i had up to about 5 years ago had that on it.