Keyboard collections?

[Muirium]

About the silently hoarding stuff, I already feel bad for having unused keyboards stored up. I've forced myself to do a rotation now. At the moment i'm typing on my Quickfire XT with blues and tomorrow i'll be plugging the Model M in again. I only have to rotate between 3 keyboards now though. Can't imagine the rotation list for some of you guys with over 20 keyboards!

Having a few different systems and workstations helps. A different keyboard for the desktop and the road. And then there's all the playing around with caps that happens when you start to gather a good collection of those as well. A lot of people here have more caps than keyboards to cover, and we're not exactly short of keyboards…

Rotating between different switch types is definitely a good one. Especially if you want an easy time when you're doing a lot of work (go MX red or Topre in my case) or want to shift up a gear into something loud (IBM or NMB). Variety is its own reward for guys like me. While there's others who have found "the one" despite also having diverse collections.

[Abra]

Since I work from home, I don't have an excuse to buy an extra one for the office sadly.

The catalyst for finding a new keyboard was when I had to build my new PC last September. Before that I was using a laptop, so I had no need for one. I had to dig up my old disgusting Acer rubber dome and decided I wanted something similar but not as dirty (bought a beige Dell Quietkey). I then came across Mechanical keyboards and remembered the nice clicky feel they had.

[Hypersphere]

One excuse I have for having at least three keyboards is that I have three computers in my home office and six in my work office. However, rather than having one keyboard per computer, they are set up so that three computers share one keyboard.

These days, I am doing rather frequent rotations. At the moment, I am typing on a Poker II with mx browns. I unboxed the Poker this afternoon in order to put a new set of keycaps on it -- blue dye-sub PBT alphas from IMSTO and dark gray dye-sub PBT mods from Originative. And not long ago, I thought I had given up on Cherry mx altogether.

Part of the fun of being a keyboard enthusiast is actually using the keyboards in your collection. This way, you get to experience different form factors, layouts, key switches, and keycaps.

Each keyboard has its own personality. I have my favorites, but no single keyboard would suit me for all times and moods, and my favorites change. The variety is fun and educational, plus it keeps the synapses from getting rusty.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I envy people who don't use the Windows key. I'm still using the same Filco Majestouch at home that I've had since 2010, which is largely all I've used in the nearly five years since I bought it. I could of course use a Unicomp, but even that is a bit on the large side — ideally I'd like a Vortex 75% for home if one existed at all (let alone ISO) but I'm keeping the Filco for now, since it does actually work and the legends are still 100% intact.

At work I'm settled with my Poker II, as much of a headache as it is, in part because of its size. Again, I'd like the exact same again, just in 75%.

Most of the keyboards I've collected aren't of any use to me for anything besides research. Unfortunately, space doesn't permit me to own the amount of keyboards I need for research (which would be many hundreds, including at least one K110 and one MKB-84/MCK-84 for every year of their production, totalling at least 20 for those alone), which is why I vainly hoped that research could be a community effort, pooling together the sum of the knowledge held in everyone's collections. However, this appears to be well and truly a dead end.

[Hypersphere]

@Daniel Beardsmore:

1. Why do you envy those who don't use the Windows key? I don't use it as such; I remap it as the OS X "Command" key.

2. What would it take to make research a community effort? I think that many of us would gladly contribute, but we might not know how to do this. Editing a wiki can seem daunting to the uninitiated.

[HaaTa]

At this point I don't really know how many keyboards I have...
Definitely over 300 at this point, but not really sure how close that is to the true count.

As for my criteria...basically it comes down to: "HaaTa doesn't know what switch is in the keyboard"
I also tend to stay away from Cherry, later Alps/Alps-like and IBM unless there is something that interests me about the keyboard (not often).

How not to store your keyboards:




How I store my keyboards now:




Living room overflow


I have a couple other closets for overflow, including my desk at work
Probably need to invest in some more uline shelves, but I need to figure out where to put them

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Hypersphere: anyone who doesn't use the Windows key or command key will be able to use all the pre-95 keyboards where there's a gap between ctrl and alt instead of a key. Granted, on my ThinkPad I use Alt Gr as Windows, since I seldom use that key (I use LCtrl+LAlt instead), so that would be one option for using an old AT 75% like a Monterey or Ortek.

As for collecting knowledge, perhaps by not ignoring all the topics created to gather it. No-one's interested, and it's time to quit.

[DanielT]

Type 5 is actually a fairly decent rubberdome. I have one myself as I own a Sun Ultra 5 and I can stand typing on it.

Oooo, a SUN hardware owner, I have 2 of them a SUN Ultra10 and a SUN Ultra5 (actually 3 because I also have an industrial motherboard that I yet have to install in a case). Only the SUN Ultra10 is used because it has more firepower, it's upgraded to the maximum 440MHz processor, 1GB RAM, SCSI disks, SUN Microsystems USB/Firewire controller, SUN Quad Ethernet controller. The keyboard is the newer model Type 6, decent but not asa nice as Type 5, I have to get me one of those.
This is my home datacenter, with a self build rack, still some work to do:

home_datacenter.JPG (129.79 KiB) Viewed 4099 times

My keyboard collection consists only in 60% (HHKB, 2x NerD60 and a SPRiT edition faceW ), don't have the space for something bigger and don't even like big keyboards. I got into this keyboard madness only because of the 60% and fully programmable
I also have a SUN Type 6 keyboard and a rare MX switch SUN Type 5 keyboard, but the MX one it's not working, I have to open it and see what is wrong with it, hope I will make it work.

[deeyay]

I don't rotate for the sake of rotating. I use which ever board that fits my mood on any given day!

[seebart]

I don't rotate for the sake of rotating. I use which ever board that fits my mood on any given day!

Yup same here. There is no regular cycle. I do not rotate more often the more boards I own either.

[Hypersphere]

Hypersphere: anyone who doesn't use the Windows key or command key will be able to use all the pre-95 keyboards where there's a gap between ctrl and alt instead of a key. Granted, on my ThinkPad I use Alt Gr as Windows, since I seldom use that key (I use LCtrl+LAlt instead), so that would be one option for using an old AT 75% like a Monterey or Ortek.

As for collecting knowledge, perhaps by not ignoring all the topics created to gather it. No-one's interested, and it's time to quit.

Yes, regarding the Win key, I have never missed it. My first mechanical was a full-size IBM Model M. I have always remapped CapsLock to Control, Alt to Command, and Control to Option/Alt.

It is sad about properly documenting keyboard lore. There is an activation energy barrier that people need to overcome to expend the time and energy to update the wiki. There is also the fear of needing to get it right. For example, it's one thing to post an opinion about how much I like or dislike a certain switch, but it's quite another thing to provide factual documentation about the same switch.

[ramnes]

Where did you buy those white boxes HaaTa? They seem to fit perfectly for almost any board, what is their size?

[andrewjoy]

home_datacenter.JPG

That is so cool ! Are the suns still used all the time ? If so what for ? I was going to pick up a sun and an SGI and a power pc just so i have all the architectures I do have a sun but its an x86 blade still built very well just like the IBM 2U i have .

[Daniel Beardsmore]

It is sad about properly documenting keyboard lore. There is an activation energy barrier that people need to overcome to expend the time and energy to update the wiki.

I didn't say wiki. I specifically meant forum topics. I still remember creating one something like two years ago to gather pictures of Alps clone switches purely to get an idea of what's out there — result: nothing. The new K110/MiniTouch text-only topic (no photos required!) — one result out of all the people here with those keyboards.

Nah, it's game over.

[Hypersphere]

@Daniel Beardsmore: Thanks for clarifying that you were speaking about forum topics rather than the wiki. I understand your frustration. However, I have noticed that responses to forum topics have their "seasons". Sometimes, a particular topic will be popular and other times it will not. In addition, it helps to make expectations known very explicitly. Reintroducing a topic at an opportune time and spelling out what you are looking for can yield results.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

You either have a particular keyboard or you don't.

There's a large necessity to determine trends, patterns, introduction dates etc. It's impossible to keep track of thousands of forum topics (we're closing in on 10,000 topics at Deskthority alone, not counting all the other forums: OCN, KBDMania, KBtalKing, geekhack, Reddit etc) where you might have seen something mentioned about something somewhere or maybe you imagined it, that may not contain any expected search terms.

The forum moves slowly enough that people have plenty of time to become consciously aware of every topic (and simply choose to ignore them), but given time, any information-gathering topic just gets buried and forgotten. It's not like they need bumping periodically to, for example, raise the response count from 30 up to 40, but rather, bumping them might on a very fortunate day raise the response count from 1 to 2!

Take alps.tw Type T8. Within over two years since I started studying Alps switches and clones, we have *ONE* (1) documented keyboard that uses them (alps.tw didn't say where he found his example). That one find (from rzwv) overlaps by date with T5 (both found in 1989 Ortek MCK-101 keyboards), and T5 and T8 should be mutually exclusive designs. T5 was still around six years later, so was T8 short-lived? Did it run in parallel (and if so, what does that mean)?

The only way to find out is to get some hard evidence: just the keyboard, controller chip date, and switch. That's something that collections are really useful for.

I guess I'm supposed to just sit and twiddle my thumbs for years in the hope that some "season" comes along and hope by sheer luck that I actually recognise the season? What do seasons look like, anyway?

There are also no end of topics where the OP is too lazy to finish it off, and we're just left hanging forever, never quite able to get all the details.

There really is no point.

[Hypersphere]

It's human nature to do nothing until motivated by a carrot and/or stick. Perhaps DT could help the situation by requiring members to update a database of keyboards with some minimum amount of information as part of membership renewal each year.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

If carrots and sticks are required, it's no longer a community sharing a common interest. If people have to be forced to co-operate, then why are they there? Someone's in the wrong place, and that appears to be me.

[Hypersphere]

I was very pleased with the responses I got to a thread I started some time ago about replacing the foam layer in IBM Model F keyboards. Many people chimed in with some really good ideas. It seems I might have brought up this topic at a favorable time, when others were embarking on similar projects. It was good to feel the spirit of cooperation and common interest on this particular topic.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Well, there's no end of love for IBM. IBM isn't seasonal — just look at the shark feeding frenzies. It's not like everyone passes up on SSKs when they're out of season.

I'd say that the wingnut keycaps make for good carrots, but I think they're retarded.

[fohat]

Someone's in the wrong place, and that appears to be me.

You are really making me feel pathetic and guilty.

Maybe talking about something else can clarify what it is and is not.

MUSIC

People who actually make, write, and/or play music

people who are really into listening to all forms of music
people who are really into listening to specific forms of music

people who are into the science of making music
people who are into the science of recording actual music content
people who are into the science of music recording spaces

people who are into the science of music content reproduction and playback
people who are into the science of music listening spaces

people who collect recorded music in (x/y/z) formats

This list could go on for quite a while.

Some people might want to know why I think that my early-2nd-press mono Parlophone "Revolver" is so great (the 1st press is all but non-existant) and others might be horrified to know that I play it on a turntable with a cartridge worth less than the record. Still others might think that I am an idiot to listen to it in my small office with wrongly-placed speakers, themselves worth less than the record.

Everyone's priorities are different and keyboard science is very esoteric. At the minimum, I will try to remember to shoot some photos for you, next time my Acer comes out of its storage box.

[HaaTa]

Where did you buy those white boxes HaaTa? They seem to fit perfectly for almost any board, what is their size?

I use two sizes of boxes from uline.

Most keyboards fit in "keyboard" boxes
http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-6 ... oard-Boxes

Then most large keyboards fit in these
http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-2 ... re-Mailers

[Daniel Beardsmore]

At the minimum, I will try to remember to shoot some photos for you, next time my Acer comes out of its storage box.

Don't bother, I'm done with this.

[DanielT]

home_datacenter.JPG

That is so cool ! Are the suns still used all the time ? If so what for ? I was going to pick up a sun and an SGI and a power pc just so i have all the architectures I do have a sun but its an x86 blade still built very well just like the IBM 2U i have .

Only the Ultra10 is used for the moment. It's more for tests, compiling stuff on SPARC architecture and last but not least coolness factor
SPARC hardware is nothing like x86, if you can get your hands on one it will be a lot of fun. Here this stuff is really rare, I salvaged this machine from my old work place and has a lot of history behind.
If you want some SPARC hardware you can get the older SUN Netra T1 105 or better 200, this is a 1U server, it has ILO, SCSI controller and has low power consumption, it's a really nice small server, has all the features I like in SPARC harware, and you can find them really cheap, saw a few go as cheap as 60-80EUR.
Or you can get some workstations like Blade 150 (a desktop format workstation with IDE controller), it's nice and still cheap. Or even better a SUN Blade 1500 (single processor) or 2500 (dual processor), these pack a lot of power and the price is still decent. On the workstation you will not have the ILO, only serial console.
You can run Solaris,BSD or Linux of these without any problems.

If you plan on using them I would avoid something older than the Ultra5/10, the hardware is mostly proprietary and underpowered. But still those are nice to collect.

I would love some SGI hardware, but here is impossible to get it, and even if I get something on eBay almost all sellers refuse to ship to my country

Maybe we should create a new thread in the Off-topic area for exotic hardware and retro computing

[Hypersphere]

Where did you buy those white boxes HaaTa? They seem to fit perfectly for almost any board, what is their size?

I use two sizes of boxes from uline.

Most keyboards fit in "keyboard" boxes
http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-6 ... oard-Boxes

Then most large keyboards fit in these
http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-2 ... re-Mailers

Thanks for the links to the boxes, HaaTa! These look ideal, and the prices are not outrageous.