Great/Interesting Finds

Findecanor · 30 Oct 2015, 20:53

Not rubber dome. That looks like Mitsumi conductive rubber arch switches. They are like foam-and-foil switches in that there is either a buckling rubber sleeve or coiled spring right under each keycap.

Crazy Canadian XXIV · 30 Oct 2015, 23:56

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-IBM-5251 ... Swv0tVM0aK

Way too expensive considering that it's missing three keycaps. I'd be tempted to make an offer (a much lower offer) if I wasn't completely broke though, I want some beam spring switches for science purposes...

E3E · 31 Oct 2015, 01:10

Speaking of missing keys.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Vintage-Ze ... SwA4dWMROk

There's this. It wouldn't be such a bad price if:

1) You have replacement caps and switches/sliders for those positions

2) No one else bids on it

Zenith ZKB-2s are really nice, well built, and have NKRO. Yellow Alps are still quite nice, even if the green variant is more sought after.

Hak Foo · 31 Oct 2015, 01:38

The machine itself is also pretty nifty for an XT clone.

It's passive backplane, and I suspect it was designed for kit assembly. Like many Zenith machines of the era, it had a monitor in ROM instead of BASIC.

I had one years ago, but discarded it long ago.

mr_a500 · 31 Oct 2015, 11:19

Here's what looks like a rebranded WYSE WY-50, Cherry MX black. It's a bit marked and the F4 keycap is broken, but it's only $10 BIN:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252149714591

E3E · 31 Oct 2015, 11:40

mr_a500 wrote: ↑Here's what looks like a rebranded WYSE WY-50, Cherry MX black. It's a bit marked and the F4 keycap is broken, but it's only $10 BIN:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252149714591

I'm so tempted to buy this just to strip it down for parts and to sell them, but I'm not sure if it's worth the time or not.

Not to disrespect the Wyse board, but they're so commonly used to source vintage blacks, that I don't think it's an issue to break another down.

mr_a500 · 31 Oct 2015, 11:44

The keycaps are doubleshot too. Actually, if the shipping to Canada wasn't so damn high, I'd buy this just to replace the yellowed keycaps on my WY-50.

Blaise170 · 31 Oct 2015, 12:35

Huh, apparently Radioshack (Tandy) actually rebranded some WYSE boards. Also shipping kills the deal, anything over $20 isn't a great deal.

lolpes · 31 Oct 2015, 12:37

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Soviet- ... SwAYtWKMEW

I think this board has appeared here already, the seller must have multiples as I've seen these sold, do the caps fit on mx?

mr_a500 · 31 Oct 2015, 12:59

Blaise170 wrote: ↑Huh, apparently Radioshack (Tandy) actually rebranded some WYSE boards. Also shipping kills the deal, anything over $20 isn't a great deal.

I didn't notice the US shipping. That's definitely high for the US - especially when you usually get free shipping all over the place. It's impossible to get anything under $20 shipping for a keyboard in Canada - and usually $40-$75 shipping from the US.

E3E · 31 Oct 2015, 13:02

Blaise170 wrote: ↑Huh, apparently Radioshack (Tandy) actually rebranded some WYSE boards. Also shipping kills the deal, anything over $20 isn't a great deal.

Heheh, it's actually right UNDER $20 for me, at $19.94 total. Oh, it sold!

Enjoy!

gogusrl · 31 Oct 2015, 13:05

some stuff from geekhack

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-KY-3030-C-K ... 1268522438

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRAND-NEW-NOS-V ... fresh=true

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Chicony ... 1692227446

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Keyboar ... 1632550076

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-KEYBOARD-VI ... 2a4f992dae

t8c · 31 Oct 2015, 13:11

mr_a500 wrote: ↑
Blaise170 wrote: ↑Huh, apparently Radioshack (Tandy) actually rebranded some WYSE boards. Also shipping kills the deal, anything over $20 isn't a great deal.
I didn't notice the US shipping. That's definitely high for the US - especially when you usually get free shipping all over the place. It's impossible to get anything under $20 shipping for a keyboard in Canada - and usually $40-$75 shipping from the US.

Yeah. the shipping to EU is 50 dollars, sounds fishy. I paid 30 usd in shipping for my Apple Standard Keyboard.

Muirium · 31 Oct 2015, 14:40

Ancient mail order trick. Make it up in shipping.

E3E · 31 Oct 2015, 14:53

Ahh, those Model M-122s are nearing me close to being an IBM buckling spring fan. I've always loved the look of the F-122 and had no idea there was an M-122. I was actually shocked when I first saw one online, thinking how insane it looked. It literally looks like an aircraft carrier. You could land 60%s on that thing!

One F-122 actually sold out of a town close to me lately, and it was pretty fair-priced at $75, I believe. Oh well. Haha, I don't want to imagine what I'd get into if I lose myself in some buckling springs.

So what switches do you guys think this board uses?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Keyboar ... 1632550076

It definitely looks a wee bit older than Alps SKCM/L or Cherry MX, but that territory is a place I've hardly traveled.

Muirium · 31 Oct 2015, 15:18

Get yourself an AT. Model F is so much better, you'll wince when you find out!

As for that board:

Can't tell. Nice looker, though, with all those vintage tall spherical doubleshots. If they weren't row profiled, I'd lean towards Honeywell Hall Effect, like this:

http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/a-hon ... t6296.html

One of the great linear switches of old. But quite unusable with modern kit, alas. (When this changes: someone tell me!)

Apparently some Honeywell / Micro Switch boards did have sculpted caps, so it's still possible. But I'm just guessing based on what I'm familiar with. The seller needs to pull a cap!

seebart · 31 Oct 2015, 15:35

Muirium wrote: ↑Can't tell. Nice looker, though, with all those vintage tall spherical doubleshots.

I'll say, since it's not sitting on my side of the pond I won't bother.

mr_a500 · 31 Oct 2015, 16:24

Muirium wrote: ↑Apparently some Honeywell / Micro Switch boards did have sculpted caps, so it's still possible. But I'm just guessing based on what I'm familiar with. The seller needs to pull a cap!

It looks more like Key Tronic to me... although the sculpt angle and font look Alps SKCC.

seebart · 31 Oct 2015, 16:32

And it's got a funky "cable port" on the bottom.

: s-l1600.jpg (118.58 KiB) Viewed 7070 times

Blaise170 · 31 Oct 2015, 16:33

The LED cutouts look MX to me. Might be down and foil too but usually foam and foil LEDs are on the corner.

seebart · 31 Oct 2015, 17:28

joc · 01 Nov 2015, 00:50

These look interesting: http://www.ebay.com/itm/381451691534 I couldn't find much information about them.

mr_a500 · 01 Nov 2015, 00:59

There's also this one with the brown numeric keypad:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321810765231

Judging by the keycaps, they look like Licon hall effect. (...but of course it's hard to tell without removing a keycap)

Muirium · 01 Nov 2015, 01:02

Nice find Joc. 1979 homing F&J keys noted!

http://deskthority.net/post262604.html#p262604

mr_a500 · 01 Nov 2015, 01:07

My 1980 Japanese Licon keyboard also has deep dish F&J, so that's another hint that it may be Licon.

Engicoder · 01 Nov 2015, 02:30

Those Raytheon boards have been on eBay for about a month and the price has slowly be coming down.

XMIT · 01 Nov 2015, 03:43

joc this adickson on eBay is a fountain of interesting finds. He's selling an AT F right now and I purchased an F122 with APL key caps from him earlier today. Maybe I'll reach out to him and ask him to post here on DT.

Blaise170 · 01 Nov 2015, 04:29

This is way too high priced, but an interesting find nonetheless.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400916776921

kbdfr · 01 Nov 2015, 10:08

Congratulations

derzemel · 01 Nov 2015, 10:31

kbdfr wrote:Congratulations

Oh, that was a very lucky grab