Nixdorf surprise

[Wodan]

Oh well I saw this thing on ebay and couldn't resist. Was hoping for Nixie switches or at least some nice Nixdorf doubleshots in good shape. Instead I got this ... never seen this before!

The switches seem to be full travel, linear. The stem actually pokes through the PCB and consist of a sensor and a slider. When I pulled one of the keycaps off, the top part with the slider and the spring actually came off and the sensor part remained on the PCB. Was able to put it back together so I guess they were meant to be taken apart like that.

Anyone ever seen anything like that? I can take some more pictures if that's something interesting.





Those stems look like little swastikas

[ramnes]

HaaTa also has one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/triplehaa ... 956847424/

[photekq]

Thankfully these ones seem to be far rarer than the MX variant.

[Wodan]

Well the caps are great but nothing-compatible and the switches all feel like the could use a little lube ...

[terrycherry]

What a great found! The keycaps looks like the Olympia teletypewriter .
Take more photos inside the switch,please!

[ramnes]

I'd be interested by a picture of the whole board myself. It doesn't look like HaaTa's one nor like a classic Nixdorf Soft-Touch keyboard.

[Wodan]

More and detailed pictures of the switches and internals can be found under Haatas link. It's very similair internals.

Oh yeah and a full picture is missing:

[photekq]

Ooh, haven't seen one like that before! I wonder if an MX version is out there.

[ramnes]

Ah yeah, I've seen that one on Ebay too. I didn't buy because I didn't want to take the risk, glad I didn't.

That being said, the caps are really close to the Soft-Touch keyboard. An MX version of that board is definitely possible!

[seebart]

Very nice find Wodan! I have tried these switches, I'd say they're as nice as vintage MX blacks if not smoother.

[hammelgammler]

Even smoother than vintage MX blacks? And what's with Nixdorf Blacks in comparison?

By the way, what's the current market value of a board with those switches? Sounds interesting, so it would be good to know.

[seebart]

Even smoother than vintage MX blacks? And what's with Nixdorf Blacks in comparison?

Impossible to objectively measure for me. Let's say "similair", it's relative anyway.

By the way, what's the current market value of a board with those switches? Sounds interesting, so it would be good to know.

These are obscure and obvioulsy do not share the "nixie" hype that exceeds the blue Alps hype. So they are not worth much, the keycaps are not usable and the whole keyboard is terminal. Still nice.

[Wodan]

Anyone got any idea if those switches can be hooked up to a Teensy ?

does the magnetic valve mechanism have an inherent diode?

I recently went through alot of trouble fitting a WY-30 with a teensy just to realize that odd keyboards without diodes ain't for me

[Muirium]

All the best keyboards are diode free! Model F, Model M, Topre…

[Chyros]

does the magnetic valve mechanism have an inherent diode?

No, but it has inherent NKRO. I explain the workings in my SWA-4300 video:

[seebart]

Anyone got any idea if those switches can be hooked up to a Teensy ?

You can hook this up to a Teensy all day, these keyboards "speak" a Nixdorf terminal protocol that has nothing to do with Universal Serial Bus (USB) or PS/2 protocol. You would have to build your very own keyboard firmware:

workshop-f7/how-to-build-your-very-own- ... t7177.html

[10ko]

Hall effect switches?Why not?

[seebart]

Hall effect switches?Why not?

WOT? U wanna see Hall Effect switches?

keyboards-f2/micro-switch-sw-10591-t943 ... o%20switch

[10ko]

And deep inside.

[seebart]

And deep inside.

And post is minimalistic. But pretty good picture. Could be anything though.

[10ko]

Hall effect sensor (left) and magnetic valve.

[seebart]

Hall effect sensor (left) and magnetic valve.

And post is still minimalistic.

[Chyros]

Actually it looks more like a reed switch Oo .