IDENTIFY THE KEYBOARD thread

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Found this at a recycling center a few days ago cleaned it up it works great seems to be some sort of membrane kb with cherry stems which is very odd it also seems to use a weird type of membrane that has something else in it for the actuation it also has really nice DST keys with Cyrillic characters on it its pretty neat. tried searching the model numbers google gave me nothing :/

I've looked at the photos, and you've not shown the switch or the model number.

[NachtVorst]

That keyboard is almost the same as that of the [wiki]Sager NP-925[/wiki] — including the style of PCB, albeit Fontex instead of Parex. The switches appear to be [wiki]Alps SKFR/SKFS series[/wiki], finally indicating why the yellow ones exist (for function keys).

I don't have any keycaps to go with these switches so I can't say how hard they are to remove — someone with an Apple Adjustable Keyboard will know the answer to that.

I don't know of any series now with switches that are short front-to-back — that was an Alps peculiarity and all those series are gone. However, NOS SKFR and SKFS switches are still available, but I don't know off-hand if the yellow ones are still sold, as the chap I bought them from no longer sells parts. The problem with those is that you'd never get new keycaps for them.

Thanks! That was a quick ID
It looks very similar to the Sager, only mine has just the 10-pin cable, not the ps/2 connector on the side

The switches are very nice, much nicer than anything on a modern laptop and if there are no other keycaps for them there is also less need to remove the current caps, except for cleaning.

The similarity and the fact that the motherboard does have a ps/2 connector on the back (labeled 'ext. keyboard') are pretty solid indicators this is a ps/2 keyboard.

Is there a way to figure out the mapping between the flatcable and the pins on a ps/2 connector? Or would I need a scope or something to analyze the signals?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The function row (SKFRAD) will be linear. I'm guessing that the remaining switches are all SKFRAC, also linear?

I can see what appears to be at least eight connected pins on that cable, so PS/2 or AT seems unlikely.

Curiously, the big 40–48-pin IC is at the bottom of the keyboard on the far side away from the cable. Of all the connections coming in from the cable, just one goes into a switch. The rest seem to go disappear into huge blobs of solder. The switches seem to be connected to each other but not the far side of the PCB, based on the one photo showing part of the PCB close enough to trace.

I would have thought that the cable would go directly to the chip.

Electronics isn't my thing, and besides, I can't see how the chip is connected up.

[jnick26]

Hi, all!



Don't know if this is appropriate tread for this, but is it compatible with topre. As it seem, it's Mitsumi slider over membrane, but slider (plunger) doesn't look like traditional mitsumi.

http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blo ... lowing.htm

Thanks in advance.

[Byarlant]

Found this at a recycling center a few days ago cleaned it up it works great seems to be some sort of membrane kb with cherry stems which is very odd it also seems to use a weird type of membrane that has something else in it for the actuation it also has really nice DST keys with Cyrillic characters on it its pretty neat. tried searching the model numbers google gave me nothing :/

I've looked at the photos, and you've not shown the switch or the model number.

ok finally fixed it properly here it is not sure why I had so many problems.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Please put an actual image or link!

[emdude]

Looking forward to it! I'm still waiting for my own FAME board to come in! It's been on a long trip from Australia.

Unfortunately, the deal on this fell through. The seller would not accept PayPal--something about his account being frozen years ago--and could only take money transfers. It did not help that the guy was pretty loopy, apparently because of medication, half the time. Oh well.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Hi, all!



Don't know if this is appropriate tread for this, but is it compatible with topre. As it seem, it's Mitsumi slider over membrane, but slider (plunger) doesn't look like traditional mitsumi.

http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blo ... lowing.htm

Thanks in advance.

The sliders do have a strong resemblance to the circular Mitsumi mount, but they are not the same. However, there are some pictures here of a Mitsumi version that seem to relate to what you you:

http://www.nightfallcrew.com/11/07/2010 ... ard-fixed/

Yours probably is Mitsumi too.

[Polecat]

Hello, Im trying to identify this keyboard, It is allegedly a NTC board, but after doing some searching on the internet, I can't find a NTC board with this layout. Any help would be appreciated.

New here, trying to catch up. Late reply to a question a few pages back. I have two of those here. Mine are NTC model KB-6451EA, white Alps SKCM (marked ALPS on top), printed caps, XT/AT switch on the back, 5 pin DIN, plastic plate, very light weight. Nice feel (to me...), interesting layout. CTRL key next to A (Wordstar-friendly). Keys at the top corners very deep; those were usually broken off.

[Keybug]

Nixdorf luggable - anyone know or care to guess what type of switches this uses and whether it has a regular DIN connector?

http://www.ebay.at/itm/NIXDORF-Computer ... SwBWdZmcFR

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I once came across a similar machine once with nice tactile switches, but it was Siemens instead of Nixdorf. The switches were white in some way, so I figure they were Siemens STB 21 (I couldn't seem much of them). Sadly I never wrote down the model number of it.

[Wodan]

Is this from the same stash I got mine from? I got mine sent in by someone.

Yours is from the same stash! Good old days

I ended up using the cardboard boxes they came in to store some keyboards.
A shame the seller scales shipping for multiple items pretty steeply, otherwise this would be a great source for keyboard boxes.

[seebart]

RD?

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[TapX]

RD?

It's a keyboard off a Sanyo MBC-17PLUS, a budget late 80s PC. Other than that, there seems to be no information as to what it actually is. Only seen one more on some local classifieds that doesn't mention anything about the keyboard either (apart from that it's a "DIN keyboard")

[seebart]

RD?

It's a keyboard off a Sanyo MBC-17PLUS, a budget late 80s PC. Other than that, there seems to be no information as to what it actually is. Only seen one more on some local classifieds that doesn't mention anything about the keyboard either (apart from that it's a "DIN keyboard")

Right, I have a feeling it's a rubberdome.

[chip chop]

I'll take a punt on Fujitsu Leaf 3rd Gen for the Sanyo

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The insides are a light colour, which could be a single plastic upper case, but it could also be a bare metal or white-painted mounting plate. Hard to say, but it's not particularly promising.

[ohaimark]

I'll take a punt on Fujitsu Leaf 3rd Gen for the Sanyo

Most FLS 3Gs have a black backplate. It's almost certainly rubber dome.

[chip chop]

Keycap profile and spacebar seem identical with a ICL terminal board I got today.

http://imgur.com/a/G0CPO

[thebluefox]

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What do you think? Black Alps?

Looks like Dell AT102W. The image was a little edited by me...

[Byarlant]

Please put an actual image or link!

fixed the post above and found out its some sort of derivative of the KME RB-2001-1 without the beep sadly

[seebart]

Keycap profile and spacebar seem identical with a ICL terminal board I got today.

http://imgur.com/a/G0CPO

Fine but what switch is in your ICL? The Ericsson RMD 973?

wiki/Ericsson_RMD_973_series

[chip chop]

Fine but what switch is in your ICL? The Ericsson RMD 973?

wiki/Fujitsu_Leaf_Spring

Slider showing on number 8, 3rd Gen Leaf

[seebart]

Fine but what switch is in your ICL? The Ericsson RMD 973?

wiki/Fujitsu_Leaf_Spring

Slider showing on number 8, 3rd Gen Leaf

Right thanks, I didn't see that right away.

[Keybug]

On that Sanyo, the placement and shape of the LED windows are a giveaway for Peerless IMHO. Also, has anyone seen any Leaf Spring boards with Alt and Ctrl in the same row as space? That board just doesn't seem vintage enough for Leaf Spring to me. Wanted to scoop this up, too, before I had a closer look at the pictures...

[seebart]

On that Sanyo, the placement and shape of the LED windows are a giveaway for Peerless IMHO. Also, has anyone seen any Leaf Spring boards with Alt and Ctrl in the same row as space? That board just doesn't seem vintage enough for Leaf Spring to me. Wanted to scoop this up, too, before I had a closer look at the pictures...

Sounds convincing. Peerlees could have been such a worthy follow up for Fujitsu...but they somehow managed to produce a pretty horrible switch after such brilliance. To this day I want to try NIB Peerless just to find out if they feel lousy even when unused. I bet they do.

[Polecat]

Still digging through Mr. Whoopee's Closet, down to the 386 vintage stuff now, found this one. No case, no ID other than "KB-089" on the back of the board. White Alps clones. About half have lost their click. 4 pin connector. Two position slide switch, unlabeled, presumably AT/XT? Brown Enter key, etc., Macro key next to left Shift. Stamped caps. Some sort of luggable?

[seebart]

Still digging through Mr. Whoopee's Closet, down to the 386 vintage stuff now, found this one. No case, no ID other than "KB-089" on the back of the board. White Alps clones. About half have lost their click. 4 pin connector. Two position slide switch, unlabeled, presumably AT/XT? Brown Enter key, etc., Macro key next to left Shift. Stamped caps. Some sort of luggable?

Reminds me of these:

wiki/Unitech_K959

keyboards-f2/unitech-k959-rev-2-1-t1084 ... ech%20K959

[Keybug]

Can anyone tell off the bat what keyboard this is? Stepped capslock, indentation for logo at top left and the four little nibs around the LED screen should be pretty distinctive, but I can't recall having seen anything like it. Horrid banana colour, though...

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[Keybug]

Okay, forget it, just realized it's an old Keytronic.