Sun Type 6 keyboard - $1.8 flea market find

[green-squid]

Hey guys! I found this Sun keyboard at the flea market! It needed some cleaning but it was worth the effort. I wish I had the computer to go along with it (like with most old keyboards).























Couldn't screw in the ground wire so I used mounting putty.


What do you think?

[Myoth]

Huh, I thought Type 5c were more desirable, but hey, that's a cool keyboard !

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I think that's the first time I've seen Sun Wei's name on a keyboard other than Datacomp. (Sung Wei made most of Datacomp's PCBs.)

[green-squid]

Huh, I thought Type 5c were more desirable, but hey, that's a cool keyboard !

I know! It's pretty cool! And it's USB, so it works on my computer! I kind of wanted PS/2 though, I like the plug better

[Findecanor]

AFAIK, Sun Type 6's came in either USB or Sun's proprietary protocol with a mini-DIN connector, never PS/2.

[DanielT]

Huh, I thought Type 5c were more desirable, but hey, that's a cool keyboard !

I know! It's pretty cool! And it's USB, so it works on my computer! I kind of wanted PS/2 though, I like the plug better

That plug is not PS/2 , is a SUN DIN connector and it doesn’t work with PS/2 . But it can be converted to USB.
Anyway it’s a nice board, not as nice as Type5 or Type5c but still good.

[green-squid]

Huh, I thought Type 5c were more desirable, but hey, that's a cool keyboard !

I know! It's pretty cool! And it's USB, so it works on my computer! I kind of wanted PS/2 though, I like the plug better

That plug is not PS/2 , is a SUN DIN connector and it doesn’t work with PS/2 . But it can be converted to USB.
Anyway it’s a nice board, not as nice as Type5 or Type5c but still good.

I was talking about the fact that I like PS/2 better for most keyboards. This Sun keyboard is USB.

[DanielT]

I know it's USB I thought you were talking about the older models with DIN connector. I've been working a very long time with SUN hardware from workstations to high end servers, SUN hardware has a special spot for me

[thegoldenmandenis]

Something I've often wondered about with these Sun keyboards is whether the function keys on the left of the keyboard do anything, and what the modifier keys on the bottom map to when used in Windows. Do they work in Windows, and do any of the modifiers function the same as the Windows and Menu keys in Windows?

[Findecanor]

Sun has a long tradition of the function keys on the left. In the X Window System on Unix/Linux you can map anything to anything -- but there is a plethora of different programs and different user interface "toolkits" going back to the 1980's so support varies a great deal.

In Windows the Meta keys act as Windows keys and the Compose key acts as Menu. Left Alt is of course Left Alt and Alt Graph is right Alt, which is Alt Graph in ISO layouts on Windows.