IDENTIFY THE KEYBOARD thread

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Chicony's version is similar but it lacks the function key legend strip:

[wiki]Chicony KB-5160[/wiki]

[Keybug]

As for adding to the Wiki, I was about to add a page for my Focus FK-3002 but couldn't figure out how to do that, so I just edited the FK-3001 page. Is there such a thing as an editing / style guide for the DT wiki? Thanks.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

yes: copy another page that looks good :)

FK-3001 and 3002 should share the same page anyway, by convention.

[thegoldenmandenis]

Anyone recognize the vintage board (2nd from bottom, of course)? I'm thinking definitely ALPS, likely SKCM blue as the accompanying monitor is dated 1988. Datacomp? very old Focus? The case also looks like one of the old Chiconies but I think none of them came in XT layout. Found a good many photos of similar-looking boards but none had the labelling strip. Thanks.

IMG_1508332245201_43064.jpg

I'm getting a definite Cherry doubleshot feel from those keycaps.

[kbdfr]

Anyone recognize the vintage board (2nd from bottom, of course)? I'm thinking definitely ALPS, likely SKCM blue as the accompanying monitor is dated 1988. Datacomp? very old Focus? The case also looks like one of the old Chiconies but I think none of them came in XT layout. Found a good many photos of similar-looking boards but none had the labelling strip. Thanks.

The attachment IMG_1508332245201_43064.jpg is no longer available

I'm getting a definite Cherry doubleshot feel from those keycaps.

Definitely:
Keyboard from Keybug's pic:

keyboard from Keybug's pic.png (279.99 KiB) Viewed 5718 times

Cherry G80-0537:

g80-0537.png (432.07 KiB) Viewed 5718 times

[seebart]

Well, when you have that keyboad keybug I'm looking foreward to finding out what it is. Stepped function keys were in fact used quite a bit on older Cherry based boards but the G80-0537 lacks that thin "banner" over the top row that our mystery board shares with the Focus FK-727 and SKB-5150C kbdfr! Also everyone, remember that the SKB-5150C ProWolrd clone is in fact MX-mount!

[kbdfr]

The Ortek MCK142 Pro has a similar "banner".
Anyway, even on such a small pic the font (not the keyboard, of course) is clearly recognizable as Cherry.
Want to take a bet on that?

[seebart]

Want to take a bet on that?

Spoiler:

0bbdf11f503284ea19cbfbf32d786119.jpg (37.58 KiB) Viewed 5686 times

We shall see...

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The Ortek MCK142 Pro has a similar "banner".
Anyway, even on such a small pic the font (not the keyboard, of course) is clearly recognizable as Cherry.
Want to take a bet on that? :mrgreen:

Per [wiki]Tai-Hao TH-5539[/wiki] series, Tai-Hao TH series keycaps (Cherry profile and typeface) were also made as Alps mount. This would require the whole keyboard to be Tai-Hao as TH series was apparently not sold to third parties.

However, the LED legends are a match for SKB-5150C. TH-5150's LED panel is clearly different.

[2ter]

The Ortek MCK142 Pro has a similar "banner".
Anyway, even on such a small pic the font (not the keyboard, of course) is clearly recognizable as Cherry.
Want to take a bet on that?

I bet those aren't original Cherry. Look at the German specific keys and how bad they are printed.

[kbdfr]

The Ortek MCK142 Pro has a similar "banner".
Anyway, even on such a small pic the font (not the keyboard, of course) is clearly recognizable as Cherry.
Want to take a bet on that?

I bet those aren't original Cherry. Look at the German specific keys and how bad they are printed.

I'd rather not bet after all

[Wodan]

Are there examples for non-Cherry boards with Cherry keycaps?
Best one I can think of are the Skidata boards ...
Other than that, this seems to be very uncommon ...

[seebart]

The Ortek MCK142 Pro has a similar "banner".
Anyway, even on such a small pic the font (not the keyboard, of course) is clearly recognizable as Cherry.
Want to take a bet on that?

I bet those aren't original Cherry. Look at the German specific keys and how bad they are printed.

I'd rather not bet after all

Are there examples for non-Cherry boards with Cherry keycaps?
Best one I can think of are the Skidata boards ...
Other than that, this seems to be very uncommon ...

Not too many, but Skidata is a good example. That keyboard that this is about is quite obscure anyway.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Are there examples for non-Cherry boards with Cherry keycaps?
Best one I can think of are the Skidata boards ...
Other than that, this seems to be very uncommon ...

So whose keycaps are on [wiki]TTI TA-14[/wiki] and [wiki]SKB-5150C[/wiki]?

They could be real Cherry. Someone here or at geekhack showed a comparison between real Cherry and Tai-Hao TH series and they're very similar.

They could be Tai-Hao, either because they were the OEM, or because they did sell TH-series keycaps and forgot that they did (my contact there was still at school when all this was going on).

They could also be a different clone of Cherry's keycap series.

I was told by someone (maybe Robin from Cherry UK posted it here) that they discovered clones by noticing that some company was buying the levelling mechanisms (stabilisers) but not the switches, and realised that they were cloning the switches. I don't know whether the keycaps were also being sold to the Far East, or just the switches and levelling mechanisms.

Another oddity is keyboards that use clone switches but use a real Alps/Cherry/Omron switch for enter and/or space. That's something I've seen several times now.

[Wodan]

I can see Cherry supplying switches and keycaps to company but supplying a company using Cherry clone switches with their keycaps doesn't make sense.

The TaiHao Doubleshots have a strikeout-0 in the numpad.


And since the have been supplying GMK with their caps, I do think it makes sense other companies got them as well for their Cherry-MX based keyboards. Would be curious of more examples

[Keybug]

Well, this is fun detective work! Seems this one really isn't documented anywhere.

I have since been sent another picture, sadly not a very good one either:

Focus FK-727_747_2.jpg (53.16 KiB) Viewed 5544 times

The caps are definitely Tai-Hao as the zero legend is struck (not sure about the numpad 0) and the 2 key is also typical, I think. Also, original Focus is now out of the question and MX mount seems most likely. If only it's not plain MX black again!

Maybe a predecessor of the TH-5150-CAT or the Pro-World clone with stepped modifier caps?

Anyway, the board should be here by the middle of next week when I'll clear up the mystery. Thanks to everyone for chiming in!

[seebart]

Seems this one really isn't documented anywhere.

Which is why we have to document it! Still a little premature to make conclusions since you don't even have it yet. A lot isn't documented BTW.

[Polecat]

Seems this one really isn't documented anywhere.

Which is why we have to document it! Still a little premature to make conclusions since you don't even have it yet. A lot isn't documented BTW.

Very true. There were lots of different PC/XT keyboard models available in the mid-'80s once the IBM clone market took off. Everyone wanted a piece of the action. The clone market closely followed what IBM was doing, at least until the PS/2 came out, and a generation was about 18 months. Once the IBM AT (286) came out the 83 key PC/XT boards became obsolete, and most were tossed in the trash. Not long after that the IBM PS/2 came out with its extended layout, and nobody wanted the 84 key AT clone boards after that, so most of those got tossed. The next change was the addition of windows keys when Win95 came out, but that wasn't as big a deal since the extended layout was basically unchanged. Most of today's keyboards closely resemble what was available in 1995, but in the early days things changed often, and the older stuff vanished into thin air.

I worked in the surplus/recycling biz at the time, and we had tens of thousands of keyboards a year pass through. Nobody wanted computer parts that were more than a generation old, so the older keyboards got tossed by the thousands. They weren't worth recycling at the time, so most went into the landfills. We see very few boards today with the early layouts, but there were probably hundreds of different versions available. There was a wealth of information in the computer magazines at the time, but unfortunately most of those got tossed too.

[seebart]

I worked in the surplus/recycling biz at the time, and we had tens of thousands of keyboards a year pass through. Nobody wanted computer parts that were more than a generation old, so the older keyboards got tossed by the thousands.

God, I think I'd still have nightmares about that today.

[Slom]

There was a wealth of information in the computer magazines at the time, but unfortunately most of those got tossed too.

My grandfather magazines are still there, but who's to look through them?

IMAG0779.jpg (764.27 KiB) Viewed 5473 times

IMAG0778.jpg (785.82 KiB) Viewed 5473 times

[IKSLM]

Simply scan them to PDFs

[Gnohio]

There was a wealth of information in the computer magazines at the time, but unfortunately most of those got tossed too.

My grandfather magazines are still there, but who's to look through them?

IMAG0779.jpg

IMAG0778.jpg

Thats an amazing collection Preserve it for the ages!

[mike52787]

Well, this is fun detective work! Seems this one really isn't documented anywhere.

I have since been sent another picture, sadly not a very good one either:

Focus FK-727_747_2.jpg

The caps are definitely Tai-Hao as the zero legend is struck (not sure about the numpad 0) and the 2 key is also typical, I think. Also, original Focus is now out of the question and MX mount seems most likely. If only it's not plain MX black again!

Maybe a predecessor of the TH-5150-CAT or the Pro-World clone with stepped modifier caps?

Anyway, the board should be here by the middle of next week when I'll clear up the mystery. Thanks to everyone for chiming in!

This seems to be a close relative of one of my boards. My example has "Key World" linear switches and tai hao cherry clone keycaps. Here is the link to my photothread.
photos-f62/keyboard-skb-5150-tai-hao-f- ... 17338.html

[Polecat]

Well, this is fun detective work! Seems this one really isn't documented anywhere.

I have since been sent another picture, sadly not a very good one either:

Focus FK-727_747_2.jpg

The caps are definitely Tai-Hao as the zero legend is struck (not sure about the numpad 0) and the 2 key is also typical, I think. Also, original Focus is now out of the question and MX mount seems most likely. If only it's not plain MX black again!

Maybe a predecessor of the TH-5150-CAT or the Pro-World clone with stepped modifier caps?

Anyway, the board should be here by the middle of next week when I'll clear up the mystery. Thanks to everyone for chiming in!

Here's a completed ebay listing with decent photos of a Focus FK-747:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Focus-747-Mech ... 7675.l2557

[Polecat]

My grandfather magazines are still there, but who's to look through them?

One issue a day and you'll be done in only twenty or thirty years.

I donated mine to a local guy who had a vintage computer lab and used to put on a show every year, but he seems to have disappeared.

[rymut]

Any idea what is this keyboard:

back

kb1.jpg (588.85 KiB) Viewed 5387 times

front

kb1.jpg (588.85 KiB) Viewed 5387 times

source: allegro.pl/klawiatura-mechaniczna-mitsumi-din-myszka-com-i7006200417.html

[Keybug]

https://www.terapeak.com/worth/vintage- ... 919476652/

Rubber dome (or "hybrid" - see wiki)! A shame that Mitsumi boards rarely (never?) use any of the great mechanical switches they made...

[rymut]

Rubber dome (or "hybrid" - see wiki)! A shame that Mitsumi boards rarely (never?) use any of the great mechanical switches they made...

Thank you, I was not aware of tearpeak website (quite handy thing).
But, yes I own two or three mitsumi board with "hybrid" switches so I will probably pass.

[Chyros]

https://www.terapeak.com/worth/vintage- ... 919476652/

Rubber dome (or "hybrid" - see wiki)! A shame that Mitsumi boards rarely (never?) use any of the great mechanical switches they made...

Mitsumi made great mechanical switches? Where? xD

[Keybug]

Thou heathen! Hath not the Lord provided thee with a can of spray lube? Thou shalt apply it liberally to the stems of the reviled Miniature switch from the East. Then shalt thou see the shining light of truth!

I'm ashamed to say I'm myself responsible for an unjust act of Mitsumi bashing (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=88566.0) but I have repented and now I'm definitely with Daniel Beardsmore on this: photos-f62/mitsumi-klt-11-the-ultimate- ... t8257.html

PS: Can someone please tell me how to show only text strings rather than whole URLs? Cheers!