IDENTIFY THE KEYBOARD thread

[davkol]

Hey, I like Fujitsu Peerless… it can be scratchy when stored improperly, but otherwise I definitely like the force curve… and the keycaps are nice and the whole keyboard is quite solid.

[mike52787]

I don't like model m buckling spring anyway so that could explain something

[davkol]

Actually, I'm not too fond of buckling springs either. Too loud and harsh for me. Peerless has much softer sound (although if I were to pick one clicky switch, it'd be Oki Gourd Spring) and an almost "exponential" force/travel curve kind of similar to stock Cherry MX Clear, which is decidedly controversial, but I like it.

[rich1051414]

Actually, I'm not too fond of buckling springs either. Too loud and harsh for me. Peerless has much softer sound (although if I were to pick one clicky switch, it'd be Oki Gourd Spring) and an almost "exponential" force/travel curve kind of similar to stock Cherry MX Clear, which is decidedly controversial, but I like it.

This explains why some people call it 'heavier' and some people call it 'lighter'. Cherry mx clear is my favorite (cherry) switch, so I understand this discrepancy deeply, It all depends on how delicately you type.

[seebart]

Does anyone know if this TOSHIBA PA7354E keypad is mechanical and if so what switches it uses? Thanks.

TOSHIBA PA7354E.jpg (161.97 KiB) Viewed 7098 times

[rich1051414]

Does anyone know if this TOSHIBA PA7354E keypad is mechanical and if so what switches it uses? Thanks.

TOSHIBA PA7354E.jpg

Hard to say, but the black underside of the keys and stabilized 2u keys looks mechanical to me. You can see the wire under the 0 key, and (cheap) rubber domes usually don't stabilize the 2u keys.

[seebart]

Does anyone know if this TOSHIBA PA7354E keypad is mechanical and if so what switches it uses? Thanks.

TOSHIBA PA7354E.jpg

Hard to say, but the black underside of the keys and stabilized 2u keys looks mechanical to me. You can see the wire under the 0 key, and (cheap) rubber domes usually don't stabilize the 2u keys.

Right good spot, the keycaps look "Alpish" to me but I really don't know.

[mike52787]

Does anyone know if this TOSHIBA PA7354E keypad is mechanical and if so what switches it uses? Thanks.

snip

I would guess some flavor of pcb mount alps, probably this.

wiki/Alps_common_mount_low_profile

My reasoning for this guess is I have seen it on similar numpads and other toshiba products.

[arkanoid]

Does anyone know if this TOSHIBA PA7354E keypad is mechanical and if so what switches it uses? Thanks.

The attachment TOSHIBA PA7354E.jpg is no longer available

Googled PA7354E switch, and got the following result. It's just a google capture, the eBay link is now corrupted and does not show the contents of the google cache.

Blue slider, looks like Mitsumi, linear, non-clicky...

[seebart]

Thanks mike52787 & arkanoid, yeah the "T1000/T1200" is a giveaway although that does not does not automatically mean it uses the same switches as the T1200 which we have seen here at DT before more than once:

photos-f62/toshiba-t1200-minitouch-t465 ... BA%20T1200

[Daniel Beardsmore]

This is the Mitsumi one:

http://kbd.rzw.jp/mitsumi_/toshiba_j31tp002/

This does not have the black under the keycaps.

[rich1051414]

seebart, if you look at Print Screen button, it becomes obvious that even if the switches aren't the same, the caps are. Those are probably the same molds and use the same mounts.

I once owned one of those T1200's and it came with NEC looking switches, white, but it was an alps compatible stem on the sliders. I would put money on WHATEVER switch in in that keypad, it has alps compatible keycaps.

I suppose it is possible that Toshiba was just very anal about consistency and matched them perfectly, but that seems like a stretch to me.

Either way, personally I am in no short supply of alps compatible keycaps for a number pad xD It always seems these are what my leftovers are, so I don't know if I would take the chance either without knowing for sure what the switch is.

This is the Mitsumi one:

http://kbd.rzw.jp/mitsumi_/toshiba_j31tp002/

This does not have the black under the keycaps.

Keycaps are different as well.

[seebart]

Right, like I said two posts up does not automatically mean it uses the same switches as the T1200. Thanks for the infos.

[cml]

What's the keyboard on top?

[2ter]

Does anyone know if this TOSHIBA PA7354E keypad is mechanical and if so what switches it uses? Thanks.

TOSHIBA PA7354E.jpg

workshop-f7/toshiba-numeric-keypad-t17682.html

Those keypads are made by Mitsumi

[seebart]

Does anyone know if this TOSHIBA PA7354E keypad is mechanical and if so what switches it uses? Thanks.

TOSHIBA PA7354E.jpg

workshop-f7/toshiba-numeric-keypad-t17682.html

Those keypads are made by Mitsumi

Yeah I know thanks, I didn't buy it anyway.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

workshop-f7/toshiba-numeric-keypad-t17682.html

Those keypads are made by Mitsumi

I often ignore the workshop forum, so I'm glad you mentioned this here.

[__red__]

5 x S100 machines, hundreds of docs, 8" floppies, and misc too including an iconic imsai 8080:

8080.jpg (353.73 KiB) Viewed 6879 times

Included were two keyboards:
Teleray 1062 (No wiki entry, even for the manufacturer):

k1.jpg (211.76 KiB) Viewed 6879 times

... and a keyboard with no label or manufacturer:

k2.jpg (541.6 KiB) Viewed 6879 times

Thoughts?

[seebart]

Thoughts?

A: Nice!

B: What are you trying to tell us here?

C: Did you buy all this?

D: No idea what the last one is. The keycaps look a bit KeyTronic but not really 100%.

E: I'd love to see more of that Teleray 1062.

[__red__]

C: Did you buy all this?

No, a friend of mine is downsizing and I'm one of the few people he knew that appreciated and made sense of what it all was.

D: No idea what the last one is. The keycaps look a bit KeyTronic but not really 100%.

I'm clueless too - especially since the connection is almost 12ft of ribbon cable! I'd love to know what it is.
Correction - the connection isn't ribbon cable, it's an edge connector and I just noticed that there's TWO edge-connector sockets. Can this thing drive two machines?

E: I'd love to see more of that Teleray 1062.

Honestly, I don't see how to open it up. It looks riveted together.

[seebart]

No, a friend of mine is downsizing and I'm one of the few people he knew that appreciated and made sense of what it all was.

Good man!

I'm clueless too - especially since the connection is almost 12ft of ribbon cable! I'd love to know what it is.Correction - the connection isn't ribbon cable, it's an edge connector and I just noticed that there's TWO edge-connector sockets. Can this thing drive two machines?

Possibly, one of my Honeywells has a very long connector but not for two machines.

Spoiler:

IMGP0627.JPG (959.55 KiB) Viewed 6852 times

Honestly, I don't see how to open it up. It looks riveted together.

Of course it could be opened with force which might not be worth it. But I really just meant more better pics of the keyboard itself.

[sncbrax]

Hi guys,

Anyone know if this paging keyboard is mechanical? I don't think its likely but wasn't sure. Manufacturing of these seem to have began in 1997, ignore me

[minivanmegafun]

Hi there!

This isn't so much identify the keyboard - I know what it is, it's from a Panasonic Sr Partner portable from 83.

Excuse the filthiness of these shots, I just managed to get this computer booted up (off of it's 30 year old hard drive no less!) today.

I'm more trying to identify the keyswitch (and what to do to refurbish it, 3 keys on it don't work). It's a form of spring over capacitive membrane, but not anything I've seen before or that I can find on the internet.

The keycaps are cross-mount dye-sub, but not MX - the cross is too small. (MX on left, this keyboard on right)


The key switch assemblies are mounted in a steel plate, floating above a film, floating above a PCB. (The 3 key has lost its cross mount and keycap)


There's a slider that has a rubber nipple on the bottom that presses into the membrane, and then a spring between it and the rest of the key housing.



Fully assembled it looks like this:



The back circuitboard (which I completely forgot to take a shot of, sorry) has the Matsushita triangle logo stamped on it.

The key assemblies have a habit of liberating their sliders and springs across the rooms, or the entire key assembly pops out of the backing plate, when a key puller is applied.

Full shots of the entire thing:

It's clearly in rough shape, but the thing about portables is you're kind of stuck with the keyboard they come with

Anyone seen this design before?

[consideringquiet]

Well, this thing is not a keyboard, its a calculator. I know what it is, its a Victor 1665, but the switches are whats weird to me. Any ideas? Sorry the pictures are awful, its basically cross mount black switches. Definitely not MX, for sure.

https://imgur.com/gallery/lE7qo

[seebart]

Well, this thing is not a keyboard, its a calculator. I know what it is, its a Victor 1665, but the switches are whats weird to me. Any ideas? Sorry the pictures are awful, its basically cross mount black switches. Definitely not MX, for sure.

https://imgur.com/gallery/lE7qo

Sorry can't tell you from those pictures, someone else here might be able to though. Definitely not Cherry MX that's right.

[consideringquiet]

Well, this thing is not a keyboard, its a calculator. I know what it is, its a Victor 1665, but the switches are whats weird to me. Any ideas? Sorry the pictures are awful, its basically cross mount black switches. Definitely not MX, for sure.

https://imgur.com/gallery/lE7qo

Sorry can't tell you from those pictures, someone else here might be able to though. Definitely not Cherry MX that's right.

https://imgur.com/VfksBJu

Heres a "clearer" one

[Chyros]

Well, this thing is not a keyboard, its a calculator. I know what it is, its a Victor 1665, but the switches are whats weird to me. Any ideas? Sorry the pictures are awful, its basically cross mount black switches. Definitely not MX, for sure.

https://imgur.com/gallery/lE7qo

Sorry can't tell you from those pictures, someone else here might be able to though. Definitely not Cherry MX that's right.

https://imgur.com/VfksBJu

Heres a "clearer" one

Looks like Futaba linears. Extremely horrible in my experience xD .

[consideringquiet]

Looks like Futaba linears. Extremely horrible in my experience xD .

They feel really scratchy, I dunno if its from how dirty the thing is or if it's just the switches

[Chyros]

Looks like Futaba linears. Extremely horrible in my experience xD .

They feel really scratchy, I dunno if its from how dirty the thing is or if it's just the switches

I've had four Futaba boards. None of them were pristine, but all of them were nightmarishly scratchy.

[consideringquiet]

I've had four Futaba boards. None of them were pristine, but all of them were nightmarishly scratchy.

Maybe they are really, really, really sensitive to dirt. Like Alps but more sensitive by an order of magnitude!

Or they could just be naturally awful like leaf springs.