deskthority

Someone here recently organised a group buy for some Wyse terminal keyboards (part no. 900128-02) which were being sold on Ebay. I understand these keyboards have doubleshot keycaps, plate mounted cherry MX black switches, and are not PC compatible.

I regret not having participated in the group buy. However, I've now seen another batch of Wyse terminal keyboards on Ebay (part no. 901867-01) and I'm considering buying one. Despite the different part numbers the keyboards look very similar to the original batch. The only significant differences are that the Wyse logo is missing, and the cursor keys have black arrows on them (on the 900128-02 keyboards the arrows are yellow).

Can anyone here tell me whether the 901867-01 Wyse keyboards have doubleshot keys, and plate mounted cherry MX switches.

Thanks.

Most likely a rubberdome, be careful. While collecting a ton of WYSE boards I have gone by the rule of thumb that non yellow arrow keys = rubber dome. It has been true 4 of 5 times so far.

Yeah, confirmed rubber dome:


You can see the plastic backplate through the gaps on the keys. The keys also seem to be pad printed or lasered.

Thanks for the quick response. That was a narrow escape!

For future reference, is there any way to tell for certain whether a Wyse keyboard has doubleshot keys and/or plate mounted MX switches?

Other than searching for the model number and hoping someone else already took the risk, here are a few hints I used in the past:

* The MX boards usually have a coiled cable, where the rubber dome boards have a flat cable
* The MX boards have a "stepped" Control/Capslock key (including the modifiers)
* The MX boards have yellow arrow keys (exception are some OEM variants, which will not be WYSE branded)
* Try to see through the gap on keycaps. All WYSE MX boards have a black painted backplate.
* All WYSE MX boards have a "nipple/dot" on the F and J keys, where the rubberdomes ones have a "bar" as a homing row indicator

Here is an example of the stepped capslock, as well as the homing bar on the F/J keys:


This is one of the WYSE rubber dome full size boards that webwit picked up for me once (and then recycled)
You can see the F and J keys have a bar and the capslock has a small step. You can see the white plastic backplate through the gaps between the keys.


Near identical case and design, but this is the MX variant. The F and J keys are dotted, the capslock has a bigger step. The gap between keys is smaller, you can see the black below.