This evening's pickup. Found an Apple AEK II on Craigslist!

[apastuszak]

Not sure what switches those are. Can anyone identify them? Are they dampened cream or white?

[Myoth]

wiki/Apple_Extended_Keyboard_II

[apastuszak]

Assembled in Japan. Mitsumi linear switches.

I was hoping to get the dampened cream switches.

[inozenz]

Assembled in Japan. Mitsumi linear switches.

I was hoping to get the dampened cream switches.

i'd be happy to trade for a white dampened one, if you are interested.

[Findecanor]

Don't knock them 'til you've tried them. The Mitsumi ones are a little bit more unusual also, I'd think.

[apastuszak]

Assembled in Japan. Mitsumi linear switches.

I was hoping to get the dampened cream switches.

i'd be happy to trade for a white dampened one, if you are interested.

Let me get my converter in and use it for a few weeks and I'll get back to you.

[Muirium]

I've had a few AEKs (and proxied at least half a dozen more), but all of them were Alps so you're either unlucky or have an interesting one. The interpretation is up to you!

Definitely a good idea to give it a fair test. You might find you like it.

[inozenz]

Assembled in Japan. Mitsumi linear switches.

I was hoping to get the dampened cream switches.

i'd be happy to trade for a white dampened one, if you are interested.

Let me get my converter in and use it for a few weeks and I'll get back to you.

sure, you can always dm me.

[apastuszak]

I need to retrobrite this thing. But don't want to spend the money on that till the adapter gets here and I can see that it works.

[doomsday_device]

rare specimen! pretty sure you could sell off easily if you dont like it.
if you have a minute it would be great to know what you think of the switches.

[apastuszak]

rare specimen! pretty sure you could sell off easily if you dont like it.
if you have a minute it would be great to know what you think of the switches.

Have to wait for the Tinkeyboy adapter to get here. 3-4 weeks from The Philippines to the US. I don't know if I have the patience to wait that long.

[Lanrefni]

rare specimen! pretty sure you could sell off easily if you dont like it.
if you have a minute it would be great to know what you think of the switches.

Have to wait for the Tinkeyboy adapter to get here. 3-4 weeks from The Philippines to the US. I don't know if I have the patience to wait that long.

Making a TMK/QMK adapter is pretty easy if you have a spare ProMicro lying around.

[apastuszak]

rare specimen! pretty sure you could sell off easily if you dont like it.
if you have a minute it would be great to know what you think of the switches.

Have to wait for the Tinkeyboy adapter to get here. 3-4 weeks from The Philippines to the US. I don't know if I have the patience to wait that long.

Making a TMK/QMK adapter is pretty easy if you have a spare ProMicro lying around.

I do not.

[hellothere]

Drakware. I've used at least a half dozen of them.

They're Mitsumi Standard Mechanical tactile switches, not Mitsumi Miniature Mechanical, which is the one a lot of people don't like. I have no opinion on the Minis.

I've had two with the Standard Mechanicals. They feel reminiscent of salmon Alps, but not as smooth. But, yeah, you might find that you really like them.

[Muirium]

I do not.

You’ll learn.

Honestly, I’ve at least 3 Teensy 2s still ready to go for such projects. Old keyboard restorer’s trick.

[apastuszak]

I ordered the Wombat ADB to USB adapter and it came in yesterday. I have the AEK II up and running.



These Mitsumi switches are linear and REALLY quiet. The space bar is pretty loud. But the rest of the switches are as quiet as a rubber dome keyboard.

Still want to get an AEK II with dampened ALPS cream switches. But so far, the typing experience on this keyboard has been very pleasant. It would be cool if I could get the power switch on the keyboard going.

Still waiting on my Tinkeyboy adapter to come in. I plan to flash that with QMK and try to set up a few macros.

[Muirium]

TMK can map that key to System Power, as I recall, which will sleep the computer but not power it up from cold. USB doesn’t have native support for starting up or powering the computer down like ADB does. You can get some of the way there with TMK/QMK or Karabiner though.

[apastuszak]

TMK can map that key to System Power, as I recall, which will sleep the computer but not power it up from cold. USB doesn’t have native support for starting up or powering the computer down like ADB does. You can get some of the way there with TMK/QMK or Karabiner though.

I don't need it to power off and on the computer. I'd just like to program it to do SOMETHING. Right now it's just a dead key.

[Bjerrk]

In TMK/QMK ADB converters, that key behaves just like any other. I have it mapped to open a calculator, for instance. Murium just gave one example use for it.

[apastuszak]

The Tinkerboy adapter came in the mail today. I've had a chance to compare the Tinkerboy to the Wombat, and I have one immediate observation. On the Wombat, if you press down on CAPS LOCK on the AEK II with even the slightest force, it will engage caps lock. Even when the key is not locked. The AEK II has a locking CAPS LOCK key.

With the Tinkerboy, you have to lock the key in the down position in order to get CAPS LOCK engaged. So, my accidental engagement of CAPS LOCK with typing has gone away with the Tinkerboy.

[apastuszak]

And another AEK II arrived today via Fedex. This one has Cream Dampened ALPS switches.



The foot on this one is broken, but from what I have seen online, that is not uncommon for this keyboard. I put some self-adhesive rubber feet in the back corners and I am good.

As expected, I much prefer the ALPS tactile switches over the Mutsumi linear ones.

This keyboard also has almost no yellowing, so no need to retr0brite this one. This one also has the function key overlay on it.

[apastuszak]

The Tinkerboy adapter came in the mail today. I've had a chance to compare the Tinkerboy to the Wombat, and I have one immediate observation. On the Wombat, if you press down on CAPS LOCK on the AEK II with even the slightest force, it will engage caps lock. Even when the key is not locked. The AEK II has a locking CAPS LOCK key.

With the Tinkerboy, you have to lock the key in the down position in order to get CAPS LOCK engaged. So, my accidental engagement of CAPS LOCK with typing has gone away with the Tinkerboy.

A note about the Wombat firmware. I reported the "problem" to them and I got a fixed firmware the next day from them. Very cool.

The Wombat is nice because it's a 2-way adapter. So you can use your old ADB keyboards and mice with a new computer, and you can use newer USB peripherals on older ADB Macs.