Sun Type 5 Keyboard

BlueBär · 27 Mar 2014, 20:24

: 1.JPG (410.69 KiB) Viewed 8264 times

Most Sun Type 5 keyboards are actually rubberdomes, but thanks to Haata I got aware of this one on ebay. After confirming with the seller by a switch pic that this is actually mechanical I bought it - why not?

The keyboard came with the classic two-tone colour scheme and has pad-printed legends in Futura. The legends are in excellent condition and only a few keys are a bit shiny, while most of them are still very textured. The switches are MX Blacks (non-vintage) and plate mounted.

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It has some extra keys on the left and on the right above the numpad. The keys on the left are some sort of commands like stop, repeat, properties,...

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The cable (slightly damaged) is detachable and can be plugged in on the left and right side. It is not a PS2 cable btw.

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The feet are a sort of 2-in-1 system so you have three height modes instead of the usual two.

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And finally a photo from the whole backside and the label.

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I might use it just for harvesting the switches but I'm not too sure yet. I hope you enjoyed the photos!

tlt · 27 Mar 2014, 20:32

Is that actually a Sun keyboard? it doesn't say "Sun Microsystems" anywhere in the pictures. Is it a Sun compatible keyboard made by someone else, who?

BlueBär · 27 Mar 2014, 20:44

FCC ID says Integrix Inc. was the manufacturer. The ebay seller called it a "SPARCstation keyboard of a Hyundai / Axil Clone".

mr_a500 · 27 Mar 2014, 21:19

I've never seen a keyboard with Futura font before. I don't really like the keyboard style, but the font is nice.

I used a modified (by me) Futura font as my main Amiga font for years. I still use Futura for my notepad on my Mac.

BlueBär · 27 Mar 2014, 21:58

Futura can be a great font depending on the situation. In this case I think it works very well.

7bit · 27 Mar 2014, 22:03

Wow!

I didn't know these exist.

German is quite a verbose language, much more appropriate for poetry than for key cap labels:
Stop Again
Props Undo
Front Copy
Open Paste
Find Cut

cookie · 28 Mar 2014, 11:53

I almost thought they were PBT Dyesub, verry nice keyboard you've got there!
I really like the font on this

daedalus · 28 Mar 2014, 16:38

mr_a500 wrote:I've never seen a keyboard with Futura font before. I don't really like the keyboard style, but the font is nice.

I used a modified (by me) Futura font as my main Amiga font for years. I still use Futura for my notepad on my Mac.

I thought the Filcos used Futura?

Nice keyboard! I'd have been jealous if it was a clone of the ANSI "Unix" style ones with the backspace over the return key and Esc where `~ usually is

Findecanor · 28 Mar 2014, 17:51

The small font on the numeric row, fun cluster etc. seems to be the same as on the Sun Type 5: I think it could be Lucida Sans or something very close.

BlueBär · 28 Mar 2014, 18:14

Findecanor wrote:The small font on the numeric row, fun cluster etc. seems to be the same as on the Sun Type 5: I think it could be Lucida Sans or something very close.

It seems to be slightly different, good spot!

shreebles · 04 Jun 2014, 16:48

Nice font! Was it expensive?

BlueBär · 04 Jun 2014, 18:13

Not at all! I can't remember the exact price right now though, it's been a while.

Hak Foo · 05 Jun 2014, 08:29

mr_a500 wrote:I've never seen a keyboard with Futura font before. I don't really like the keyboard style, but the font is nice.

I used a modified (by me) Futura font as my main Amiga font for years. I still use Futura for my notepad on my Mac.

Aren't the old Filcos in Futura Italic?

DanielT · 04 Jul 2014, 09:04

As from now I'm the new owner of this beauty

Didn't had time to do some proper testing, in the weekend I'll fire up my SUN Ultra 5 station and make some real life tests.
I have typed on all kind of SUN keyboards, and must say that this one is by far the best one, the black switches have a nice feeling, they're not scratchy at all. For a 60% user like me, this board is huge, but is a Cherry MX SUN compatible board, and that, for a long time SUN fan is a great find

One weird thing I noticed are the stabs,they're like noting I've seen before. These are kind of Costar-ish type, but compatible with nothing, I'll take some photos because these I really something than can not be described in words. Even the spacebar is non standard, the mount points are in the same place as for 6.25u but this is a 7u spacebar.
Maybe I will try also a Teensy conversion for this board, looking over Hassu's code I discovered that you can use it without any additional circuitry.
A guy already done this conversion, and also made some changes to the code https://plus.google.com/+YannHodique/posts/LigrqSMyt8m

DanielT · 04 Jul 2014, 12:52

Looking at an Apple Alps keyboard in an other thread I realized that the stabs on the Type 5 keyboard are alps stabilizers, with the same guides for the space bar... this is strange choice for a Cherry MX board I would say ...
I have to take some detailed pictures of the board, so far is a really interesting find

BlueBär · 04 Jul 2014, 13:27

I was quite surprised the first time I took the spacebar off as well - I never had seen such a stabilizer mechanism on an MX keyboard before.
Oh and the black switches - these are sadly no vintage blacks, they would have been smoother. That's the first thing I checked when I got the board, and I think with vintage blacks I would have kept it. But it's good to see it now has an owner who really appreciates it!

DanielT · 04 Jul 2014, 14:36

Yes, no vintage blacks, but they are well broken in and that makes them quite nice. Bottom line it's a nice board, and a coll item for my SUN collection

XMIT · 22 Dec 2016, 16:30

Necro! These are rare indeed but I managed to find one recently. I'll be posting here as I get some photos and decide what I want to do with it. Unlike the OP mine is quite yellow, missing a few keys and has some broken switch stems!

DanielT · 22 Dec 2016, 16:41

Unfortunately mine was broken, when I have opened it there were signs of spillage, wasn't able to make it work, none of my SUN workstations were able to detect it, the controller seemed fried.

XMIT · 22 Dec 2016, 16:43

I assume yours is in an ISO layout?

DanielT · 22 Dec 2016, 16:44

Yep, ISO, it's the one in the OP

XMIT · 22 Dec 2016, 18:56

Ah yes, you acquired this one from the OP!

No promises as to when I'll get to it but this one is a nice candidate for a controller replacement.