UGC-74 Keyboard

[HaaTa]

So we always joke about Hall Effect keyboards being used in the military for reliability...but now I've found one!

A battlefield grade tele-terminal (this one has likely seen a tour of duty as well, ).

DSC_0314 by triplehaata, on Flickr
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Don't worry, that's just a bit of soap under the US
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Yes, rubber domes. They add a bit of tactility to the otherwise linear keyboard. And make the keyboard entirely sealed from the elements.
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This spacebar has seen better days...maybe a tank drove over it?
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So, I have never seen this before. The keycap was EPOXIED to the slider. If this wasn't a military grade keyboard, I likely would have torn the switch and plate apart while pulling...
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This is interesting, every single stem doesn't have the usual mounting point. But notice the small notch in the middle. Usually when you see this in Honeywell switches it's completely flat. 1F5A is an odd part number, F is likely related to this new type of stem, and the 5 is a new weighting that hasn't been seen before...
DSC_0345 by triplehaata, on Flickr

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DSC_0343 by triplehaata, on Flickr

Not my image, or keyboard, but gives an idea of what the whole thing looked like


https://www.flickr.com/photos/triplehaa ... 6452858748

[pyrelink]

So, I have never seen this before. The keycap was EPOXIED to the slider. If this wasn't a military grade keyboard, I likely would have torn the switch and plate apart while pulling...

Military keyboards are always so cool. Even if its just using a common keyboard assembly, its always interesting to see how they go about encasing, reinforcing, and bomb proofing it for military use.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Here we go, HaaTa's ramping up to make sure he wits the best relic award in December again ;-)

That design is really odd. I am not even sure I follow it.

Each switch has a slider. This is pressed by some sort of push-me-pull-me slider that faces downwards (to press the switch) and upwards (for the keycap) that is somehow also a rubber dome at the same time …

What stops the keycaps from wobbling about? They only seem to be attached to a rubber dome disguised as a slider.

[HaaTa]

So, the bottom part is a normal Single Magnet Honeywell Hall Effect (with a different shapped slider). That alone is enough for a keyboard switch.
The top, rubber dome + slider is just for environmental proofing.

DSC_0335 by triplehaata, on Flickr

The Metal ring holds the slider in place (I wasn't able to remove it with the tools I had at the time). The dome does provide tactility, but likely was just for sealing the keyboard mechanism.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

You take a lot of photos, but always forget that it can be extremely hard to understand a keyboard from simply looking at photos. You need to include a lot more descriptive information. It's important also that the photos be carefully selected: quality over quantity.

So:

1)
a) There are no rubber domes: what we're looking at are buckling rubber sleeves that perfectly fit the sliders; OR
b) They are rubber domes and they fit over the top of the sliders (since the stem that the keycap is pressed onto cannot surely be made of rubber, unless the rubber wraps some plastic below)

2)
These sleeves/domes — what are they attached to? Are they glued to the plate? That is, what prevents liquid and dust ingress since the domes are all discrete?

3) What supports the discrete sliders? Rubber dome keyboards always have guide shafts for the stems moulded into the keycaps. In this case, we sliders that appear to be supported by nothing more than a hole in a thin sheet of metal. The domes or sleeves might provide some sort of pull to keep them moving vertically, but it's not clear.

[HaaTa]

Lol, it's probably being an engineer that lets me read into pictures
It's part of my job to figure stuff out with very little information.

Each picture I take is generally for a reason, there is a particular feature I'm trying to capture with each image, rather than multiple features per picture (that's just a bonus). It doesn't help that I'm not a lousy photographer as well
For example, notice how I take pictures of all of the ICs so that I can read the lettering. In terms of keyboard switch knowledge this is not so important, but for building protocol converters it's pretty critical.

But, whatevs. If more/better pics are necessary, then I'll take more when I get time.


However

DSC_0038 by triplehaata, on Flickr
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[Daniel Beardsmore]

But as an engineer, you would know that the proper term here for that is "buckling rubber sleeve", with "rubber dome" being reserved for the type with no through hole. Calling it a dome means that the part that the keycap sits on is part of the same dome. It looked like a sleeve to me, though; the stem under the keycap appeared to be plastic.

Pictures still each need a description. The description draws attention to the object for which it was taken, and explains all the nuances that are not clear either due to the lighting or lack of full disassembly; you can't assume that everyone will "magically" see what you see. I couldn't figure out your MEI WEAB switches until I took my own apart. Unfortunately 100% disassembly ends up mangling the contact wire (it won't come off the terminal without damage), and one day I'll disassemble a second and bend the wire of the first back into shape using the second one as a guide, and post all the photos. (I have disassembly photos without the wire removed from the terminal, but I prefer full disassembly if I can.)

So, the domes are not actually attached to the metal at all? That's one thing that confused me — I guess they're kept under enough permanent pressure from the slider to stop liquids getting in underneath (as normally you'd expect a dome sheet).

At least now it's clear what guides the sliders.

[HaaTa]

Oh yes, I know the proper term is rubber sleeve. But until I took it apart I was not sure exactly what it was.
Whatever, no sense in arguing about how a sleeve is many different things and that unless in a tapered dome-like shape it will not buckle.

I do this for fun, I'll help out where I can. My problem is that if I put the effort in for a serious description, it must be backed up with clear evidence (which is quite time consuming when you know absolutely nothing about what you are trying to research).

[dorkvader]

These are very interesting. Keycaps and switches are clearly honeywell, but the dustproofing aspect of it (with the domes, etc) might be a different OEM. Also the PCB looks a lot different in materials and trace routing than most honeywell keyboards. It looks a lot like the PCB on the nokia mikromikko 1 hall effect PCB, and maybe the wang hall effect PCBs.

Excellent find! I had a chance to get one of these once and sadly passed it up. Luckily for me these are common on eBay so I will pick up one sometime (I have the controller and transformer already for this unit, just need the case, printer and KB)