Hatsucoh Electronics HEKB01

Hatsucoh Electronics HEKB01 Data Entry Machine EM486
Part number	HEKB01
Branding	NSD (on PCB), Topre (on PCB), Hatsucoh Electronics (ハツコーエレクトロニクス)
Manufacturer	Topre, NSD
Layouts	86-key
Keyswitches	Topre Switches
Interface	Proprietary 8-pin Mini-DIN
Weight	~1760g
Years of production	1995
Price	Unknown

Introduction

The Hatsucoh Electronics (ハツコーエレクトロニクス) HEKB01 is a data entry keyboard used on the Data Entry Machine EM486, which was announced by Hatsucoh Electronics in February 1995 and began shipping 2 months later, in April^[1]. It is very likely made and assembled by Topre, but it also has 2 secondary PCBs with 'NSD' branding.

Description

On the front, the HEKB01 has 5 toggle switches controlling various functions useful to data input and which seem to be typical of these types of keyboards, as noted on other brands such as the JUKI Celavi^[2]. These switches appear to have the following functions on the HEKB01:

Auto Dup/Skip - On or Off
Auto Rec Adv - On or Off
Alpha - Lower-case or Upper-case
Katakana Shift - On or Off
Kanji Shift - On or Off

The remaining keys on the front are Topre 'Hi-Pro' switches which are also present on other data entry keyboards made by Topre. On the back, there are two height-adjustable feet with two settings, a cable routing channel with options for left,right and centre, and a volume slider which presumably controls the internal speaker. Inside the board there are three PCBs. The setup is different to most Topre boards in that the main board is connected via 25-pin ribbon cable to a secondary board which in turn is connected to the toggle switch PCB via 6-pin connector. The interface cable terminates in an 8-pin Mini-DIN connector.

Release Date

While the EM486 was released in 1995, the HEKB01 pictured below has a PCB and Plate stamp with a '0' which would indicate either 1990 or 2000^[3]. There are three suggested reasons for this; 1. It's possible that Topre re-used an old PCB and mounting plate for this keyboard, as Hatsucoh Electronics also did release a data entry machine in 1990. 2. Hatsucoh continued making EM486 keyboards up until 2000 and perhaps beyond. 3. The date stamp format is different for this board.