deskthority

Hi everyone, this is my first own topic, so let me know if I'm doing anything wrong.

A few weeks ago I bought this keyboard of ebay for 3 euros, and this week it arrived. I haven't seen any post about it anywhere, so I thought I would post some pictures here. I will probably also make a post in the wiki about it soon.
It is always a gamble with these unknown keyboards, but I'm happy it turned out to have [wiki]Futaba clicky switch[/wiki]es. I quite like the feel of these switches, they are very smooth and have just a bit of tactility and a small click on the downstroke, but a nice and loud click on the upstroke.
The space bar has a grey switch, which is just slightly heavier than the rest and has a nice ring on the upstroke. Unfortunately it doesn't always register, it actually doesn't register most of the time. You have to completely bottom out the the switch and hold it for a second to have it register, which slows down you're typing quite much. I may try to switch it with the switch of scroll lock when I get a soldering iron. Does anyone know how to desolder and resolder a futaba switch?
The keyboard has a nice thick coiled cable with an 5 pin DIN plug. The downside of the cable is that it is not detachable. At first I wasn't sure if it was using the AT or XT protocol, because there is no mention of either on the keyboard, but today my passive AT to PS2 adapter arrived and it worked, so I suppose it is AT.
The keycaps are completely black on the inside, so I guess they are doubleshot. They do however have a really nice feel to them and I really like their profile.
I didn't get a chance to clean it yet, maybe next time
There's this weird thing under the tab key, it goes into the stabiliser hole of the tab keycap when the key is it. Does anyone know what it is, or what it does?
Does anyone know what this thing is?
The PCB is in a pretty good state, it does have this weird cable soldered on it, does anyone know what it is and does?
I really like this keyboard, it has nice, although kind of odd, switches and I really like the layout. Every keyboard should swap control and capslock. It is quite annoying that the keyboard doesn't have F11 and F12 keys, especially since I use those the most of any of the function keys.

This is the one that was in Great/Interesting Finds, isn't it? The layout is really odd. The keycaps look as if the still have got all their texture, I can spot no shine at all! Are the German specific keycaps doubleshot as well, since these look like they were added later?
Could you make a video of you typing so that we can hear how the switches sound?

What a nice and surprising ebay lottery win! You don't see keyboards with Futaba switches too often.

Bet this one sounds glorious! I have just a single Futaba switch, but the videos I've seen of full keyboards in action are a riot.

The wire on the PCB is a correction the manufacturer has made after the design was complete! Fixing mistakes manually, on every single keyboard on the production line, is expensive so companies try not to do that. But back in the old days (and this could well be a 1980s keyboard, given the AT) everything PCB related likely cost more than it does now, so you occasionally see weird kludges from the factory like this. It's usually a sign that something is old indeed.

I don't know what's going on under Tab, though. The switch is off centre, which is usually something reserved for the Caps Lock key, typically one row down. Caps Lock is dangerous enough that it was often marked out by having a stepped cap (shorter on the right) with the switch displaced to the left. Caps Lock often gets an indicator LED of course, and to my eye that's kinda sorta what the extra thing is on your board, but in the wrong place? Also: is this picture deceptive or does Tab actually go further left than the other keys? Very weird if it does.



Your caps are doubleshot: this is a good thing! Just make sure to keep them out of the sun, or they will yellow, as they'll be ABS plastic like the case. The fact it's good and pale still means it was stored well, in a dark box.

The uneven legends on the German specific caps are a sign, like Nuum says, that they were an afterthought. Check them to see if they are doubleshot too. They could well be.

Needless to say, a compact layout Futuba switch keyboard is a great catch, and would have been at 10x the price. Congratulations on netting a good one!

The keycap tops have an interesting shape with that arc pointing upwards. Designed to follow the shape of your fingertips?

The Tab cap indeed looks taller than other caps in the same row. Also: is there a gap in the case to the left of it? The thingy underneath looks like a jumper to me. Maybe for changing some kind of configuration? Older keyboards sometimes have the possibility to switch between AT and XT mode using jumpers, it's possible that this is the case here.

A further feature I've noted: there's a freaking pencil tray built in this keyboard!

Yeah, I wonder how these caps shape up in 3D compared to sphericals like DSA. They kind of look like a hybrid between spherical and cylindrical.

I wonder what's the use of the hole above the F-row. To store some pencils? Staple gun accessories?

Kurk wrote: ↑A further feature I've noted: there's a freaking pencil tray built in this keyboard!

That's exactly what i thought too!

Nuum wrote: ↑This is the one that was in Great/Interesting Finds, isn't it? The layout is really odd. The keycaps look as if the still have got all their texture, I can spot no shine at all! Are the German specific keycaps doubleshot as well, since these look like they were added later?
Could you make a video of you typing so that we can hear how the switches sound?

Yes, this is the one from the interesting finds. The keycaps do still have all their texture, there is no shine at all on the keycaps, which makes me think it is barely used. The german specific keycaps are also doubleshot and have an identical profile.Here is a sound sample for the keyboard in action.

Muirium wrote: ↑Bet this one sounds glorious! I have just a single Futaba switch, but the videos I've seen of full keyboards in action are a riot.

The wire on the PCB is a correction the manufacturer has made after the design was complete! Fixing mistakes manually, on every single keyboard on the production line, is expensive so companies try not to do that. But back in the old days (and this could well be a 1980s keyboard, given the AT) everything PCB related likely cost more than it does now, so you occasionally see weird kludges from the factory like this. It's usually a sign that something is old indeed.

I don't know what's going on under Tab, though. The switch is off centre, which is usually something reserved for the Caps Lock key, typically one row down. Caps Lock is dangerous enough that it was often marked out by having a stepped cap (shorter on the right) with the switch displaced to the left. Caps Lock often gets an indicator LED of course, and to my eye that's kinda sorta what the extra thing is on your board, but in the wrong place? Also: is this picture deceptive or does Tab actually go further left than the other keys? Very weird if it does.

Spoiler:

Your caps are doubleshot: this is a good thing! Just make sure to keep them out of the sun, or they will yellow, as they'll be ABS plastic like the case. The fact it's good and pale still means it was stored well, in a dark box.

The uneven legends on the German specific caps are a sign, like Nuum says, that they were an afterthought. Check them to see if they are doubleshot too. They could well be.

Needless to say, a compact layout Futuba switch keyboard is a great catch, and would have been at 10x the price. Congratulations on netting a good one!

It does sound awesome indeed . The tab key doesn't go further left than the rest of the keys, so that has to be a visual illusion. And just out of curiosity, would you by any chance know how much this keyboard would approximately worth?

Kurk wrote: ↑The keycap tops have an interesting shape with that arc pointing upwards. Designed to follow the shape of your fingertips?

The Tab cap indeed looks taller than other caps in the same row. Also: is there a gap in the case to the left of it? The thingy underneath looks like a jumper to me. Maybe for changing some kind of configuration? Older keyboards sometimes have the possibility to switch between AT and XT mode using jumpers, it's possible that this is the case here.

A further feature I've noted: there's a freaking pencil tray built in this keyboard!

There is actually a gap left to the tab key, I forgot to mention that. There is another gap on the right side of the keyboard, next to the '9'-key on the numpad. There are some pictures of it in the spoiler.

Muirium wrote: ↑Yeah, I wonder how these caps shape up in 3D compared to sphericals like DSA. They kind of look like a hybrid between spherical and cylindrical.

I have put some pictures to show the 3d-shape of these keycaps in the spoiler.

madhias wrote: ↑I wonder what's the use of the hole above the F-row. To store some pencils? Staple gun accessories?

Kurk wrote: ↑A further feature I've noted: there's a freaking pencil tray built in this keyboard!

That's exactly what i thought too!

Here is a picture of it with a pen in the pen tray .

Yeah, they're definitely still cylindrical then, but the shape the cylindrical top surface intersects is more convex than usual, which gives them a look that's a little like DSA. You can see the yellowing on them in the picture from the side. New ABS caps have the same shade all the way down. This isn't an unused keyboard, but it's in pretty nice shape.

As for a value: I have to guess. I haven't seen any of these for sale before. It's definitely more interesting than many keyboards to those of us who haven't tried Futabas. Perhaps about the same as a good full size Model M? Could be higher, if there's someone really wanting it. Surely helps to know it's a Futaba switch keyboard already!

You propably want to fix this at wiki. "The '+'- and '-'-keys are moved left of the space bar." If i see correct in pics they are right of the space bar.

You're right, thanks. I fixed it.

Is it only two pins under the tab or is it three? I have one of those on my datakux board and those pins was marked XT/AT. So I believe that you can change protocol between AT and XT on these boards. You just take of the header that connects the middle pin and lower pin, and connect the upper pin with the middle to change.

EDIT: BTW, why is it different legends on the number keys?

EDIT2: Not datakux, datalux should it be...