deskthority

Sorry all, was sitting through extremely boring training last week (FC and FCoE), didn't have the energy to do anything other than take pics (I was also dreading making this post...too many pics required to give the keyboard justice ).

This keyboard...is ridiculous. If it weren't for the Univac for stealing it's thunder, it would have been my discovery of the year.

Teletype Capacitive Magnetic Rocker Switches.

It's Clicky, Capacitive, Magnets, Spring-loaded mounting mechanism, Spring loaded case pieces, and something I've never seen before. A double clicker.
An for you keycap fetishists, an Enter key, with an integrated steel plate and stem









One of the 4 spring-loaded levers.

The stand-alone keyboard base, the other base can be seen here: http://www.baudot.net/teletype/M40.htm




You can see the top cover spring-loaded lever in this pic, it's on the left (mat silver/grey).

This is where the lever hooks into.

The lever, spring is on the other side of the plate.


Key switch covers, the switches are there, but the keycaps do not allow for you to actuate the switches.




This case is SOLID. And heavy.

Spring for the top cover lever.


Volume control?

Spacers, these are a bitch to get out (the switches overlap a ridge, so you must get the switches out first).

Not sure, but probably a piezo buzzer.

Yep, that bronze looking thing is another spring for the spacebar








LED module.





Magnets hanging off the spacebar



So, there are 4 types of switches. White stems, normal. Orange stems, normal with floating LED (I did not open one because I would have to destroy the slider, but the internals should be very similar to the green). Black stems, locking switches. Green stems, double clickers.
I did not take out all the switch pieces due to the very fine piece of wire soldered into the switch...but there is nothing hidden from the pictures, so you are not missing anything


White Stem, normal switch. The click, is the slapping of the electrode (cathode or anode...one of the two ) against the slider.















Orange Stem, LED switch.






Black Stem. Locking Switch. Yep, that's a magnet holding the locking wire in place










Green Stem. Double Clicker


The press. Depressed.



Level 1. Notice the movement of one of the electrodes.


Level 2. Notice the movement of the other electrode.
























Video Full Album
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triplehaat ... 829504416/

Patents
https://www.google.com/patents/US3671822
https://www.google.com/patents/US3886543
https://www.google.com/patents/US3931610
https://www.google.com/patents/US3916090

Excellent pictures! I love the overengineering that seems to be typical of expensive teletype-branded equipment. I especially like the power springs on that light up key.

This is why I cant browse eBay anymore: everything cool I find is just taken by HaaTa. HaaTa, you are my b***a.

I really like the look of that board. What is the purpose of the double click switches?

tlt wrote:I really like the look of that board. What is the purpose of the double click switches?

Repeat. Type normally for single keystrokes, press harder and the key repeats.

Where the hell do you find these things, HaaTa?? I just saw your UNIVAC and ALPS reed switch keyboards and became... violently enraged with jealousy. Well, actually, not that violent - more of a snort of jealousy while I gasped with disbelief. (almost hurt myself doing both at the same time)

I check eBay for strange vintage keyboards all the time and I never see the kind of stuff you get.

Oh wow. This1 is a beautiful board. 2 stage click is brilliant.

Also wondering where u find these gems. Been browsing thru ebay from time to time and not finding remotely as interesting specimens

I saw most of these on ebay. You just need to know what to look for.

For example, a simple search in the "vintage" section of computers for "keyboard -apple -commodore -c64 -ibm" (IBM gets it's own search, and mine is rather complex) will yield lots of good stuff. Well, some. Okay, not that much, but most things he has posted recently came up on my searches as well.

Very jealous but enjoying your posts very much! Are these keyboards' switches giving you ideas for your custom switches?

dorkvader thanks for the tip

There were two of these on ebay - wonder who happened to get the other.. maybe some museum.

This board was also nearly missed due to certain someone hanging out with certain someone else and not being bothered enough to bid

Nice case! Sounds almost identical to my m43 kb;



Are you planning to convert it?

I thought SMK latching switches were quality (machined brass follower) but that is by far the most over-engineered latching switch ever. It better feel all the more smooth for it! (I recently picked up a Futaba one, and it feels horrible.)

I did notice that the keyboard bends when you press hard on the right-hand side — is all that strength for nought?

Cool. Unusual that the rows of key switches are mounted at an angle. I wonder, how does that feel to type on? Does it feel weird that the stem direction is not perpendicular to the key "plane" ?

Retrete wrote:Nice case! Sounds almost identical to my m43 kb;



Are you planning to convert it?

Oh, very cool Retrete
If someone else has one (or at least something similar), I usually convert it a bit faster. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how easy it's going to be, many/most of the chips are custom TTX
So datasheets are slim (truthfully all I really need are the VCC voltage and where GND is; which is not always 5V...).

The Univac was just luck, I was about to dismiss it as similar to my Uniscope keyboards. The Alps Reed switch I knew I wanted from the beginning. It only takes me a quick glance to tell whether a keyboard is/could be interesting now.
We'll see how many more interesting keyboards show up. There's a ton of really cool patents from the mid 70's and earlier.
Minus my force curve measuring project, I don't really mind who gets the cool stuff on ebay as long as they take enough decent pics. (To me, as long as it isn't b***a )

I'm still going through my large backlog, many keyboards left to post pics on...

Oh, Retrete, make sure to look for switches or anything that is not similar to my pics in your board. One of your LED keys looks different...

HaaTa wrote:Oh, Retrete, make sure to look for switches or anything that is not similar to my pics in your board. One of your LED keys looks different...

This is the only one that I couldn't find in your pics.
All the rest are white, orange(top 4 keys expecting the alarm key, which isn't a key) and black(caps lock)

I also took some photos few months ago;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95230480@N ... 371311121/

Anything different pressing this "pink" (?) switch? As compared to the white sliders.

If you want to open it up, you'll want a soldering iron and a sharp/thin knife to cut away at the plastic weld (you'll need some sort of glue to put it back together.
I'm just curious as to why there's the different coloured slider (and there's been clear differences so far).

amazing keyboard, would love to see if you can convert this to usb.