First Tipro keyboard! Help please.

XMIT · 04 Jul 2015, 18:50

Thanks Touch_It for my first Tipro board! It seems fitting for the command deck of a spaceship. The one I got is an authentic Tipro board, Made in Slovenia, with Skidata branding. It only has a PS2 connection and no additional ports on the back. The alpha keys and the keypad are one solid board styled to look like two modules put together. I'll post photos at a more opportune time.

Two things:
1. Is it programmable? How would I program it? Do I need some special software to do it?
2. A number of relegendable key caps are missing: eleven clear tops and a few others (Tab, Ctrl, Left Arrow, 0/Ins). How might I find replacements?

Maybe kbdfr has the answers.

SL89 · 04 Jul 2015, 20:54

*summons the angry chocolate bar man*

chzel · 04 Jul 2015, 21:11

Not the chocolate, but:
It's programmable, but since it is PS/2 you need 32bit Windows.
Do you have the cable?
Software from here.
Got pics???

XMIT · 04 Jul 2015, 21:27

It only has a PS2 cable! There are no additional connections on the back of the keyboard for anything else. Perhaps if I open it?

Pictures!

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: DSC_1518.JPG (588.17 KiB) Viewed 2243 times

It works just fine with Soarer's Converter.

SL89 · 04 Jul 2015, 21:47

Is the case metal?

Also, very cool find. I'd kill for something like this. The more I see Tipros the more I want one.

XMIT · 04 Jul 2015, 22:49

The outer case is not metal. The back plate is metal. The switches are plate mounted. The entire keyboard feels very heavy and solid.

Touch_It found this originally at shopgoodwill.com. Goodwill runs their own non-eBay online auction system. This is presumably to avoid eBay fees.

chzel · 04 Jul 2015, 23:22

I see, the cable is captive. Most Tipros have a "special" 8-pin connector, which essentially is PS/2 but they have 2 extra pins for serial where the rectangular thingy is on the PS/2 connector.
Nice colour!

Touch_It · 04 Jul 2015, 23:53

Enjoy

. You will love it more than I ever would have.

andrewjoy · 05 Jul 2015, 00:03

i have always wanted one too.

Are the mounts for the wide keys standard ? So i could say put Round 4 on them ?

XMIT · 05 Jul 2015, 02:49

andrewjoy wrote: ↑Are the mounts for the wide keys standard ? So i could say put Round 4 on them ?

Yep. I just pulled Enter and the Space bar. They are regular old Cherry mount stabilizers. Though, this boards uses a little toy 4u Space bar. I'm willing to bet that many of the other keys are odd sizes too. It looks like '/" is 1.25u and \| is 1.5u.

Oddly enough, even the Space bar is relegendable.

XMIT · 05 Jul 2015, 02:52

Yep, with four modifiers and lots of extra keys, this would make a very nice Space Cadet keyboard. It feels like mine has modern Cherry MX Black switches. I may swap them out for vintage switches.

kbdfr · 06 Jul 2015, 12:25

XMIT wrote: ↑[…] The alpha keys and the keypad are one solid board styled to look like two modules put together. […]

They are in fact two modules, but probably with soldered connectors and a common metal plate instead of the usual removable flat connector cable and separate metal plates, plus it will probably have a built-in controller instead of a swappable one. Have a look here and there.

1. Is it programmable? How would I program it? Do I need some special software to do it?

Refer to chzel's post above, he is absolutely right.

2. A number of relegendable key caps are missing: eleven clear tops and a few others (Tab, Ctrl, Left Arrow, 0/Ins). How might I find replacements? […]

I would say you can bury any hope of finding replacements for the printed tops. It would be a real miracle - I have never seen them in that colour.
As for the clear tops, like for the Cherry relegendables I can send you a few spares

And I am quite sure I still have a bag with pre-printed colourfoul tops.

Of course you can replace the caps with any Cherry MX compatible keycaps (like I did on my battleship), but note that the Enter cap is 2u instead of 2.25 and the cap left of it silly 1.25u instead of 1u (my board has been modded by CeeSA, including plate modding [!], to correct that).

XMIT · 06 Jul 2015, 22:39

Thanks, kbdfr. It is helpful I think to have all this information in one place. Many of these links are several years old at this point.

I will send you a PM regarding spare parts.