deskthority

Ok, Linear vs. Tactile - Someone asked a ways back why there were two different "feels" offered. Remember that these were the very early days of keyboards. Using a keyboard at all was a new experience to many people. There was no benchmark yet - no right or wrong. It's true that the IBM Selectric ...

So, Chyros, regarding the dating of your keyboard, I can't really help except to say that when Minebea acquired Hi-Tek there was a big plan to build a manufacturing facility in Thailand. If I remember correctly the plan was to build the new thin film keyboard design we were working on at the time ...

All, sorry I've been AWOL for a while. Life happens. I see there's some questions for me from way back. Sorry about the super late response. I'll try to get back with more info shortly.

All the best.

Jacobulus, there was no relationship at all between Hi-Tek and Stackpole. They were pure competitors. Stackpole copied the original Hi-Tek design. Hi-Tek sued Stackpole for patent infringement in the mid 70s and lost.

I'm not sure about the answer to the space invader question. The part in question ...

Just looked at the Wiki. I can see there's a little bit of history correction/addition needed. Don't know how to support that, but happy to.

There was no relationship between Stackpole and Hi-Tek. Hi-Tek was the originator of the switch design and Stackpole copied it. Minebea acquired Hi-Tek Corp in about 1983. To my knowledge, there was no relationship with NMB/Minebea and Stackpole.

Yep, Hak Foo, you're right - the Commodore was a larger volume product and ultimately won the war with TI. I'm not sure if we made keyboards for Commodore - if we did, our volume with them was lower. We were building about 20,000 keyboards a month for TI and I know they were also using other ...

Seebart, thanks for the welcome. I can't say that I have a directed interest in keyboards but having lived the business as a young man there is for sure some interest.

The keyboard you have is made with the Series 725 switch we developed in the last few years before selling to Minebea. The 725 ...

All, just ran across your site during a search for any references to Hi-Tek Corp. My father founded Hi-Tek in the early 60's, began manufacturing the Hi-Tek keyboard in the early 70's, and sold the company to Minebea in about 1983. If there's anything you'd like to know about the company or the ...

I can confirm that Hi-Tek made keyboards for the TI-99. At the time, this was the highest volume keyboard requirement in the world. Only the Dragon Data home computer came close in volume.