"Apricot" Cherry G80-1249SAG

[scottc]

Interesting board. UK dyesubs, but not in Cherry font. No Cherry branding, just on the PCB. Cherry MX clears despite the article number.

From here, I can see that the keyboard probably came from an Apricot Xen-S. Unfortunately, I can't check if it works because the cable has been cut. I read that it should speak AT, so I will revisit this later.

The Alt keys are between 1.25u and 1.5u in size, and are off-center.

Does anyone know the pinout for this keyboard or own a functioning version, or the original computer?

[chzel]

A quick check on my G80-1000's AT cable shows the following (looking into the end of the connector)

GednYYl.jpg (116.58 KiB) Viewed 3874 times

Hopefully yours will be the same.

[scottc]

Thanks chzel! I'll give that a go with a spare G80 cable at some point. What's interesting on mine is the order of wires on the board itself. It's in a different order to my G80-1800s and G80-3000, for example.

The SAG is green, yellow, black, white, shield (bottom to top), whereas the others are white, green, yellow, black, shield (bottom to top).

[chzel]

Wait for me to unearth mine!
Edit: Done, sorry for the crappy phone pic
It's shield, black, green, white, yellow.
I think it is the same PCB.

MPAIlWE.jpg (213.68 KiB) Viewed 3861 times

[scottc]

Thanks!

[chzel]

Silly me, just noticed the wires are in a different order... Cherry, why do you confuse us so much???

[scottc]

I think I will just wire them all into the same colour and hope for the best...

[photekq]

The pinout of Cherry wires changed over time. Someone would need to test a 1000 PCB with an intact cable with a multimeter to find the pinout of the PCB itself. You'd then need to test the pinout of another cable and match them up.

[chzel]

That's what I did essentially.
I had cut the cable off the board, and did a continuity check from the cut end to the connector.

[HzFaq]

Ooo, nice. Really like that case/PCB.

[scottc]

Yeah, it's pretty different, isn't it?

[seebart]

nice one scottc! The shape of that case. Awesome. Vintage blues?

[scottc]

Thanks seebart! No, MX clears actually. The blues are in chzel's picture.

[seebart]

Thanks seebart! No, MX clears actually. The blues are in chzel's picture.

even better! A nice example of keyboards that show up that I have never seen before, and I'm sure there's a lot more out there.

[IvanIvanovich]

Neat find, never seen that one before. The other Apricot branded G80 I have seen before were all just 1000/3000 based models with nothing unique besides the Apricot logo. I don't understand why change size with the Alt keys though, how very odd and completely pointless.
I fixed loads of old Cherry boards, and I've always had it work 100% of the time replacing cables. Cherry seems to have been very consistent in using the same colors for the same things on the AT PS/2, though they often do have different orders of pads on the pcb on various models. When the cables have been gone entirely, with nothing discoverable left on the pcb end is where it can get trickier.

[scottc]

That's some really good info, thank you IvanIvanovich. I had put it off temporarily because I didn't want to break it, but I think I'll give it a go tonight.

The alt cap is really strange, isn't it? The case fits it exactly too, so a normal alt key wouldn't fit there. The off-center stem means that it would fit in place of a normal alt key, it'd just be a bit short.

[scottc]

Update: I soldered a cable from a G80-3000 on to the corresponding wires on this board, and nothing. The LEDs don't light up (or even flash as they usually do), and no keys register. Maybe next I will try to get a 1000-series or 3000-series PCB and use that instead.

[chzel]

Could you please post close up pics of the of the PCB, especially the trace side top left area (controller and connector) so we can find GND and +5V, and go from there? I think that the PCB is exactly the same as my 1000.
Do you have a multimeter?

[scottc]

I will get on that tomorrow! None of my cameras perform well in low-light conditions. I do have a multimeter. Thanks a lot for the help, by the way!

[scottc]

Whoops, self-necro, I just realised that I never finished this project up. I'll be home for Christmas, might try to give it a go then since I've got G80-1000s of my own now.

[Wodan]

Those ALT keys should have never existed. Expect a visit from Cherrys MX Black Ops team soon...