Hi-Tek Corp. History

[Dmiloh]

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 product, ask away. I don't remember it all, but I can fill in a lot of the blanks for those who'd like to know.
All the best,

D'Milo Hallerberg

[seebart]

Well that's quite impressive. Welcome to DT! Are you personally interested in keyboard's as well? I recently acquired a keyboard that has switches from Hi-Tek. I'm very happy with it.

[Dmiloh]

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 refers to the ergonomic standard (Max .725" off the desk surface) that came out during that period that effectively obsoleted the standard series we'd been making for many years prior.

I see an Alps logo on your post. Are you (were you) affiliated? Alps was, of course, one of our respected competitors along with Keytronics.

[seebart]

Thanks for the info on that switch. No I was not affiliated with Alps. I just collect old keyboards. Have you had a look at our wiki?

[Madhias]

Welcome to Deskthority!

[Dmiloh]

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.

[seebart]

Contact our Daniel Beardsmore via PM.

[elecplus]

Contact our Daniel Beardsmore via PM.

His PM is turned off (at least on my screen), but he still has email enabled.

[002]

Daniel seems to be inactive at the moment. Last login was March, 22.

I would be happy to hear what corrections and alterations need to be made. Please drop me a PM or point them out here and I'll update the wiki. This is really great, by the way. Thanks for speaking up. Daniel would be excited if he was here right now, too

[Chyros]

Cool, the wiki mentions is wasn't certain that NMB acquired Hi-Tek, but this seems to have cleared it up . Welcome to DT! I've got a Hi-Tek board from 1985, but I don't think it has any NMB logos on it, just says Hi-Tek.

[002]

Yeah, that was something that Daniel was interested to know, as pointed out on his /Companies sub-page:
http://deskthority.net/wiki/User:Daniel ... /Companies

Dmiloh, do you (or your father) know if Hi-Tek ever produced catalogues for their switches?

[002]

You might also be able to provide corrections or more specific information on the following pages:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Hi-Tek
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Hi-Tek_linear
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Hi-Tek_modular
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Stackpole_switch_grid

Sorry I can't think of anything more specific to ask at this point. I hope you are still around when Daniel returns as he will surely have a lot of stuff to ask

[Cafeine]

This is why I love Internet.

I interviewed Eiiti Wada (HHKB) for a feature in a (PAPER -gasp!-) magazine, this thread made me realize I need to do a (broken) english version.

[jacobolus]

Could you clarify the relationship between Hi-Tek and Stackpole? There seems to be quite a bit of confusion about it here.

Also, most/all of the Hi-Tek/NMB “space invader” keyboards were produced in Thailand. Was that from the beginning, or only after Hi-Tek was sold? If the latter, where were they originally produced?

[Chyros]

One of the biggest confusions around Hi-Teks is what switch is what, linear, clicky or tactile. You never know what you get, really. Do you know maybe how you can recognise each variety?

[Dmiloh]

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 was referred to as the "plunger". The reference to the space invader design was a new discovery to me this week. It looks to me like there may have been some minor design revs from the original switch. I'll have to do a little research myself to see if I can ascertain whether or not the space invader version (if it is a follow-on) was made in California. For sure the space invader switch is fundamentally the Series 725 switch designed in 1982 by Don Hallerberg and first manufactured by Hi-Tek corp in Garden Grove California. There is a bit to know about Hi-Tek after it was acquired by Minebea. I'll save the details for another post. But I can say that after the acquisition, Hi-Tek did continue to manufacture keyboards in Garden Grove for a number of years. I'll reach out to a former employee I know and get more details.

Chyros, I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer for you on the switch feel. At this point you and the rest of the keyboard community actually know more about the different Hi-Tek switch feels than I remember. I can say that originally there was only two designs - linear and tactile. Whether a third emerged, I don't know.

[seebart]

this is great information Dmiloh. Please stay with us here at DT and contribute your knowledge. We'll get all that information in the wiki eventually! Some of us may know more about switch feel but your knowledge is unique. Thanks.

[002]

5-star post, really...excellent nuggets of information

[Chyros]

For sure the space invader switch is fundamentally the Series 725 switch designed in 1982 by Don Hallerberg and first manufactured by Hi-Tek corp in Garden Grove California.

Ah cool, so is the 725 and the switches in them the original Hi-Tek board and the original switches? Would be cool, cause I've got one of them .

Chyros, I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer for you on the switch feel. At this point you and the rest of the keyboard community actually know more about the different Hi-Tek switch feels than I remember. I can say that originally there was only two designs - linear and tactile. Whether a third emerged, I don't know.

Hmmm, fair enough. Would you happen to have any catalogs or something? That'd be pretty awesome!

[jacobolus]

Do you know anything about the Symbolics keyboards made with Hi-Tek switches? This is a late-80s timeframe, so maybe outside your expertise.

In particular, I’m curious about the first ones, made with a spherical keycap top. This guy wrote an extended document about how much he loved them: http://johnbear.net/symbolics-keyboard- ... yboard.pdf (Later Symbolics Hi-Tek switch boards used a cylindrical keycap shape to accommodate LED holes, though apparently still not the standard cylindrical shape.)

[Muirium]

Fantastic stuff. Welcome to DT, D'Milo!

I passed by Garden Grove on my way into LA just yesterday as it happens. Never realised I was in the midst of keyboard history. Those "Space Invader" switches of yours are a firm favourite around here. The caps are great too. Got any info on who made or designed those? They have a nice chiselled scoop to them*. Topre's caps feel similar to me.

*For want of some technical terms, obviously. What I mean is they have a nice deep cylindrical profile, with a smaller top surface than IBM's Model F and M caps we all so familiar with.

[Chyros]

Hey D'Milo, I was wondering if you could help me date my Hi-Tek board.

It appears to be a Series 725, as that's what it says on the PCB inside. There's a Tandon sticker on the front. There's no obvious date codes on it though; none of the controller chips appear to have a date on them and there's no clear date on the back. On the back it only has a Made in Thailand sticker, a serial number sticker (which ends in 85), and three stamps; one that reads 1285 and one that reads TEST 82 in a square (the third is a bit harder to make out but appears to say 82 in a triangle. As such, I suspect it's from either december 1985, or somewhere in 1982. Also, do you have any idea what protocol this would use? Like XT, or maybe something different?

It's a really cool keyboard, and almost certainly my oldest (my second oldest is a Model M from 1987). I will be doing a video review of it in the future, and it would be cool to know as much about it as possible when I do .

[andrewjoy]

Nice post mate thanks for all the interesting info.

One day , one day i will get to try the liner variant and see if it is as amazing as everyone says

[XMIT]

I've got a few linears available in the forthcoming keyboard sales. Hopefully I manage to send one your way.

I have several keyboards in the garage that look just like the one above, except filthy!

[deeyay]

Epic thread.

[002]

Started that way
Seems we've scared away Mr. Hallerberg though...

[seebart]

Started that way
Seems we've scared away Mr. Hallerberg though...

Really? I hope not!! This is a super rare and valuable instance having him join us here.

[Madhias]

Without Daniel!

[seebart]

so Daniel has not seen this thread yet right?

[002]

He was last active before OP's first post so unless he's lurking while logged out, then I doubt he even knows. I think he disabled PM's too. The steady stream of wiki edits has reduced to a trickle...