Beckman Array 360 System terminal keyboard

[davkol]

I wonder if anyone knows this terminal keyboard. I've seen similar layouts before, but I'm not familiar with the Beckman Array 360 System. There aren't any stickers or anything either.

Switches are plate-mounted Cherry MX Black with #vintage feel. Keycaps are doubleshots and there's "DCS I-2" written on the bottom of the "Prev Screen" keycap, but nowhere else.




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[scottc]

It looks a lot like the Digital (DEC) VT100 LK201 keyboards, which were RD. Cherry made an MX black version, the G80-1306.

http://deskthority.net/wiki/G80-1306
http://deskthority.net/wiki/DEC_LK201

[davkol]

Yup, that's what I found before. This one has, however, plate-mounted switches without diodes, unlike the G80-1306.

[scottc]

Oh, interesting. Best of luck on your search.

[Kurk]

Seems to be part of some kind of scientific instrument from "Beckman Instruments ". That company is now "Beckman Coulter ".
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckman_Coulter

[Muirium]

I like the font for the Beckman logo. A bit hokey, but nice!

The typography on the caps is pure Wyse. Down to the lowercase mods and the tiny foot on Q. No yellow arrow keys, though.

[IvanIvanovich]

Same keyboard that was distributed with loads of other terminal systems with various branding from Wyse, Link, Reynolds, Triad, etc, etc. often seen referred to as 'ANSI gate array'. Some brands had their own colorschemes which differ a little bit, and there are various different legend layouts in several colorways but all were doubleshots made by SP's predecessor in the mid 80's to early 90's. I've had several of these (other branded) I've picked up in the $5-15 range that I've torn apart over the last few years. As far as I can tell they were made in Korea. They aren't bad keyboards as far as build but I simply didn't have the interest in spending any time to make them work with converters and no interest in playing with old terminal systems.

[Findecanor]

The case looks very much like a Wyse PCE case, in all ways except for the layout and logo.

[7bit]

No. Case is different:

[IvanIvanovich]

Not that model silly... this one

[davkol]

Wow, that one looks almost the same, unlike Wyse 520.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

This is the Gate Array keyboard (whatever the hell a "gate array" is):

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=55706.0

The top looks different, but underneath it's the same. I can't find a single set of photos that covers both top and bottom; I think the best I got was a corner of the back that perfectly matched the back of the Beckman, but I may have found a photo of the whole back somewhere.

[davkol]

The PCB says Wyse (1988) and timestamps on the plastic are dated to '93 or so.

[Hypersphere]

Beckman started out with pH meters and diversified into all sorts of lab instrumentation for biochemistry, chemistry, and clinical chemistry. The Array 360 is for doing serological assays in clinical chemistry. The keyboard does indeed look like a rebranded Wyse or Link terminal board.

[urbancamo]

This is WYSE protocol - even though it is DEC LK201 layout don't plug it into a VAX/DEC alpha or linux lkkbd keyboard driver module - I recently fried a transtec keyboard this way. DEC keyboards require 7.5-12V DC input (which is regulated internally to 5V) whereas the WYSE keyboard is 5V - the plug is the same but the higher voltage ends up down the data line.