Harris 8620 keyboard (TEC)
Posted: 15 Sep 2014, 21:17
I just got my TEC-made Harris 8620 keyboard. TEC Incorporated made terminals from 1963 to the early 80's. In the 70's, Harris Communications (now Harris Corporation, selling evil mass surveillance products) sold re-branded TEC terminals to go with Harris "medium scale" mini computers.
It's a nice, solid little thing. The bottom piece is heavy gauge metal, thicker than any other metal keyboard I own and about three times as thick as the top piece (also metal).
The switches are not labelled. They look (and feel) similar to vintage linear SMK, but the casing is flatter and the slider diameter is slightly larger. Maybe it's an early version. There are randomly placed black slider switches that have slightly different cases. (right side of slider surround is cut off)
Notice the Sonalert buzzer. There is a TEC logo on the PCB at the right. I don't see a date anywhere on the keyboard, but all the chips start with 73 or 74 and the Sonalert buzzer also has a four digit code starting with 74. (Sonalert still makes buzzers and the four digit numbers now start with 90's or 00's) So maybe this keyboard was made in 1974, around the same time as the TEC Data-Screen 400.
I'd disassemble this keyboard further, if it wasn't bolted in such an awkward way. Sockets won't fit in there and I don't have a wrench that size to get in there. (I'm also far too lazy to put too much effort into it.)
The keycaps are smooth - no texture. Notice the strange spacebar setup. The two sliders in the middle are connected with a flexible plastic on the other side (couldn't take a picture without disassembling - I could only barely bend my eyeballs around to take a look). A third slider is pressed with the ridge on the underside of the space bar.
Edit: I thought it was flexible plastic because it was transparent and from the angle I could see it from looked like it was flexing. It's actually two pieces of (non-flexible) plastic with interlocking teeth. (see post below)
It's a nice, solid little thing. The bottom piece is heavy gauge metal, thicker than any other metal keyboard I own and about three times as thick as the top piece (also metal).
The switches are not labelled. They look (and feel) similar to vintage linear SMK, but the casing is flatter and the slider diameter is slightly larger. Maybe it's an early version. There are randomly placed black slider switches that have slightly different cases. (right side of slider surround is cut off)
Notice the Sonalert buzzer. There is a TEC logo on the PCB at the right. I don't see a date anywhere on the keyboard, but all the chips start with 73 or 74 and the Sonalert buzzer also has a four digit code starting with 74. (Sonalert still makes buzzers and the four digit numbers now start with 90's or 00's) So maybe this keyboard was made in 1974, around the same time as the TEC Data-Screen 400.
I'd disassemble this keyboard further, if it wasn't bolted in such an awkward way. Sockets won't fit in there and I don't have a wrench that size to get in there. (I'm also far too lazy to put too much effort into it.)
The keycaps are smooth - no texture. Notice the strange spacebar setup. The two sliders in the middle are connected with a flexible plastic on the other side (couldn't take a picture without disassembling - I could only barely bend my eyeballs around to take a look). A third slider is pressed with the ridge on the underside of the space bar.
Edit: I thought it was flexible plastic because it was transparent and from the angle I could see it from looked like it was flexing. It's actually two pieces of (non-flexible) plastic with interlocking teeth. (see post below)