Focus Electronic FK-2000 Plus

[Chrishas]

Hi all,

I've just started looking into mechanical keyboards and have found an old Focus Electronic FK-2000 Plus with a manufacture date of June 1993. It has diagonal arrow keys with a Turbo key in the middle and a Macro key instead of a Windows key. The keys are white ALPS clones as far as I can tell and this is a photo of one:

FK-2000 Plus Switch

switch.JPG (899 KiB) Viewed 3170 times

I'd like to know whether anyone has connected it successfully using an AT to PS/2 and a PS/2 to USB adapter. The keyboard works fine with the AT to PS/2 adapter but the computer I'd like to use it with has no PS/2. Would it require an active PS/2 to USB adapter and also does anyone have any info on the switches and whether they differ from the ones on the FK-2001?

Thanks in advance,
Chrishas

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Interesting — FCC ID FSQ4VYFK-2000PLUS was registered in 1990, two years after the 1001/2001/3001, making it contemporary with the 5001.

[wiki]Focus FK-2001[/wiki] had a number of switches, including (so far as we know) Hua-Jie AK-CN2 the same as what yours has. (Not confirmed to be CN2, but CN2 is at least visibly identical.)

[Chrishas]

Well it looks that way although the leafs are not copper-coloured and one of them looks like this:

http://imgur.com/a/elAFF#7

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Interesting — so, "Simplified Alps Type IV" then (as with some non-Windows-key FK-2001 keyboards). I figured that Himake switched from the "Type IV" design (wide steel leaf) to the "Type II" (narrow phosphor bronze leaf) around 1989–1990.

Under the assumption that the one you took apart is numbered per the photo (S:#A##), that is odd. We now know that the "Type II" design has two numbering styles (S:## and S:#A##), and your implication is that the "Type IV" design also has the same two numbering styles. The shells are not compatible, so they would have had to retool the upper shell three times in the process, moving to the new number system, then back to the old one, and then back to the new one, or something crazy like that. They also used a third numbering arrangement (NW:#,SE:#) that is now current for the AK-CN2 (2) switch (with, in all instances I've seen, the same digit repeated, reducing the number of possible combinations from 2600 to 10).

There is no accounting for the Far East's love of retooling.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Wiki page created for you: [wiki]Focus FK-2000 Plus[/wiki] — feel free to add photos and additional information.

PS to answer your other question — there is no guarantee that any active PS/2 to USB adapter will work with your AT keyboard. The most reliable is the [wiki]Blue Cube[/wiki], but I have an AT keyboard that only works with my [wiki]Belkin F5U119[/wiki] (except I have a bad model that resets periodically). The other problem with the Blue Cube is its bulk, but it's a fairly good bet otherwise. It will indeed have to be an active adapter, anyway. The passive ones are for when the controller on the keyboard understands both USB and PS/2 and can figure out what it's connected to.