Found this is a random surplus/junk bin at my university along with some old Sun terminals and workstations.
I have no idea what company made it, or what kind of switch it uses. They are linear, but have some locking switches on a bunch of the keys.
Keycaps are doubleshot, and very similar (if not the same maker) to my Atari Keypad (http://kiibohd.com/Keyboards/CX85/).

The case is made out of MDF, which is strange (but seeing how old it is, maybe normal). I found the keyboard in pieces, and the one keycap that is missing has it's switch glued down and slider removed (epoxy or resin of some sort).

Anyways ideas on what it is?




Full set of dismantle pics (including switch disassembly): https://picasaweb.google.com/113845661925823397356/KB4412?feat=directlink

Damn I was tired, never saw the "WEAB" on the switches.
Reference to it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anachrocomputer/4741969030/

Still looking though.

There is also "MEI" on the PCB.

Stick some nickels on it. USA preferred.

Ugh, I'll see what I can do.

But the drama continues.

From this page: http://www.stronic.fr/en/index.php?recherche_alpha=T&categorie=150
Search for "weab".

And you'll find both terms "WEAB" and "MEI", manufacturer: Xerox
Not the same switch, but at least I know who made the switch now.

It's from a Volker-Craig terminal. They used to be very common here. I don't recognize the specific model, but it seemed there were hundreds of variations with no two alike, anyway. In my experience their keyboards were pretty awful, taking a lot of force to get started and bottoming out hard, and prone to bouncing and skipping.

May I ask which dumpster?

My experience wandering through a warehouse of these linear terminal keyboards was the same. This was before I walked around with nickels in my pocket so I never collected the numbers.

Here's some other oldies I tried in a different computer museum.

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?8271 ... post145777

My conclusion is nostalgia effect for anybody who praises these things.

I think those keycaps are Key Tronic style.

kps wrote:It's from a Volker-Craig terminal. They used to be very common here. I don't recognize the specific model, but it seemed there were hundreds of variations with no two alike, anyway. In my experience their keyboards were pretty awful, taking a lot of force to get started and bottoming out hard, and prone to bouncing and skipping.

Yeah, I wouldn't say it's an great keyboard to type on.

kps wrote:May I ask which dumpster?

Not a dumpster, more like a bin with wheels in my University (of Waterloo). In one of the privileged (i.e. has a door code) labs on campus. Unfortunately, I've only ever seen the bin there once, when I found this keyboard, in the 2 years I've been using the lab.

HaaTa wrote:Not a dumpster, more like a bin with wheels in my University (of Waterloo).

Oh, I see. For a long time Central Stores had a dumpster outside that often contained interesting things. Sadly they removed it (or moved it inside) a few years ago.

The ribbon cable puts this in the 'early half' of Volker-Craig history, since later models used coiled phone cord. Most of their keyboards had a black metal faceplate with the sides and bottom molded like yours. My memory is vague, but I think this one was one of their earliest free keyboard models (after the all-in-one and exceedingly dumb VC303) -- VC403 comes to mind, but I'm probably wrong. The early models had only primitive control sequences -- no insert/delete line, no reverse or standout or anything -- so editing on them was slow, and nobody used them unless the terminal rooms were crowded.