1980s cherry unicorn (prototype) find

hansichen

02 Aug 2017, 19:48

Welcome to a 'small' picture documentation of an insane cherry find. I'm sorry for the picture quality as most boards look way more yellowed than they are in reality, but I'm not a professional photographer and I don't have more possibilities here at the moment. It's a total of 4 boards so let's just start with the boring ones:
The first one is a Cherry G80-1000 HAO with B05 date code.
G80-1000 HAO
G80-1000 HAO
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It's in nib condition and comes with it's original packaging and the coil is still in its plastic wrap. Sadly some caps are missing and it seems like that the owner wanted to change the caps from HAO to HAN as all caps except the + ? \ cap which belongs to the original HAO layout. Either way the main caps are still there and it should be possible to get a full set for some nordic nerd.
Spoiler:
G80-1000 HAO label
G80-1000 HAO label
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Let's go right to the 2nd board. It's a G80-1600, nothing special about that one, right Mike? ;)
G80-1600 top view
G80-1600 top view
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It's a prototype from 1988, I'm not familiar with the 1600 models but the rubber feet are way different to the normal 1000 cases. Additionally the dip switch is different and the board doesn't feature the two super black switches which are normally placed in the winkey positions. I haven't made any further investigations as this board will go to another forum member. This board is uncleaned and the other boards arrived in a similar condition.
Spoiler:
G80-1600 top view
G80-1600 top view
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G80-1600 sticker
G80-1600 sticker
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G80-1600 dip switch
G80-1600 dip switch
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G80-1600 rubber feet
G80-1600 rubber feet
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G80-1600 rubber feet
G80-1600 rubber feet
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The next board is this one:
G80-2100 top view
G80-2100 top view
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Yes, that's a G80-2100 in a G80-2000 case, it's a G80-2100 HAO prototype from 1989.
G80-2100 HAO and HCD
G80-2100 HAO and HCD
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This is a comparisson to a later G80-2100 HCD. The board features rare HAO caps with english sublegends. The build quality of the board is insane, the PCB is screwed to the case, the Metal backplate is screwed to the case too. In total this boards has 23 screws until everything is build together.
Spoiler:
G80-2100 sticker
G80-2100 sticker
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G80-2100 localisation sticker
G80-2100 localisation sticker
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G80-2100 date sticker
G80-2100 date sticker
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G80-2100 screws
G80-2100 screws
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G80-2100 pcb screws
G80-2100 pcb screws
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G80-2100 pcb detail
G80-2100 pcb detail
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You probably ask yourself: what can be better than such a board? It's this one:
G80-0418 top view
G80-0418 top view
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It's a Cherry G80-0418. According to some chinese article about the history of Cherry, Cherry announced the G80-0312 and 0320 in 1983 as the first Cherry mx boards, in 1984 they announced the G80-0413 for IBM computers (which can be seen here: https://i.imgur.com/P1lmJFU.jpg , https://i.imgur.com/33GIZnl.jpg Seems like cherry made these boards until 1989 even if they must have been heavily outdated at the time) and they announced the G80-0418 for apple computers. As the Cherry mx black was announced in 1984 too these could be the first boards which were announced with todays mx black switch. This board is plate mounted and features brown doubleshot modifier keycaps, some of them are thin and some thick abs doubleshots. For the alphas every keycap is doubleshot but many legends are not sharp, it feels like that they used some blank doubleshot molds (as seen in some beamspring boards) and then printed the legends onto it. If somebody has more data about when cherry had all of their doubleshot moldings finished or if my thinking is wrong please share it with us. Interestingly the board does not feature homing keys but the F key is clearly doubleshot, so cherry invested into these molds.
The board is build with a metal plate and plate mount switches, it uses mx blacks and cherry pcb mount screw in stabs of an old generation. The space bar features a Cherry mx "space black" switch which is stonger than a normal mx grey but not as strong as a mx super black switch. I'd guess that it's around 100-120g but I am not able to measure that by myself. The sticker on the plate does not indicate a build date but the printing on the pcb could indicate that it's build on the 21.05.87, but that's just a speculation as you could read other dates with that blurry printing. The serial number is 521 and the board has a 15 pin connector. The pinout can be seen in the wiki file of the board (wiki/File:G80-0418.pdf). Does anybody know which Apple computers of that time used a 15 pin connector, as far as I know Apple introduced ADB in 1985, before that they used some TRS like connector for their M0110 board. If anybody has info on that and if there is a way to convert this board I'd be happy if he can shares it. Now some more pictures of the board:
Spoiler:
G80-0418 case sticker
G80-0418 case sticker
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G80-0418 plate sticker
G80-0418 plate sticker
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G80-0418 case
G80-0418 case
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G80-0418 pcb mount screw in stab
G80-0418 pcb mount screw in stab
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G80-0418 Cherry mx "space black" switch
G80-0418 Cherry mx "space black" switch
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G80-0418 components
G80-0418 components
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G80-0418 date stamp?
G80-0418 date stamp?
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G80-0418 connector
G80-0418 connector
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G80-0418 connector
G80-0418 connector
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G80-0418 connector
G80-0418 connector
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G80-0418 feet
G80-0418 feet
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G80-0418 feet
G80-0418 feet
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2 generations of keyboard feet
2 generations of keyboard feet
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keycap details
keycap details
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Last but not least: a small gimmick which the seller included into the box: an OG cherry color code chip, I didn't even know that these things exist :D
OG cherry color chip
OG cherry color chip
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Additions to the wiki will be made soon, if somebody want's to be faster than me he can use my pictures too. I hope you enjoyed the picture documentation of the find :)

hypkx
Chasing the Dream

02 Aug 2017, 21:46

That G80-1600, a dream.

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

02 Aug 2017, 23:03

Love the G80-0418, what a classic! :shock: That G80-2100 HCD looks familiar. ;) :D

hansichen

02 Aug 2017, 23:29

It looks like that the G80-0418 is the only one on the internet so far, I wasn't able to find any info except scans of old articles about it. It's really a lovely board to look at. The seller first send me a link to a PDF file where you can see the plate and caps only, that looked kind of boring, but when I saw the whole board I fell in love with it.
And yes, the HCD looks familiar, I really enjoy the board and it's even nicer to have the comparison between old and "new"

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mike52787
Alps Aficionado

03 Aug 2017, 02:33

<3 <3 <3

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ba7777
飞不动的加林查

03 Aug 2017, 06:51

crazy haul here dude! congratulations!

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kbdfr
The Tiproman

03 Aug 2017, 10:16

[speechless] :o :shock: :!: [/speechless]

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beltet

12 Aug 2017, 13:03

I would do almost anything to get one of those HAO sets with sublegends... It would be a dream come true. Very beautiful!

hansichen

30 Sep 2017, 03:09

A second package from the same source has arrived, it's not as special as the first one but still with some neat pieces :)
The first is a G80-3000 HAU with F date code. Caps are switched from ansi us to ansi Swedish.
The second board is a G80-1800 HFM board, probably from week 15 in 1988. It's a prototype board with dark blue switches and Danish doubleshot caps.
The last two boards are G80-0414 boards, these boards were made as a Model F xt clone. Interestingly only the cases are yellowed, and one of the boards is a mirror board, somebody must have enjoyed his cherry board back then. More detailed pictures, wiki entries and pictures of some more cherry goodies will follow next year. Image

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JP!

30 Sep 2017, 03:30

Very nice. I never find any neat Cherry stuff. Do you plan to Retrobright those yellowed ones?

hansichen

30 Sep 2017, 05:24

I think I have to, but I have to admit that I'm a bit scared that only the case is yellowed, seems like cherry used some shit abs for the cases back then :(

hansichen

05 Feb 2018, 23:50

Let's continue this thread after the last teaser. Today I want to present pictures of the G80-0414 boards and some goodies.
G80-0414
G80-0414
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These boards were available with IBM and ASCII protocol. These ones have the later protocol, therefore I wasn't able to convert them yet. Both boards power up and the LEDs work. These boards must be from an early revision as the LEDs are still red and not green like from other 0414 boards. The serial numbers of the boards are very close, one is 4500, the othes one 4500. Sadly both cases are yellowed and one is even damaged on the front. Apart from these issues the boards are very solid and both of them were loved by the pre-owners. On one board some keys are that shiny that you can feel the black legends like you would on laser engraved caps.
Spoiler:
Board 1
Board 1
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Board 2
Board 2
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G80-0414 pcbs
G80-0414 pcbs
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PCB closeup
PCB closeup
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PCB stlckers
PCB stlckers
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Cut jumpers
Cut jumpers
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Cut cable traces
Cut cable traces
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Next up we have 10 sets of og cherry numpad keycap sets. These caps seem to have the mid profile dsa style. They are not as high as the non mx compatible high profile sets but also not as low as some M8 keycaps. These sets are nib in the original bag which is still sealed with all 10 sets inside.
Spoiler:
Numpad sets
Numpad sets
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Numpad bag
Numpad bag
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Thirdly we have a box of nib mouse switches (at least that's what they look like), the date manufacture date of these switches seems to be in 2011 which surprised me a bit.
Spoiler:
Cherry nib mouse switches
Cherry nib mouse switches
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Lastly we have a box with brown 1.5u mid profile dsa style keycaps. Originally these were 125 caps but some may be missing as this bag is already opened. For me these keycap packages were quite interesting, not only because the caps are very pretty, also because I didn't know that Cherry delivered these caps individually. I wonder if there are more packages like this out there which could still be used in awesome builds.
Spoiler:
blank keycaps bag
blank keycaps bag
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blank keycaps
blank keycaps
DSC_6950.jpg (670.62 KiB) Viewed 10711 times

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Daniel Beardsmore

06 Feb 2018, 00:52

Heh, back from when Cherry had premises a few miles away from me.

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kbdfr
The Tiproman

06 Feb 2018, 07:47

hansichen wrote: […] Next up we have 10 sets of og cherry numpad keycap sets. These caps seem to have the mid profile dsa style. They are not as high as the non mx compatible high profile sets but also not as low as some M8 keycaps. […]
Spoiler:
Image
[…]
They look quite similar to those I found here:
photos-f62/hoft-wessel-pos-keyboard-t7290.html
Spoiler:
Image

hansichen

06 Feb 2018, 09:09

That's an interesting link. These one's are mounted on mx switches whereas most spherical cherry caps come on other switches. So maybe these "mid profile" caps were made for mx and the low profile caps for the flat M8 switch

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ideus

01 Apr 2018, 16:02

I am typing on a G80-0414 set now. It came from Canada, from a version of the board that was branded after a laboratory equipment manufacturer. It was in almost new condition. The caps had the original texture.

I consider this layout the best one for my needs, because I have all the keys I need to type in Spanish, English and in French, occasionally. The position of the back-slash-pipe is great to type Latex and Markdown documents, that I do frequently. I can use A-Profile bottom row if I want to, using either the f9-f10, or B-Profile with f7-f8.

Note: The ]} key had a minor surgery to fit into the contemporary layout.

Image

hansichen

02 Apr 2018, 09:37

Such a shame about the ]} key ;)

I always wanted to post some more color accurate pictures, here we go:
G80-2100 HAO
G80-2100 HAO
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G80-0418
G80-0418
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G80-0414
G80-0414
DSC_7173.JPG (5.58 MiB) Viewed 10433 times

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kbdfr
The Tiproman

02 Apr 2018, 12:27

This 1st generation G80-2100 is just fantastic.
It's not only a rare item but certainly a unique one, especially as a prototype with that tentative multilingual layout.

I especially appreciate this funny cap which reminds me of the sad-looking one on French keyboards:
tréma.jpg
tréma.jpg (8.68 KiB) Viewed 10415 times

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ideus

02 Apr 2018, 19:07

@hansichen Great pictures. @kbdfr I'd love to get one of those, as a kind of nice novelty.

soer9459

12 Apr 2021, 10:15

Damn, I've just recently come across the G80-2100 HAO caps, and being nordic, those are delicious.
Were the caps / board ever sold?

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kbdfr
The Tiproman

12 Apr 2021, 12:16

soer9459 wrote:
12 Apr 2021, 10:15
Damn, I've just recently come across the G80-2100 HAO caps, and being nordic, those are delicious.
Were the caps / board ever sold?
I hope you’re not dreaming of stripping this absolutely unique vintage keyboard of its keycaps.
Apparently there’s a lot of stuff which will not survive the actual generation of keyboard "lovers".

soer9459

12 Apr 2021, 15:25

kbdfr wrote:
12 Apr 2021, 12:16
soer9459 wrote:
12 Apr 2021, 10:15
Damn, I've just recently come across the G80-2100 HAO caps, and being nordic, those are delicious.
Were the caps / board ever sold?
I hope you’re not dreaming of stripping this absolutely unique vintage keyboard of its keycaps.
Apparently there’s a lot of stuff which will not survive the actual generation of keyboard "lovers".
I would probably just use the keycaps for a custom build, but that certainly doesn't mean i would throw the thing out :)

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