Höft & Wessel POS keyboard

kbdfr · 21 Jan 2014, 11:39

Bought this keyboard (actually three of them) because the photo obviously showed Cherry relegendable keycaps and I was just curious.

Now I received it and here is how it looks:

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Flat spherical doubleshot number keycaps:

: HW-02.jpg (93.81 KiB) Viewed 5349 times

But the interesting thing are those double keys. When pulling one of them, the whole assembly comes out together with the stabilisers (sorry for the blurred pic):

: HW-03.jpg (55.27 KiB) Viewed 5349 times

Neither the PCB nor the bottom side of the stabilisers show any trace, hole, tape or whatever suggesting the stabiliser is attached to the PCB, and that is true for all the double keys. When in place, they are just a bit wobbly, but pressing them completely off-center is no problem at all.

Here is how they look like:

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: HW-06.jpg (181.79 KiB) Viewed 5349 times

I'm not very familiar with stabilisers, but do not remember having seen those before.
Now I will have to find time to test those stabilisers with a space bar.

HzFaq · 21 Jan 2014, 11:45

They look like the standard Cherry plate mount stabs to me, been a while since I've seen one though so could be wrong...

Nice boards anyway, have you got anything planned for them?

kbdfr · 21 Jan 2014, 12:12

HzFaq wrote:They look like the standard Cherry plate mount stabs to me, been a while since I've seen one though so could be wrong...

But aren't those standard stabs normally attached to the board? And anyway, here the switches are PCB mounted. The whole assembly is held in place only by the cap on its switch and the stabs obviously just lie on the board.

Nice boards anyway, have you got anything planned for them?

I intend to get immensely rich by selling them and their doubleshot number caps

More seriously, if anyone is interested they can have one of the boards with its accessories (they came with cables and AC/DC adapters and connection boxes) for shipping costs + 5 € to cover what I paid myself.
Mind you, they are in rather poor condition and in one of them the switch even came out with the cap and the stabs.

Mainly I would be very interested to hear if anyone else has more info about these stabs.

Muirium · 21 Jan 2014, 12:19

The only Cherry stabs I've seen in person are the PCB mount variety. The ones you've found look quite similar to them, but different on the foot. Certainly credible that they're the (surprisingly elusive) Cherry plate mount. If they are, I could use a few of them for my PCB-less custom keyboards! Strange they're not actually mounted in anything, though. You say they seem to work anyway?

As for the caps…

I know next to nothing about Cherry, really. But they remind me of those.

HzFaq · 21 Jan 2014, 12:25

kbdfr wrote:
HzFaq wrote:They look like the standard Cherry plate mount stabs to me, been a while since I've seen one though so could be wrong...
But aren't those standard stabs normally attached to the board? And anyway, here the switches are PCB mounted. The whole assembly is held in place only by the cap on its switch and the stabs obviously just lie on the board.

The plate mount stabs push through the bottom of the switch mounting plate and aren't connected to the PCB at all IIRC, I've only ever used one when I built my Phantom but I'm pretty sure thats right.

The fact that they're present here on a PCB mounted board is odd to say the least...

edit - Found this (I think its WFD's picture from over at GH), looks like those are plate mounted Cherry stabs.

kint · 21 Jan 2014, 12:43

kbdfr wrote:....I'm not very familiar with stabilisers, but do not remember having seen those before.
Now I will have to find time to test those stabilisers with a space bar.

Those are Cherry plate mount Stabilisers as said before. You can see how they work here:
http://imageshack.us/a/img18/3152/j0am.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img842/9720/y1is.jpg

If they are really just thrown in on a PCB mounted board the manufacturer did pfusch,

They are basically the only alternative to Costar stabs when going plate mount, which are considered being

Muirium wrote:Yeah, you're both right. Costar stabs sighted, the fiddly buggers!

As there are only so much vintage Cherry boards with plates made, they are quite rare, but as Ducky and others are using them they are also quite in demand.
Take a look at this thread (56k warning) for more pics.

In other words: If you market them seperatley be prepared to get your hands ripped off...

Also: nice board, congrats.

kbdfr · 21 Jan 2014, 13:06

Thanks for the input, guys. Obviously one never stops learning.

As said before, pushing the cap completely off-center is no problem, even if it is just a bit wobbly then.
I'll try to find time to test how the space bar of a PCB mount board behaves with those stabs only connected to the bar itself and just resting on the board.

By the way, if there is interest, perhaps I could get more of these boards. I think the seller had more and they did not sell, but I'll check that later.

Muirium · 21 Jan 2014, 13:28

I think you could easily find a new home for as many Cherry plate mount stabs and numeric doubleshots as you can lay your hands on!

Ascaii · 21 Jan 2014, 14:02

I would be interested in one set of the caps.

Broadmonkey · 21 Jan 2014, 14:16

and I in the other set along with the stabilizers

Muirium · 21 Jan 2014, 14:55

I'm in for a bit of both… if you do indeed part them out.

kbdfr · 21 Jan 2014, 15:14

Looks like this could turn into a sort of group buy

I have now contacted the seller and will report here.

By the way, each keyboard has two gorgeous heavy-duty adjustable feet each consisting of a big bolt, a fat nut with a rubber insert and a large lock nut:

: HW-07.jpg (149.39 KiB) Viewed 5265 times

Perhaps some of you would be interested in those as well.

To be honest, I would have considered those keyboards als mainly junk, but I'd be glad if they (or parts of them) make fellow DT members happy.

Muirium · 21 Jan 2014, 15:19

Quality! The little bits and bobs, like caps and stabs and feet, are of course the most useful stuff to us.

Broadmonkey · 21 Jan 2014, 15:29

Yeah, it looks like there is a fair few of desireable part on this one. How much does the full unit weigh in?

kbdfr · 21 Jan 2014, 15:46

One unit weighs almost 1.6 kg.

Same keyboard with its accessories here (this is not where I got mine - muuuuch too expensive),
and here is the big-scale photo of it.

Britney Spears · 21 Jan 2014, 19:56

I initially misread the title as "Horst Wessel POS keyboard".

IvanIvanovich · 21 Jan 2014, 21:05

It's an interesting unit... using plate stabs on a PCB mount is kind of ghetto though. How does it interface... and with what? Is it programmable? I've been thinking about trying to set up some 'custom' keyboard again to use with traktor. I pretty much hate every reasonable price control decks around, they all feel like cheap toys.

kbdfr · 22 Jan 2014, 10:28

Britney Spears wrote:I initially misread the title as "Horst Wessel POS keyboard".

If that had been the name of the keyboard, I would have tossed it out right away

IvanIvanovich wrote:[…] How does it interface... and with what? Is it programmable?

I suppose it must be programmable, as relegendable caps would otherwise make no sense.

As to its interface, it connects to a box (here both sides of the box are shown):

: HW-08.jpg (60.06 KiB) Viewed 5151 times

The keyboard itself has just one socket, which is identical to the one it connects to on the box.

IvanIvanovich · 22 Jan 2014, 18:36

I wonder how challenging it would be to replace the box with a USB interface, that also allowed to do something useful with the screen like have it display the track data... maybe cram a few faders and pots in there too left of the screen if there was room for it.

photekq · 27 Jan 2014, 00:06

Very interesting board. I would be interested in as many plate mounted stabilisers as I can get. In fact, I only want the stems of those stabilisers. If anyone wants to trade them for newer Cherry-stabiliser stems then let me know.