This particular computer is from early to mid-1982 but the production Apple IIe was officially released in January of 1983. Apple has multiple stages of testing in pre-production. It is not known if this was DVT, EVT or PVT but this keyboard never made it to production so it may be in earlier stages. This computer was numbered "119" so there were at least 119 of these in the testing stages. It is easy to tell by motherboard markings with the dead giveaway being yellow silk-screening on the main board. I don't think any blue PCB keyboards ever came into production either so this is also a differentiator.
These key switches have never been seen in production. The production PCB is also marked differently so the stiff keys probably were not desirable so they were never used in production. This also lends to this computer being prior to PVT but this is speculation on my part. The owner says that these are stiffer than the Alps SKCC tall cream key switches in his other Apple II computers. Anyway, here are some pics that the owner took.
- Apple IIe pre-production computer
- Apple IIe Pre-production - computer.jpg (396.69 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Case removed with keyboard exposed
- Apple IIe Pre-production - computer case removed.jpg (290.85 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Keyboard mechanism top (sorry, don't have full pic)
- Apple IIe Pre-production - key switches 1.jpg (507.69 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Keyboard mechanism bottom
- Apple IIe Pre-production - keyboard mechanism bottom.jpg (476.19 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Left side keyboard markings
- Apple IIe Pre-production - keyboard markings left side.jpg (744.41 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Right side keyboard markings
- Apple IIe Pre-production - keyboard markings right side.jpg (363.46 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Keyboard mechanism side view
- Apple IIe Pre-production - keyboard mechanism side view.jpg (304.54 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Reset button key switch
- Apple IIe Pre-production - Reset button key switch.jpg (471.14 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Key switch pics
- Apple IIe Pre-production - key switches 2.jpg (440.54 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Apple IIe Pre-production - key switches 3.jpg (374.23 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Apple IIe Pre-production - key switches 4.jpg (440.51 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Apple IIe Pre-production - key switches 5.jpg (432.99 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Apple IIe Pre-production - key switches 6.jpg (431.33 KiB) Viewed 1425 times
- Key cap removed
- Apple IIe Pre-production - key cap.jpg (248.62 KiB) Viewed 1425 times