deskthority

Got this thing off eBay yesterday. Risky buy, because I couldn't find any information on it anywhere. Let's see what we got.



Looks nice enough. The keycaps have a pretty rough texture to them. I think they're made from PBT, but I'm not sure.



Alps SKCM white switches.



Doubleshot keycaps as well.



Label on the back. Model number similar to Datacomp DFK192, but they don't quite look alike.



Texture on the spacebar.



Looks like it's warped a bit. Interestingly, it has support for Cherry style stab inserts.



Part of the PCB. Kinda hard to make out, but it says DFK 191F.



Controller.

This thing had a really rough life. It survived at least two spills, once of which was something dark yellow/orange and sticky. I'm guessing (hoping) it was orange juice.

The switches are all over the place. the W key switch didn't work at all until I dismantled it and cleaned it thoroughly. Esc key switch only registers if I hit it at just the right angle. Non stabilized mods like to get stuck if not hit dead center. Some keys register twice per keypress. Not entirely sure what to do about it.

All in all, it's a nice board, but it will need more work before it can be useful again.

Looks like a well-built board. This is what I love about the Alps world. It's so easy to find something that is quite unique!

Sounds like it needs a good cleaning and perhaps a few switch swaps to get it working right. Yeah, non-stabilized long keys tend to bind more than anything with Alps. Do they have mounts for stabilization? If you don't have spare wire you can use, a small paper clip of around 1mm in diameter can do the trick in a pinch. That's what I used in the midst of restoring my FAME keyboard which had NO stab wire or clips at all. I had to get all of those parts.

It was strange, because it had clip mounting points in the plate, but lacked any stabilization aside from Cherry plate-mounted stabs for the space bar (and yep, this is an Alps board too).

Sounds like you should replace the wonky keys. Either that or very carefully try to bend the contact plates back into shape after dismantling them. I've found that to not be all too reliable, but you might be able to do better than I have!

I really like the case design, as weird as it is. Those angles are nice, and it seems fairly compact for the era! Those key caps also look fantastic! Very nice find, man.

EDIT: It also looks like it has switch "blockers" on the WKL positions (between CTRL and ALT on the bottom row). Are those removable?

E3E wrote: ↑Sounds like it needs a good cleaning and perhaps a few switch swaps to get it working right. Yeah, non-stabilized long keys tend to bind more than anything with Alps. Do they have mounts for stabilization? If you don't have spare wire you can use, a small paper clip of around 1mm in diameter can do the trick in a pinch. That's what I used in the midst of restoring my FAME keyboard which had NO stab wire or clips at all. I had to get all of those parts.

Nope, no mounts. It's weird though, I have three AT102Ws and none of them have issues with this.

E3E wrote: ↑Sounds like you should replace the wonky keys. Either that or very carefully try to bend the contact plates back into shape after dismantling them. I've found that to not be all too reliable, but you might be able to do better than I have!

I don't have any spares, unfortunately. I'll see what I can do.

E3E wrote: ↑I really like the case design, as weird as it is. Those angles are nice, and it seems fairly compact for the era! Those key caps also look fantastic! Very nice find, man.

Thanks!

E3E wrote: ↑EDIT: It also looks like it has switch "blockers" on the WKL positions (between CTRL and ALT on the bottom row). Are those removable?

It might be neccessary to separate the plate and the PCB. I don't think I'll be trying it

Those keycaps look identical to my Tai Hao Doubleshots. Do you know when this keyboard was made?

Tai Hao seemed to be a big name in the Alps world. My old Zenith with thick PBT's are the same profile as my doubleshots and others from pictures. I believe Focus keyboards also had Tai Hao's.

These double-shot keycaps made excellent for Alps switch. This Taiwan company Datacomp also made the nice PCB for Alps switch I never seen.

Mattr567: MFD1991.05.16