Do all Northgate Omnikey's come with complicated Alps?

[enrique.aliaga]

Hello guys and gals,

I recently acquired a NOS Northgate Omnikey Plus (apparently manufactured in 1989) from eBay. I paid 200 dollars for it (excluding shipping).

Now I wonder... is it for sure that they board is gonna come with complicated Alps switches in it? (Most likely, SCKM white alps, I think). The seller wasn't able to provide this info.

Just out of curiosity, is there any chance for the board to come with Blue Alps?

BTW, how good of a deal do you think I made?

Thank you all for commenting!

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The CVS Avant range in later life used simplified Alps for most keys, along with what appears to be Himake AK-LE for the LED keys.

I don't know when in the 90s the brand changed from Northgate to CVS, but if your keyboard was made in 1989 it will be complicated Alps: simplified Alps supposedly came out in 1996.

[Chyros]

As I recall they changed to simplified Alps before they changed the brand to Avant;, so some of the later OmniKeys already had simplified Alps.

If it's from 1989, it's definitely complicated Alps, just at the edge of blue Alps territory, actually. To my knowledge, the only ones that ever came with blue Alps were the very first ones, which were all gold-badge OmniKey 102s, though. They changed off the blue Alps before the badge, as well, so even those aren't a guaranteed hit.

[enrique.aliaga]

Could the sticker in the backplate that reads "89/12" be taken as an indication of the year of manufacturing?

Sticker on Back plate

Backplate.jpg (91.61 KiB) Viewed 3173 times

[Engicoder]

That is definitely one of the earlier rear label stickers, so I would be very confident they are complicated (SKCM) alps. Most likely white.

[THATGUY69]

I think I have the same style omnikey, Is that the one with the cross nav instead of the t nav? If so, it definitely comes with SKCM alps, and I have my money on white alps, which are pretty nice. And when you get it, could you test and see if it has n-key rollover? I have heard that all omnikeys come with N-key rollover, and the one I have, which was made during the same month and year, only has 2-key rollover. I'm slightly curious.

[enrique.aliaga]

I think I have the same style omnikey, Is that the one with the cross nav instead of the t nav? If so, it definitely comes with SKCM alps, and I have my money on white alps, which are pretty nice. And when you get it, could you test and see if it has n-key rollover? I have heard that all omnikeys come with N-key rollover, and the one I have, which was made during the same month and year, only has 2-key rollover. I'm slightly curious.

Hey bud!

Thanks for commenting! Yes, the keyboard has the cross-nav with the OMNI key in the center.

I will make sure to test the key-rollover and report back once I receive the board (should be in about three weeks).


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[Chyros]

Likely pine whites. Very nice switches, and a superb chassis.

[fohat]

I have heard that all omnikeys come with N-key rollover, and the one I have, which was made during the same month and year, only has 2-key rollover. I'm slightly curious.

[Chyros]

One of mine doesn't either.

[balotz]

One of mine doesn't either.

Are you connecting over ps/2 or via a converter to usb?

[//gainsborough]

He's likely referring to the gold label 102, which I don't think has NKR.

[Chyros]

He's likely referring to the gold label 102, which I don't think has NKR.

Yes, I am. My blue-label ULTRA does have NKRO over the same converter.

[enrique.aliaga]

Hi there guys!

I just received my OmniKey! It looks and feels awesome. A true NOS unit. You can imagine my excitement!

I have a problem though. I cannot use the keyboard with any of the cables that came in the box.

The cables are:
* A PS/2 male-to-female short coiled white cable.
* A "male PS/2 to male Serial" longer white coiled cable.

(I can add pictures when I get home)

I think I can't use any of these cables to connect to my MacBook Pro. I am not even sure if they correspond to this particular keyboard. The serial port cable especially makes no sense to me. I didn't know keyboards could be connected via Serial port.

What kind of cable should I get to use my OmniKey? I am thinking about a PS/2 male-to-male cable. Would that do?

Thanks everybody!


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[fohat]

The original cable has a mini-DIN6 (aka PS/2) connection at the keyboard and an AT (aka 180 degree DIN) at the motherboard.

The short "cable" is probably an "AT-to-PS/2" adapter. A straight-through male-PS/2-to-male-PS/2 cable will work instead of that kludge, but sometimes cables that look right on the outside will not have all the inner wires they need.

To get from PS/2 to USB you will need an adapter or a converter, depending on how lucky you are. Going to modern Apple gear, you will probably need an active converter.