Northgate Omnikeys Focus PCB? Questions?

[Alectardy98]

I just got an early omnikey 102 with blue alps in it, and only and xt/at slider with a non removable cable ? When I opened it up it had a focus branded PCB. Also it has some weird Fkey legonds that I have never seen. Unfortunately the backplate has no sticker on it. Other the the strangeness mentioned above everything else is vary omnikey like ? Anyway ever seen something like this ?

[Polecat]

I just got an early omnikey 102 with blue alps in it, and only and xt/at slider with a non removable cable ? When I opened it up it had a focus branded PCB. Also it has some weird Fkey legonds that I have never seen. Unfortunately the backplate has no sticker on it. Other the the strangeness mentioned above everything else is vary omnikey like ? Anyway ever seen something like this ?

That's a Gen1 Northgate, usually seen with a gold badge. The XT/AT switch and attached cable are normal for that model, as are the blue SKCM switches. Someone has removed the gold label and replaced it with one from a later 102. That could have been done by Northgate as part of a repair job, but more likely was done by a previous owner. The F-key strips in groups of four are sold by "Northgate Bob" (Bob Tibbetts, Northgate Keyboard Repair). The only real surprise to me is the Focus legend on the PC board. We know these keyboards are closely related to Focus, but I don't recall seeing it actually printed on a PC board. It's probably an early version. Check the date markings on the upper case and PC board to compare to others on record. (I keep a database of these)

[Chyros]

I've reported one of these in one of my Focus videos, I'm pretty sure it was a 555 one. NG Bob sent me a scan of a Focus-branded PCB on a 1st gen OmniKey, just like this.

I've been trying to establish what link there was between Focus and Northgate for a while, and from everything I've dug up, it's a lot more than people thought originally. Currently I'm of the opinion that Focus designed the first OmniKeys as a direct descendant of their FK-555 (with which it shares many similarities, plus there are 555 markings on some extremely early OmniKeys). The OmniKey was later redesigned by some dude called Ingram or something, which I elaborate upon in that video. That's when it got the blue badge, DIP switches and later characteristics of more modern OmniKeys (the original ones had quite different specs and capabilities). Considering many parts stayed the same though, I'm assuming Focus still made them for NG at that point and afterwards, though.

Always cool to find out more history behind these boards!

[headphone_jack]

I'm assuming that Focus made Northgate keyboards for at least the early generations. Is there any evidence of Northgate markings on any Focus boards? The fact that they share the same keycaps suggests that they were at least buying parts from the same supplier, if not Focus making them in house and Northgate using them.

[Polecat]

I've reported one of these in one of my Focus videos, I'm pretty sure it was a 555 one. NG Bob sent me a scan of a Focus-branded PCB on a 1st gen OmniKey, just like this.

I've been trying to establish what link there was between Focus and Northgate for a while, and from everything I've dug up, it's a lot more than people thought originally. Currently I'm of the opinion that Focus designed the first OmniKeys as a direct descendant of their FK-555 (with which it shares many similarities, plus there are 555 markings on some extremely early OmniKeys). The OmniKey was later redesigned by some dude called Ingram or something, which I elaborate upon in that video. That's when it got the blue badge, DIP switches and later characteristics of more modern OmniKeys (the original ones had quite different specs and capabilities). Considering many parts stayed the same though, I'm assuming Focus still made them for NG at that point and afterwards, though.

Always cool to find out more history behind these boards!

Focus was supplying Northgate with FK-555 and FK-747 keyboards before, and probably concurrently with the first Omnikeys. We've seen several examples of those with normal Focus labels on the bottom, and Northgate badges on top. Northgate was also supplying standard keyboards from Monterey and Silitek, again as evidenced by examples posted here and elsewhere. The Gen1 Omnikeys were tagged with paper labels after they were received by Northgate, and assigned a vendor code of "111". Presumably "111" was Focus. When the Gen2 Omnikeys came out the first examples had a vendor code of "222". They were subsequently redesigned internally, and the range of models was expanded. The later Gen2 Omnikeys had vendor codes of "333" or "777". Around that time Northgate purchased a keyboard engineering company, as detailed in the attached Infoworld article. When the Gen3 models came out they had a vendor code of "20017". That code was continued on the Gen4 (programmable) models. The vendor codes for Monterey and Silitek (on those same paper labels) were 666 and 12111, respectively. So far I haven't seen a Northgate-badged Focus keyboard with an intact paper label or vendor code. But we did spot the Gen1 Omnikey on ebay a while back with a Focus label on the bottom. I guess I need to open up my Gen1 Omnikeys to see if any of them have the Focus ID hiding inside.

[Chyros]

Is there any evidence of Northgate markings on any Focus boards? The fact that they share the same keycaps suggests that they were at least buying parts from the same supplier, if not Focus making them in house and Northgate using them.

Early Northgates were rebranded Focus boards. Other than that, no.