Coolest keyboard find of 2021?

The Laptop Lagger

27 Jan 2022, 00:35

Hey people! Decided to add in a cheerful post.
What's the coolest keyboard you got in 2021? Or perhaps what's the coolest upgrade you made to one of your existing boards?


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For me it would have to be the new old stock NMB RT8756 I happened to find! It's iItalian which doesn't line up with what I type but for €15 I sure as heck wasn't gonna complain! My other honourable mention would be the Toshiba T1500 green Alps board I found.

Did y'all find anything cool last year?
Cheers!

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jsheradin

27 Jan 2022, 00:44

I dumpster dove a ton of boards in 2021 but I'm particularly partial to this guy for some reason:
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jsheradin wrote:
31 May 2021, 22:13
Protype
Also rained on before I found it but luckily there was no corrosion. It speaks a non-standard serial that didn't want to play nice with hardware UART so I went with a controller swap. The IC was the same footprint as a Teensy++ 2.0 so it turned out pretty tidy.
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hellothere

27 Jan 2022, 01:11

I'm going to go with a couple categories:

* Best buy: inozenz's / Shorle's 5000 AZERTY NMB New-Old-Stock keyboard group buy. I got 11 for around $10 a piece, after shipping.
* Coolest buy: two IBM 5140s with tactile brown Alps. I'm rebuilding into one keyboard that I'll soon put up for sale.
* Favorite buys: without question, my Topre Realforce and the Abko 935 I'm typing on right now.
* Worst buy: IBM 5576 B01 that I bought without knowing it had Mitsumi KPQ (I think) switches. Hey, I share my successes and failures.

I bought several Japanese keyboards this past year. None of them have adapters, but those are also fairly cool.

This year, I'm looking forward to Ellipse's new beamspring and/or other beamspring switches (Silo) and the new Clickez switches. I have an Omron keyboard coming my way and I have a few keyboards I'm really looking forward to put good switches into. I'm also going to try to get into keyboard case painting and actually do a Model M screw mod.

Johnbo

27 Jan 2022, 02:17

I have two finds that I love and I'm not sure how I could pick the coolest, so I'll just share 'em both. On the right is my birthday board, made on the same day and year I was born, and on the left is my ScreenReader/2 pad! (SR2 pad was actually made in the same month as well, just not the same day)
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zrrion

27 Jan 2022, 07:29

for me it was my Toshiba RS3081
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It's a nice board and the previously undocumented alps switches was a very cool thing to find.

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Muirium
µ

27 Jan 2022, 09:59

Does it count as a “find” if you found it in your own storage? Nothing disordered to see here, no sir! :lol:

Slom

27 Jan 2022, 11:30

My only keyboard bought in the last two years, so my best and my worst find of 2021 at the same time :)

The grailiness(?) to scruffiness ratio was too good to resist.
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Reimu64

27 Jan 2022, 18:49

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This Ortek MCK-142Pro...and it doesn't even have 142 keys despite the name. It has Alps White which is less cool. But I think it's a still a beast of a board.

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JP!

27 Jan 2022, 20:54

Just a small handful of finds in 2021. Hard to say which is the coolest.

For overall vintage keyboard aesthetics I think this Honeywell in a custom wood case is pretty cool. It's practically a piece of furniture.
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Other finds:
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IBM 6901 Personal Typing System aka "DisplayWrite". This is my favorite find, not solely because of the keyboard but more as a complete package.
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TRS-80 Model 4 (Model 3 with a rare-ish Model 4 upgrade kit installed). I saved this one from the scrapyard. The keyboard sucks and I don't dare power it up until I can go through it and replace some capacitors. I have all the original disks for it so I can play around with it once it's back to running.
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An actual battlestation keyboard as used on a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft.
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Muirium
µ

27 Jan 2022, 21:04

The Honeywell truly needs that case. Giving me ideas …

John Doe

28 Jan 2022, 01:07

Spoiler:
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photekq
Cherry Picker

28 Jan 2022, 02:32

I'll be posting a proper album of this one when I get the chance, but time's been slipping by me like never before, so I suppose I'll give it a low effort showing off in the meantime.

The first and only Fuji Xerox J Star II keyboard that I've been able to find evidence of. When I got it, I had no clue what system it even belonged to. I knew it must've been something Star-related, since it matched the non-Japanese Xerox Star keyboard so closely, but I initially thought it was a second/alternate version of the Fuji Xerox J Star keyboard. Thanks to mcmaxmcmc, who spotted this brochure, I now know it's from the Fuji Xerox 8080-J Star II - a system which, if you're trusting Google, does not exist.

Oh, it also has a new colour of Hirose Cherry MX - red.

And since I'm shameless - if anyone has a non-Japanese Xerox Star (1109 type 2) keyboard they want to let go of, please let me know. I would love to complete this pair. Of course, nothing that's been split from a system; I'm no butcher.
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Slom wrote:
27 Jan 2022, 11:30
My only keyboard bought in the last two years, so my best and my worst find of 2021 at the same time :)

The grailiness(?) to scruffiness ratio was too good to resist.

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Awesome find Slom! I hope I can be that lucky sometime soon.

vyquad

28 Jan 2022, 03:53

No pic as i didnt expect to see this thread, but at my local (small) computer store they had a tandy and a focus 2000

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Polecat

28 Jan 2022, 04:24

Fun thread. Two keepers for me. Industrial gray K104 and Northgate 101i.
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Arto

29 Jan 2022, 03:32

Found all these in an abandoned office-building. the terminal boards where still hooked up to the terminal stations in a room and the PS/2 was found in the basement :D
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CallmeJohn

29 Jan 2022, 06:56

Easily the best keyboard of 2021, the Alps made atrocity.
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Alps 12KFI36E TW-9994V-0

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Muirium
µ

29 Jan 2022, 09:21

The fuck was that ever supposed to be inside?

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zrrion

29 Jan 2022, 10:57

NEC Multispeed. IIRC the keyboard is regular XT

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Muirium
µ

29 Jan 2022, 10:59

Oh…

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zrrion

29 Jan 2022, 11:02

that appears to be one of the less common variations from what I can tell, check out the MAE as opposed to the 2u vertical one, and the left shift is the correct size, moving the pipe next to the spacebar. It isn't a huge change but it makes the layout much better IMO

The Laptop Lagger

10 Feb 2022, 22:30

Oh wow! I totally forgot I made this thread but there are some hella awesome finds here! My NMB has been thoroughly dwarfed!

Loved seeing all of these! Thank you all!

headphone_jack

11 Feb 2022, 04:54

Might as well do some casual flexing on this thread!

My three best deals of 2021. None of these boards cost me more than $75 all in!
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Mopar SSK
The board itself cost $35 shipped. I later converted it to an FSSK, and that definitely cost more than $75, but who's counting?
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Leading Edge DC-3014
Absolutely stunning board. Got insanely lucky, someone bought the computer but neglected to take the keyboard, and I got the leftovers for a cool $50. It's in excellent shape, typing this post on it right now!
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Magnavox Videowriter
This was a Craigslist find, and the most expensive board on this list. Got it boxed with the system, in impeccable condition. Had a disappointing recapping adventure with the system, but the board is still quite the looker!

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joebeazelman

11 Feb 2022, 05:52

CallmeJohn wrote:
29 Jan 2022, 06:56
Easily the best keyboard of 2021, the Alps made atrocity.
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Alps 12KFI36E TW-9994V-0
Really! I have a board full of them. They were also used in the Ataris. I will agree, they are smooth as butter on a corn cobb. Personally, they are better than the Brown SKCMs and I eschew linears. The full metal jacket is a nice touch and makes them seem more premium than skcms. I wonder if they were marketed as such.

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