deskthority

I'm trying to buy an Apple Extended Keyboard II with Salmon Alps switches. Is there any way to tell if an AEK II has salmon switches based on serial number or some other visual indicator.

Lots of eBay listings, none with a keycap pulled.

An AEKII likely has salmons if it has no S in the bottom right on the back label.

Only the very very earliest ones might have salmon switches.

AEK is a far better bet, almost all have either orange or salmon.

I just bought an AEK with serial number 502XXX that has orange switches. Anything much past that should have salmon switches.

FWIW, I’ve never noticed an AEK II on eBay that doesn’t have the boxed S. Sub-500XXX AEKs pop up every few months.

My strategy when I got my m0115 with salmons is to wait until I found one sold as "broken" with a keycap broken off. It's a missing keycap, sure, but when they get stuck in the slider, that's pretty easy to slip out when you take it apart.

fohat wrote: ↑

20 May 2023, 23:55

Only the very very earliest ones might have salmon switches.

AEK is a far better bet, almost all have either orange or salmon.

I was considering an AEK, but they're pretty pricey and seem to have yellowed way more than an AEK II.

wiki/Apple_Extended_Keyboard_II. Salmon Alps ones are labeled M3501, made in USA ©1989. Anything else is just a possibility of salmon Alps. I've learned this the hard way.

a. I do have a salmon Alps AEK II that needs a ADB port (as in, it was missing when I bought it). Not restored, yet. Make me an offer. It's currently down fairly far on my "to be repaired" list.
2. I have a bunch of orange Alps that I was going to put in a Dell bigfoot case. Put some non-refundable cash down and I'll start working on it, then you can buy it.
i. I also have a Mitsubishi Mechanical (not miniature) and probably both some white damped and cream damped Alps keyboard. Again, not restored yet.

hellothere wrote: ↑

27 May 2023, 17:20

2. I have a bunch of orange Alps that I was going to put in a Dell bigfoot case.

I did that (using the black case, with pseudo-Dolch caps) and it is a magnificent beast.

Nice idea. I have this set of double-shot new Tai-Hao Alps keycaps (blue, light blue, and tan) and I think I'll swap out the original pad print Dell/SGI caps for these, too.

I've got three or four bigfoot cases, but they're all cream colored. I know a couple are pretty yellow, so I may paint those granite grey. Those Tai-Hao caps would look really nice with that.

I have several OmniKeys I need to finish, first. I've been slacking and only uploading one or two keyboards a month to ebay.