Silitek SK-4100R

woody
Count Troller

23 Nov 2014, 21:57

Used this through most of the 90s:

Image

Image

Not my pictures. Thought long gone, but today found one old unit, to my surprise. Keycaps are MX compatible, and the profile seems SP DCS at first glance. Pad printed.

Initially thought slider over rubber dome, but there is actually a single-sided PCB, a handful of diodes (not as many as keys, though) ... and some disassembly ahead.

woody
Count Troller

23 Nov 2014, 22:15

Right, slider over rubber dome with graphite center, shorting PCB pads.
i8049 for the brains. The usual for that time AT/XT switch.
A different colored dome for the spacebar. Silicone grease still present on the spacebar stabs.
Somebody resoldered few diodes, quite unskillfully. The copper side of the PCB looks fine for the age.

I should finally get some lens ..

User avatar
Daniel Beardsmore

23 Nov 2014, 22:37

Diodes? You lucky SOB. I had the BTC equivalent: PCB but no diodes (made in 1993 or 1994). I encountered ghosting long before I had any idea what was going on.

woody
Count Troller

23 Nov 2014, 23:11

This one is around 1992. Weird number of diodes - about 18-19 of them.
I am laughing more at the MX compatible sliders. No wonder the first SP DCS keycap set I got looked strangely soothing to me.

Maybe I will clean this beast a little. Any good way to clean the domes and the graphite spot on them?

As a side note, some dust bunnies have made their way to the copper (contact) side of the PCB. Despite handful of screws clamping the barrel plate to it. All graphite spots seem okay (not worn out), so any key problems might have been mostly from dirt. Not that this matters anymore.

User avatar
Daniel Beardsmore

24 Nov 2014, 00:31

woody wrote: I am laughing more at the MX compatible sliders.
Why, what's so funny about them?

woody
Count Troller

24 Nov 2014, 10:48

Just my nostalgia, and why I feel so at home with DCS and thin SP keycaps. Owning real MX, or any other kind of microswitch board, here in the 90s was prohibitively expensive.
I also paid more for my Silitek for not having Cyrillic legends.

davkol

06 Dec 2014, 13:13

Thanks for posting this. I have the same keyboard, as well as two SK-8801B (the same kind of stem, but more DCSish keycaps).

davkol

12 Jul 2016, 19:56

FWIW just disassembled one and it's relatively impressive. Better than the respective BTC, which I kind of like.

Notably, top-row keycaps are the very tall Row 5, although they're hidden inside the case for the most part. Unlike modern DCS, they're at least reasonably thick, i.e., I can't simply break them between fingers.

Post Reply

Return to “Keyboards”