Siemens switch looking for a provisional name give me your ideas

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

26 Sep 2016, 01:04

I am in the process of adding this old Siemens switch to our wiki:

keyboards-f2/can-anyone-id-this-for-me-t9048.html
Siemens T1000 switch housing.JPG
Siemens T1000 switch housing.JPG (272.64 KiB) Viewed 4293 times
The real name of the switch is unknown, I need a provisional name for the switch! Give me some ideas please! As you can read in my thread OleVoip suggested Siemens T1000.

Here is a video of the switch in action (not my video):
Looking foreward to your ideas for a provisional name for the switch, thanks for your help.

User avatar
Chyros

26 Sep 2016, 01:25

They remind me of SMK vintage linear switches. How about Siemens vintage linear?

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

26 Sep 2016, 13:25

Chyros wrote: They remind me of SMK vintage linear switches. How about Siemens vintage linear?
Yeah that's what I was thinking, but a certain someone want's to avoid the use of the word "vintage" and he's got good arguments as usual. We are calling a lot of objects "vintage" and what's that after all? Old, we got a lot of old keyboards and switches here after all. I like OleVoip's "Siemens T1000" but that's quite specific and sounds real and not provisional.

Hmmm.... :roll:

User avatar
derzemel

26 Sep 2016, 14:35

you could call them Siemens Linear Tall... because, the housing is tall, the stem is tall and the keycaps are tall... :mrgreen:

or, you could use the year of the keyboard (let's say 1975) and name them something like Siemens '75 linear. But his could confuse people into thinking that 75 is the weight of the switch. In this case, use the weight of the switch as a reference.

Or Siemens Old-School Linear, if there are no older Siemens linear switches

User avatar
Wodan
ISO Advocate

26 Sep 2016, 14:56

Simens Linear Tall sounds great to me. Very neutral, very observing.

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

26 Sep 2016, 16:20

Wodan wrote: Siemens Linear Tall sounds great to me. Very neutral, very observing.
Yeah I like it although almost all switches from that time are quite tall. But since it's only provisional anyway that's fine.

Only problem with "Siemens Linear Tall" is that this switch is more tactile than linear. It's so tactile it could pass as clicky.

User avatar
OleVoip

26 Sep 2016, 21:24

Beardsmore calls this switch family Siemens "classical", which isn't any better than "vintage".
There seem to have existed at least five series of modular keyboard switches that Siemens used for their devices and that I haven't seen used by other makers, so presumably, Siemens made them themselves:
  1. The PCB-mounted one you know from HaaTa's Tastatur 280. Various Siemens devices with that switch were introduced in the years 1970 till '75. Production seems to have ended in the late 1970s.
  2. Therafter came another PCB-mounted switch, which was used with Siemens Textsystems of the late 1970s.
  3. The plate-mounted switch family you are asking a name for, introduced with the Transdata 8161 terminal in 1975. Production of the T 1000 S, the last device with this switch, ended in 1990.
  4. The STB family, introduced in 1980 with the Datensichtstation 9750; the last Siemens device with STB switches seems to have been the PG 710, production of which ended in 1995.
  5. The Siemens Albis key family of the 1980s, which was only used for keypads and panels, though.
All of these switch families are "vintage", out of use for more than 20 years. Your switch is only "classical" in the sense that, for Siemens, it set the gold standard in typing comfort that they were anxious to reach when they developed the STB switch family.
It's introduction year, 1975, could serve well for the name, wasn't there the uncertainty about the Textsystem switch family. So maybe "Siemens plate-mount 1975" to make it unambigiuos? What's nice about "Siemens T 1000 switch" is that anybody who knows vintage Siemens devices immediately knows which switch you mean.
Last edited by OleVoip on 26 Sep 2016, 23:02, edited 5 times in total.

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

26 Sep 2016, 21:43

Hmm this is good information OleVoip! I kind of like "Siemens T 1000" but if you know that this switch was introduced with the Transdata 1861 terminal in 1975 then how about:

"Transdata 1861 tactile"

or

"Siemens Transdata 1861 tactile"

I'm not sure yet. Like I said since it's only a provisional name we have some flexibility. I find "classical" sillier than "vintage", but Beardsmore is right that we are naming a lot of switches "vintage something" which is no good.

User avatar
OleVoip

26 Sep 2016, 21:46

:roll: "Tactile" is a bit redundant with that family, because there was no linear variant of it. And nobody remembers the Transdata 816x family, about 30,000 of which where made in total as opposed to more than 500,000 T 1000 devices.

edit: sorry, I twisted the number, its 816x, not 186x
Last edited by OleVoip on 26 Sep 2016, 22:34, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

26 Sep 2016, 21:57

But I cannot call such a tactile switch linear, impossible. I'm sure you've used them, the tactile bump is huge. It's almost clicky. OK sofar we have:

1. Siemens T 1000
2. Siemens vintage linear
3. Siemens Linear Tall
4. Siemens 8161 tactile
5. Siemens plate-mount 1975

None of these convince me. :roll:
Last edited by seebart on 27 Sep 2016, 21:11, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
OleVoip

26 Sep 2016, 21:59

No, "linear" is fully wrong.

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

26 Sep 2016, 22:07

OleVoip wrote: No, "linear" is fully wrong.
Exactly. If we go by the facts, it should be a combination of any of these facts for the name:

Siemens
1975
Tactile
Plate mount
Transdata 1861

User avatar
OleVoip

26 Sep 2016, 23:05

More facts: 80g actuation force; keytravel 6mm; contact crosspoint type, gold-plated, 60 mOhms; typical bounce 1..2 ms, up to 30 ms

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

26 Sep 2016, 23:07

OleVoip wrote: More facts: 80g actuation force; keytravel 6mm; contact crosspoint type, gold-plated, 60 mOhms; typical bounce 1..2 ms, up to 30 ms
Oh cool more details thanks, perfect for the wiki entry.

User avatar
Wodan
ISO Advocate

27 Sep 2016, 10:11

Well the best I can come up with now is "Siemens Happy2CMe" switch.

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

27 Sep 2016, 14:07

Wodan wrote: Well the best I can come up with now is "Siemens Happy2CMe" switch.
:lol:

OK I went another way.

wiki/Siemens_STT

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