JP layout SIIG MiniTouch?

[002]

Found this listing this evening: http://page7.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g132339155

I am guessing this is a MiniTouch although it's not explicitly stated on the auction. This one appears to be [wiki]SMK Alps mount[/wiki] with lasered caps and slightly different layout (JP keys aside). The backspace is further over and has an ANSI style enter key.
FCC: FKD46AK111

Was going to add it to the [wiki]SIIG MiniTouch[/wiki] page but wasn't sure how to reference it given that the link will eventually disappear...

[Daniel Beardsmore]

OK, here's what I know so far:

FCC ID for the MiniTouch was registered in 1991
SIIG production run was 2002—2003 (after which they switched to the BTC version)

Nobody would design and produce an AT keyboard in 2002. It's possible that Monterey had old stock of SMK switches from the 90s. The Hua-Jie switches could have been new, although your one shows a numbering change that I thought took place more like 1991 than 2002.

I don't know whether SIIG were buying up NOS from some Monterey warehouse, or whether they had one final batch made using a heap of spare switches. Two factories got involved with the MiniTouch: a Taiwanese one that sourced the SMK model, and a Chinese one that sourced the Hua-Jie model.

I've seen some suggested evidence of a Filco-branded MiniTouch, and general suggested evidence that these existed before SIIG bought them. Nothing conclusive enough for me to post, but I'm pretty sure that SIIG bought stock of an existing product.

I didn't feel pushy enough to press either SIIG or Monterey on this — what with language barriers and their professionalism, I don't know how far to push before I've outstayed my own welcome.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I've added a new page:

[wiki]Monterey compact series[/wiki]

I've referenced an auction myself, because it has an otherwise unobtainable photo of the Filco DFK-81E2 box, giving a big hint to the period in which it was sold. It also has the FCC ID, also not something I've managed to find on any other websites.

I've found a couple of Japanese guys with the FKD46AK111 and I've asked one if he has any more photos and whether we can use them. If not, or I hear nothing, I'll move onto the next.

[002]

Cool.
Here is original auction link of the DFK-81E2. Don't think it will matter as they will both disappear eventually but maybe the Yahoo Auctions one will last longer.
http://page10.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/a ... m124859415

Unrelated -- Filco FKB-86E boards made by Ortek, similar to the Suntouch example on reddit:
http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f136183404
http://page5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/e144069903

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I'm trying to rely as much as I can without auction pages. I'm going to archive the boxed DFK-81E2 photos for my own website for when they vanish, since those really are completely irreplaceable: you're not going to find the box photo anywhere else.

However, that last page does link here:

http://www.diatec.co.jp/products/det.php?prod_c=9

So, while we cannot reference the FCC ID back to a reliable page (it's the same FCC ID as all the others), we do at least have the official Diatec page for it, for however long that lasts.

The Diatec page for the DFK-81E2 is gone now (I found a broken link to it) but this page is still around — the Japanese layout version of the Ortek mini keyboard series:

http://www.diatec.co.jp/products/det.php?prod_c=8

I'm going to add a single page with all the models on that I've found; I'm building it in Excel so that I don't have to deal with MediaWiki tables at all — I'll just create that through regex when I'm done using a tab-delimited copy and paste into JujuEdit. There are a lot of different MKB-84/MCK-84/MCK-86/MCK-89 variants …

There's other odd stuff at Diatec, such as this:

http://www.diatec.co.jp/products/det.php?prod_c=16

I also created a new category:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Category:Compact_keyboards

There's probably other stuff on the wiki that needs to go in there.

[002]

Here's Wayback Machine's most recent non-404 snapshot of the DFK-81E2 page from April, 2003:
http://web.archive.org/web/200304160250 ... -81e2.html

A bit of info there (just one pic) and webarchive seems to be a pretty safe bet for references.

[rzwv]

The link was found although it did not understand whether to become helpful.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100516035 ... index.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20060118043 ... index.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20040816025 ... =Keyboards

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Here's the corresponding Ortek page:

[wiki]Ortek compact series[/wiki]

I've added all the variants I've turned up so far; there are sure to be a few more but I should have all the common ones.