Collimation D40.592

[HaaTa]

Finally, the last of my big 3 items snatched from the jaws of b***a earlier this year; though I had a bunch of others as well .
This one also costed me the most unfortunately...

It's a Collimation D40.592 Optical Encoder keyboard

It was used on the Compucolor 8001 and Intecolor 8001
http://oldcomputers.net/compucolor-8001.html

Yep, yet another optical keyboard, except this one is more crazy than the Burroughs one. It uses 10 LED, photo resistor pairs (seems like the max configuration is 14) to determine which key is being pressed.
This is done by blocking a "unique" sequence of LEDs that identify the switch with a metal strip attached to the slider.
Somehow...haven't figured it out yet...it achieves 2KRO! (Don't even bother trying for NKRO on something like this )

If I can manage to put it back together, I'll post a video later. Maybe even a video of the LEDs if the are visible light.













Keypress


Released




Extruded Aluminium side brackets








Light Sensors


LEDs









The smaller version of the keyboard on the Intecolor 8001



Patents
https://www.google.com/patents/US3818485

Flickr Album
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triplehaat ... 174490175/

Deskthority Wiki Link (still work in progress)
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Collimation_Optical_Encoder

[dorkvader]

Wow, what excellent find! Good to finally see some more of this keyboard's internals.

What's up with the left shift key? it looks a little tipped in the pictures.

Have you thought about how hard it would be to repair the spacebar?

[Findecanor]

What an amazing key switch design!

[HaaTa]

Hmm, may be possible to fix the spacebar...but the keycap plastic is just so brittle...not sure if it's worth it. Removing keycaps has taken chips out of some of the keycap bases (where's it's secured to the slider).

Spacebar actually still works...not badly. As the stabilizer is still secure.

Now to figure out how to put this thing back together...

[Elrick]

It reminds me so much of a Typewriter. The keys attached to a single metal jig that connects to a weird pcb like construction. Damn, this baby has to go into the "Freakiest" keyboard category. I would love to have seen this connected up and working with the complete PC system, from that era.

Alas we have our curator HaaTa, showing us what was achieved all those years ago. Thank you for taking your time to widen our narrow views on Keyboard design.