Best relic or discovery 2014

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webwit
Wild Duck

21 Nov 2014, 23:23

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Please suggest nominees for the Best relic or discovery in 2014. You have to give a short motivation for each suggestion.

By voting in the third round of this category, you can win a vintage keyboard of your choice from Electronics Plus!

In this round you can earn multiple entries in the draws for voter prizes: if you are the first to suggest a particular nominee and the suggestion gets at least 5 votes in round 2, you get an extra entry in the draw for the prize by the sponsor of the related category. If your suggestion is voted as an official nominee and makes it to round 3, you get another extra entry.

The first round ends on Thursday 27 November, 00:00hrs UTC.

Current suggestions (this list is frequently updated):
  • HaaTa's Ultrasonic
  • Davkol's G81-3015HAR
  • IBM’s UK Patent 1,016,993
  • Parak's IBM dictation pedal
  • HaaTa's Siemens Tastatur 280 S 22241-F100-A12 GS 1
  • HaaTa's IBM Mag Card II
  • Xavierblak's B-52 Stratofortress keyboard, the Amkey MPTK-129
  • Parak's IBM 4704 77-key keyboard

Parak

21 Nov 2014, 23:39

HaaTa's Ultrasonic. I mean, that's an entirely new to us means of sensing keystrokes - using sound! Total WTFOMGBBQAWESOME. Plus it clicks and (reportedly) feels nice, just as a bonus.

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photekq
Cherry Picker

22 Nov 2014, 00:10

Nominating davkol for his G81-3015HAR find, which I'm lucky enough to now own. I think this is one of 4 HARs that have ever been found. Truly amazing find.

jacobolus

23 Nov 2014, 07:30

Can I nominate IBM’s UK Patent 1,016,993?

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=63415.msg1485653
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I’m not sure if there was any discussion of it on Deskthority. If there wasn’t, there probably should be.

This thing was new to me in 2014, but the real discoverer was either the Maltron people or the patent examiner who added this as prior art on the Maltron patents, I’m not sure which.

As for a reason for the nomination: this thing is pretty much the progenitor of the Maltron, Kinesis Advantage, Ergodox, etc. (possibly including the Japanese TRON project, Esrille, keyboard.io,...).

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HaaTa
Master Kiibohd Hunter

23 Nov 2014, 23:11

Cause webwit said so :P
HaaTa wrote: While not technically released this year, it was "discovered" this year. Parak's IBM dictation pedal for all it's metal construction awesomeness. Even has cherry switches, lol.

http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/ibm-pedal-t8870.html

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Muirium
µ

23 Nov 2014, 23:42

You know relics, HaaTa, and that's a good one right there. A rival to your dominance! <Stomp> <Stomp> <Stomp>

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HaaTa
Master Kiibohd Hunter

25 Nov 2014, 23:49

This category needs a couple more entries.

Yet another keyboard using magnets for tactility -> http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f6 ... t9239.html
ImageSiemens Tastatur 280 S 22241-F100-A12 GS 1

And a Selectric with data out (so yep, it's a keyboard :mrgreen: ) -> http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f6 ... t9240.html
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webwit
Wild Duck

26 Nov 2014, 00:46

Good stuff! Is there anyone who wants to nominate those for HaaTa? Otherwise he'd be nominating his own stuff.

jacobolus

26 Nov 2014, 01:24

I don’t see anything in the rules here about who can nominate relics. But I nominate both of HaaTa's keyboards there.

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dorkvader

26 Nov 2014, 01:26

webwit wrote: Good stuff! Is there anyone who wants to nominate those for HaaTa? Otherwise he'd be nominating his own stuff.
I nominate the following:
HaaTa wrote: This category needs a couple more entries.

Yet another keyboard using magnets for tactility -> http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f6 ... t9239.htmlImageSiemens Tastatur 280 S 22241-F100-A12 GS 1

And a Selectric with data out (so yep, it's a keyboard :mrgreen: ) -> http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f6 ... t9240.html
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I had the excellent fortune to take apart and work on one of those mag cards. It's no secret that my favourite keyswitch is the selectric typewriter, and therefore this is my favourite keyboard to connect to a computer of some sort. I was able to determine a lot about how the 1960's selectric input terminals worked as well as some new info about the selectric typewriter in general.

You see, when compared to a "normal" selectric II typewriter, you can see the frame is actually the same, but the selectric has a lot of tapped holes in it for components on this thing. When they updated the selectric to the selectric II they must have had this in mind (which makes sense)

Furthermore, there are some notable differences between this and a selectric II. Some components are different, Some mechanisms are moved. These are relatively minor. I only had a day or so with it, and I still couldn't figure out which solenoid enabled it to print, and I also had to manually space the cartridge over. That said there's some awesome stuff going on here.

So the selectric is already a marvel of modern mechanical engineering. I'd put it on par with mechanical calculators for sheer linkage awesome. I remember some guy on youtube made his selectric into a printer buy buying up one solenoid to press each key. This design shows that that is unnecessary.

When I wanted to convert mine to USB I considered an optical or hall effect switch on every typebar. That too is unnecessary.

you see each keypress moves those horizontal bars on the bottom. You can also actuate keys by "pressing" on those bars. There are like 7 or 8 of them and the entire read/write for input and printing in controlled from just there. Some reed switches and some solenoids.

IN fact, most of the complexity in controlling other functions of the typewriter, like disenganging printing and setting tabs. The whole read/write control / sensing is wonderfully designed and elegantly simple.

IMO this is the #1 relic find of the year.

As to the other keyboard, It's not my #1 pick of course, but there are some definite reasons why it should be considered.
1. pretty modular construction. The keyboard switch-holding part of the PCB is separated from the switch matrix part of it (all those diodes at the top: gets me every time) which is itself separate from the controller PCB beneath. Even the spacebar stabilizer wire (which is a similar design to other vintage keyboards, honeywell hall effect (dual magnet) and the geartronic tesla copy of it in particular) is removable.

Rows of gold pins, metal can transistors, everything about this screams "vintage", and it's not followed the same design paradigms as some other 1970's keyboards (like beam spring and hall effect). Chips indicate that it was made in the mid to late 1970's. The switches on it are particularly interesting magnetic reeds of a type I have not seen before.

and what's more is that it features backlit keyswitches! This must be one of the earliest keyboards to do so, and most later ones only imprement an LED window, whereas these light up the whole top of the switch. The only other really old ones that do this that also spring to mind are on that superalps reed switch board 9and they are some sort of industrial switch not recommended for typing and horrible to type on)

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Muirium
µ

26 Nov 2014, 22:54

I think this, of all categories, makes sense for self nomination. HaaTa knows relics better than any of us! I usually come back to consciousness sometime after opening one of his threads, the taste of unobtainium still rich like the thick scent of iron after a bloody nose… they get a little hard to tell apart for the mortals among us.

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Muirium
µ

26 Nov 2014, 23:48

Xavierblak's B-52 Stratofortress keyboard: the Amkey MPTK-129, as converted by Xwhatsit!

http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/amke ... t8721.html

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Hypersphere

26 Nov 2014, 23:54

I nominate Parak's find of the IBM 4704 77-key keyboard:

http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/ibm-6 ... t8502.html

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