Are these Blue Alps or Clones in the Nan Tan fma44hkb6151

[Eric422]

[img][img][/img][/img]Are these Blue Alps or clones? They have 2 tabs on each side. Did Nan Tan make Keyboards with Blue Alps?

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[Daniel Beardsmore]

That's real Alps. I saw one of these recently on eBay, but now I have a topic that I can use as a reference on the wiki, so I can list this keyboard as a variant.

[Eric422]

What do you suppose this keyboard is worth?

[jacobolus]

On US ebay, that would probably go for at least $70 if people knew about it. Maybe more.

[Eric422]

Thanks for the info Daniel and Jacob!

[Daniel Beardsmore]

What would be nice, is a photo of the controller chip to get an approximate age of the keyboard. (Nan Tan didn't tend to put dates on their products, but the chip should be dated.)

Also, a shot of the rear label to get the exact model number.

[Eric422]

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These are the only other pictures that I have access to here at work. I will try to post more later today.

The label is a crappy picture....fma44hkb6151 is the FCC ID

[Muirium]

An XT/AT mode switch labelled with the (lengthy and less friendly) names of the CPUs in those computers instead! Didn't think I'd see that. The AT protocol lived a long time, the 80286 not so much!

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I've seen the CPU names on that switch a lot. I've also seen just "A/X", which is silly.

I added the keyboard here last night: [wiki]NTC KB-6151[/wiki] — yours is one of the annoying ones with no model number printed on it. The PCB may have the model number, but it will be something else, and you may have another wrong model number on the controller chip :)

[Eric422]

Muirium....what do you think of this keyboard. I was very surprised to find blue alps keys. The 8088 / 80286 switch is cool. Could this be a special model made for US Army? All the keys work well. It could use a good clean up (the cord too). I have not been able to find a picture/info that matches this keyboard exactly. Am I missing something?

[Eric422]

Thanks for the reply Daniel...we must have been posting at the same time. When you say wrong model number are you saying there were special varients of keyboards made for different customers?

[ndp]

I have two variants of this keyboard: one with Blue Alps and the other one with Simplified Alps.

I really like this keyboard, it looks very nice and is very sturdy.

I'll take some pictures.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Could this be a special model made for US Army?

It's just a standard Nan Tan. Numerous brands made keyboards with a plastic upper shell and a metal plate for the bottom, including Acer (6311/6312 in particular), many BTC keyboards (e.g. 5139/5149), and older Nan Tan keyboards. It was a pretty common approach.

When you say wrong model number are you saying there were special varients of keyboards made for different customers?

Sometimes, they just re-used parts from one model with another. It's also possible that the PCBs and chips were given similar, related part numbers. The chip in my KB-6153EN reads "NTC-6351A", while Theswitch's 6153EA has "6151EA" written on the PCB (as does mine). niubio has one with "6752EA" on the PCB, which is just weird; the keyboard does not have a model number on the label.

'A' might mean 'Alps', as we've found a Mitsumi one with 'M' instead of 'A', and my Alps clone model has 'N', possibly for "Nan Tan switch", as it looks like they were making clones or selling the clones as their own, as Strong Man did:

http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/old-n ... t8359.html