The 3rd keyboard: RT8255C+ space invaders

[lancre]

I arrived from my work Christmas party at 2am with a delivery from the US: a NIB space invaders keyboard. I bought this from eBay for about £40, but with delivery it came to about £75. For a space invaders board that is probably too much. However, the condition looked fantastic, and I'm really happy with it.

I recently joined my workplace whose name shall go undocumented. For the record, and due to slight inebriation, I shall give a short synopsis: I have worked in the public sector for the last 4 years. The work has high social value but it is constrained by an anally retentive IT department, crappy tools, and low morale. I moved to the private sector which has all the gizmos yet feels entirely shallow.

A marquee was hired with copious amounts of alcohol and tender miniature turkey crowns wrapped in bacon with all the trimmings. The young, toned, ripped guys had their penguin suits and the svelt, glamorous gals had their gowns and expensive purses.

I felt like I was in The Devil Wears Prada, and I was a short, rotund Andy with a penis.

Anyway, on with the keyboard porn.

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[Chyros]

Very nice! What kind of space invaders does it use?

[lancre]

Clicky black 2-eyed ones. The keycaps and the stability of the keycaps remind me of Topre, very nice quality.

The only slightly inconsistent switch is the 'S', which only clicks if you hit it on the upper half of the cap. I'll see if it returns with some use.

[Mr.Nobody]

I bought an identical one which will be delivered to me today.

[Ratfink]

You silly guys, buying your space invaders. Just don't shoot them and they'll come to you!

I love my gray tactile RT-101+INTEL. It appeared in a trash can one day, and that was a joyous day. Perhaps I should take some pictures of it for the wiki, if only to have a citation for what kind of switch its spacebar has.

[XMIT]

At one point I was working on casting ANSI Enter keys for these guys. I was thinking about selling a little "conversion kit" that includes an ANSI Enter, a duplicate of the Tab key, and an extra switch, to enable an ANSI-like layout. Maybe one day.

[lancre]

I don't mind big ass enter keys at all. The only thing that annoys me is the single unit backspace.

I have been slowing down my typing so that I make less errors, so that I don't have to swivel my right wrist like, 80 degrees to hit the backspace without moving my entire arm.

[Mr.Nobody]

You silly guys, buying your space invaders. Just don't shoot them and they'll come to you!

I love my gray tactile RT-101+INTEL. It appeared in a trash can one day, and that was a joyous day. Perhaps I should take some pictures of it for the wiki, if only to have a citation for what kind of switch its spacebar has.

Mine has just arrived, superb craftsmanship but touching is a little scratchy...Spacebar is absurdly heavy...I've sent it back , not suitable for me.

Here are some photoes I took before sent it back:





For comparision here is a picture of the LED of IBM Model M :

[Laser]

Just FYI, it's not so hard to change the spring in the spacebar switch. I replaced mine with the one from Scroll Lock.

[lancre]

Is there anything I should know about taking the space bar off? Some keyboards have slightly tricky or stiff stabilisers. I already know to lever space invader caps from the side. Anything else I should know? Is the case easy to take off?

Thinking of swapping out the space bar switch and also the switch under the 's' key which seems to no longer be clicking for some reason.

[Engicoder]

Free the stabilizer ends first and then pull the space bar off the switch. With the later keyboards the switch slider/plunger often comes off with the space bar. If the stabilizers is already free you will be less likely to damage the contacts.

I find that a small flat screwdriver works well to pry the stabilizer wire out of the plastic clip in the space bar.