Vintage Keyboard Haul & Restoration

[mdszy]

The Haul

Last week I snagged some old keyboards from my university's resale store. Each of these was on the $1 electronics table, so each one was $1. Every keyboard came as is shown, none with cases, unfortunately.



Unknown keyboard with Stackpole switches.



Another unknown Stackpole keyboard.



Micro-Term Ergo 301 Keyboard with Alps SKCC Cream switches. The stem on the { / ] key is completely snapped off and the keycap is missing.



Another Micro-Term Ergo 301 Keyboard. This one is in much better shape, all switches and caps intact (keyboard was manufactured without the F-row populated). More on this one later! My apologies for the photo quality.



IBM Model F XT. Buckling springs, of course.



Another unknown keyboard, this one with Hi-Tek switches.



And finally, yet another Stackpole board. Also unknown.

Today the store was open again and I stopped in to see if they had any more. They did!

From today's haul:



Yet another (!) Micro-Term Ergo 301 keyboard. This one also in very good condition, from the looks of it.



An unknown keyboard XT Zenith Z-150 (thanks Mattr567!) with Alps SKCL Green switches.



Finally, another Stackpole board.

The Restoration

This past weekend I got a chance to bring the keyboards home and start working on them. I got the most work done with the two Ergo 301 boards I had from last week. I started by desoldering the switches, removing them from the plates, giving the plates and caps a thorough cleaning and individually testing each switch. (I made up a Pretty janky switch tester rig for them) I am going to then hand-wire them into a teensy to use them as modern keyboards. One of the switches from the board was broken, so I had to salvage from the other one.

I've also taken to modeling the plate in Solidworks so I can design a case around it for 3D Printing. I don't have high hopes of finding a case for this keyboard somewhere.



This is the current progress I've made on that Ergo 301.

I've also started restoring the Model F. In the process, I've been learning how difficult it is to reassemble after it's been taken apart...

I'm not sure what I'll do with the Stackpole/Hi-Tek boards, most of the Stackpole ones have different colored caps and are missing caps, so I can't swap between them.

Anyone have any idea of what the unknown boards are?

[Mattr567]

That unknown SKCL Green board is a XT Zenith Z-150.

[mdszy]

That unknown SKCL Green board is a XT Zenith Z-150.

Oh awesome, thank you!

[Cattus_D]

Great finds!

I wish my employer had kept its old keyboards, yet the only thing you can find in our building is crappy HP rubberdomes, none of which are older than two years.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The first and last appear to be DEC VT100 keyboards. "Another unknown keyboard, this one with Hi-Tek switches." — this appears to be from a DEC DECwriter III. (Note the "Digital" branding on them.)

Why do you say that some are Stackpole? They look nothing like any confirmed Stackpole keyboards — do they actually have Stackpole branding anywhere?

[mdszy]

The first and last appear to be DEC VT100 keyboards. "Another unknown keyboard, this one with Hi-Tek switches." — this appears to be from a DEC DECwriter III. (Note the "Digital" branding on them.)

Why do you say that some are Stackpole? They look nothing like any confirmed Stackpole keyboards — do they actually have Stackpole branding anywhere?

I heard from someone on another forum that they were Stackpoles. The switches look like the Stackpoles I've seen from a cursory googling.

I just meant that the switches appear to be Stackpole switches. Not sure as to the branding of the boards.

[seebart]

wiki/Hi-Tek_linear

Unbenannt.PNG (21.09 KiB) Viewed 2633 times

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I put question marks in that diagam as we have no proof yet, but to date, that diagram has held true in all cases: all Hi-Tek branded keyboards and all Stackpole-branded keyboards have fit that pattern.

Sometimes the front of the grid or the inside of the space bar is branded, but often there's no branding of any kind. The branding can appear only on the PCB, but not if the customer bought only a switch grid and supplied their own PCB, as was often the case.

[mdszy]

I put question marks in that diagam as we have no proof yet, but to date, that diagram has held true in all cases: all Hi-Tek branded keyboards and all Stackpole-branded keyboards have fit that pattern.

Sometimes the front of the grid or the inside of the space bar is branded, but often there's no branding of any kind. The branding can appear only on the PCB, but not if the customer bought only a switch grid and supplied their own PCB, as was often the case.

Ah, right. To my eyes they look most like the Hi-Tek linear/modular(?) ones in the diagram.