Ortek MCK-142 Pro

JP! · 05 Oct 2017, 23:55

This just arrived in the mail today. The only problem is that I'm not sure what to do with so many keys and macros

More info on these: http://www.monu-cad.com/MCK142_Keyboard.htm

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Daniel Beardsmore · 06 Oct 2017, 00:06

Tai-Hao TI series or DS03 keycaps? I thought Focus was a major customer of Tai-Hao but the ones I've looked at so far are all DS03, while Ortek seem to have used Tai-Hao.

JP! · 06 Oct 2017, 00:37

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: Tai-Hao TI series or DS03 keycaps? I thought Focus was a major customer of Tai-Hao but the ones I've looked at so far are all DS03, while Ortek seem to have used Tai-Hao.

Looks to be Tai-Hao TI series.

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Daniel Beardsmore · 06 Oct 2017, 00:40

Curious, so it fits the pattern. I need to dig out more pictures of Focus keyboards to see if any of those had Tai-Hao keycaps.

//gainsborough · 06 Oct 2017, 02:17

oh woah! They are pine white alps? All this time I thought it was SKBM! Damn... I might actually have to look into getting one of these someday. You should cut off the numpad. It would essentially an ALPS unsaver!!!!

JP! · 06 Oct 2017, 02:36

//gainsborough wrote: oh woah! They are pine white alps? All this time I thought it was SKBM! Damn... I might actually have to look into getting one of these someday. You should cut off the numpad. It would essentially an ALPS unsaver!!!!

I knew I should have took some better pictures while I had it out of the box. I am not well versed on all of the different variations of Alps switches but I think they could be SKCM "Pine" white Alps. An Alps unsaver would be pretty sick, just like the F77 Pingmaster. I would consider something like that if I had one in rough shape.

Chyros · 06 Oct 2017, 09:02

Very nice! These are really fun boards. I've never seen one with all these stickers on - I wonder if they were an option or something.

Engicoder · 06 Oct 2017, 14:30

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: Curious, so it fits the pattern. I need to dig out more pictures of Focus keyboards to see if any of those had Tai-Hao keycaps.

All the my focus keyboards (~10) have the DS03 style caps.

Chyros · 06 Oct 2017, 15:43

Engicoder wrote:
Daniel Beardsmore wrote: Curious, so it fits the pattern. I need to dig out more pictures of Focus keyboards to see if any of those had Tai-Hao keycaps.
All the my focus keyboards (~10) have the DS03 style caps.

Same with mine, and both my OmniKeys.

I didn't know we had a name for those keycaps yet.

Engicoder · 06 Oct 2017, 15:48

Well, "we" didn't but Daniel did

Chyros · 06 Oct 2017, 16:25

I wonder if there's anyone in the community that has more Focus boards than you do btw, you have considerably more than even me and I'm a Focus nut xD .

Engicoder · 06 Oct 2017, 17:42

I'm sure there is. The big collectors are usually pretty silent. Furthermore, the balance between our collections recent shifted by one

Daniel Beardsmore · 06 Oct 2017, 19:19

Chyros wrote: I didn't know we had a name for those keycaps yet.

In full it's [wiki]UKF DS03[/wiki], the third registered unidentified doubleshot keycap family. The manufacturer remains a mystery. It's curious though that Northgate used them a lot, as did Focus, which gives additional credence to the idea that Focus was the OEM for Northgate.

Chyros · 06 Oct 2017, 21:22

Engicoder wrote: I'm sure there is. The big collectors are usually pretty silent. Furthermore, the balance between our collections recent shifted by one

Heh, yes, that's true xD . More Focus boards will be reviewed before the end of the year!

Daniel Beardsmore wrote:
Chyros wrote: I didn't know we had a name for those keycaps yet.
In full it's [wiki]UKF DS03[/wiki], the third registered unidentified doubleshot keycap family. The manufacturer remains a mystery. It's curious though that Northgate used them a lot, as did Focus, which gives additional credence to the idea that Focus was the OEM for Northgate.

Where does the name DS03 come from?

Daniel Beardsmore · 06 Oct 2017, 21:40

See above: "third registered unidentified doubleshot keycap family"

E3E · 06 Oct 2017, 21:48

Daniel Beardsmore wrote:
Chyros wrote: I didn't know we had a name for those keycaps yet.
In full it's [wiki]UKF DS03[/wiki], the third registered unidentified doubleshot keycap family. The manufacturer remains a mystery. It's curious though that Northgate used them a lot, as did Focus, which gives additional credence to the idea that Focus was the OEM for Northgate.

My black FK-2001 has DS03 caps. They're really similar to Tai Hao TI though, aside from the framework beneath the cap, versus other caps that are completely different.

Sure to annoy Daniel, but I've had my own provisional name for the keycaps most commonly found on Monterey's keyboards, but also on the ZKB-2 and some NTCs as well, which I call "Monterey profile."

Daniel Beardsmore · 06 Oct 2017, 22:06

Most keycaps are "OEM profile", but has anyone ever checked that they are all exactly the same heights and angles? As for Monterey profile, well, profile and family aren't the same thing. If I had the right tools, I could create diagrams of them all for comparison, but I've not worked out how to measure keycap profile.

E3E · 06 Oct 2017, 23:02

Well, in this case, the caps on the Monterey keyboards are rather distinctive, both in make and in their profile. I can't verify this comprehensively as I've not had but one Chicony with Monterey caps (and mine was an outlier with Alps SKCL Green and an ANSI layout), but I believe some Chicony boards use this cap family as well. Not all NTCs use it, as some seem to use the DS03 family.

OEM profiles would be interesting to measure. I wonder if they really all maintain a standard.