School keyboard finds!

green-squid

22 Dec 2017, 18:03

It's the last day of school today and my old IT teacher, who's retiring next year, gave me some old keyboards he found in the school's storage!

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Acorp International Soft key keyboard F-21S
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Hey look' It's mechanical!
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These are linear Alps switch clones from the looks of it, but they didn't use discrete switches or a PCB. the mount is probably Alps, but I don't have a keycap puller.
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I will return to this project later, but I don't have a keycap puller atm. I ordered one, but it won't arrive until the middle of January.
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Altrix Turbo-Jet KB-8801 B+
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Despite the cool name, it's just a rubber dome. But it's pretty OK.
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Hey look, it's an IBM!... Well, not the IBMs *you* own (they are too expensive, the recent keyboard craze drew the price up to the skies), but this is a space saving keyboard, and it's very good!
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And I even own a computer to go along with it! Not something most of *you* can say! ;)
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Volcano UT9800 - an interesting name for a keyboard..
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It's a piece of crap. Interestingly, this is an AT plug keyboard made in October 2001.
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What I do with crappy rubber domes is take them apart, take out the PCB (to salvage the capacitor and the LEDs) and the cable, keep the screws and trash the rest.
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A Siemens keyboard!
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I own the computer for this one! It came from the same place and I got the PC a year before already.
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Hey look! A removable PS/2 cable!
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Inside, it's a rubber dome keyboard, but it's an interesting one.
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Last and probably least, the Hurricane KB-9810. Very tactile, but not worth keeping. This is an OEM keyboard. One of our school computer labs still has a black PS/2 or USB version of this, branded Chicony.
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The name is cooler than the keyboard.
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rubber dome. The cable and components are keepers, the rest are already thrown out (like with the Volcano) as I'm writing this.
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So, that's it! I did pretty good in my opinion, especially that Acorp. Hopefully I can grab some more cool old tech before I finish primary school (next year september I'll be in High school, it's not like in America).

If you were expecting something better, here's something: our school used to have original IBM PCs back in the 80s. But one day they were *all* thrown out. Including the PCs, the lovely greensceen monitors and the keyboards! :(
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What do you think of these?

User avatar
snuci
Vintage computer guy

22 Dec 2017, 18:31

green-squid wrote: What do you think of these?
It's the start of a collection. Very cool. I also particularly like that they came out of a school (something that I like to collect). I have been eyeing the Siemens Scenic computers. There's something about that design that I like but I'm not sure I can place my finger on it. I am also happy to see that you have some of the matching computers for those keyboards. Great score!

green-squid

22 Dec 2017, 19:03

snuci wrote:
green-squid wrote: What do you think of these?
It's the start of a collection. Very cool. I also particularly like that they came out of a school (something that I like to collect). I have been eyeing the Siemens Scenic computers. There's something about that design that I like but I'm not sure I can place my finger on it. I am also happy to see that you have some of the matching computers for those keyboards. Great score!
Thank you! :D I've been collecting old computers since summer of 2016 if I recall correctly. Now I own a lot more stuff and my setup is completely different from what it was last year. I'm also different compared to last year. I'm less of a little shit now, but I still have a lot of room to improve ;) .

Problem is, I'm running out of space. So I may be selling some keyboard stuff, but not now, because I still have to ship something to a DT user, but life and the holidays found a way.

Also, I've seen you on /r/retrobattlestations!

tigpha

22 Dec 2017, 21:03

Hi, welcome :-)

The Acorp is a curious specimen. Are the metal leaf springs there to create a "click", or for a tactile feel? Or both? It's a pity that the matrix is mylar membrane. Only two-key-rollover, I suspect.

green-squid

22 Dec 2017, 21:34

tigpha wrote: Hi, welcome :-)

The Acorp is a curious specimen. Are the metal leaf springs there to create a "click", or for a tactile feel? Or both? It's a pity that the matrix is mylar membrane. Only two-key-rollover, I suspect.
It's probably a click. It's not tactile like rubber dome.

User avatar
Daniel Beardsmore

22 Dec 2017, 23:32

Acorp: [wiki]Tai-Hao APC semi-mechanical keyboard[/wiki]

Funky PCB in the Siemens keyboard.

User avatar
Chyros

23 Dec 2017, 02:01

It's a Razer Ornata! :D

User avatar
daedalus
Buckler Of Springs

24 Dec 2017, 00:13

My first computer at home was a Siemens Pro M5, which looked a lot like the one in the pics, but it was a tower version.

Can't remember what the keyboard was like (this was about 20 years ago), I'm pretty sure it didn't have win keys though.

tigpha

24 Dec 2017, 11:04

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: Acorp: [wiki]Tai-Hao APC semi-mechanical keyboard[/wiki]
What encyclopaedic knowledge, monsieur Beardsmore!

Looks like green-squid scored a nice set of double-shot Alps-compatible key caps, at very least.

q11q11

25 Dec 2017, 23:27

> gave me some old keyboards he found in the school's storage!
And none of them are mech...

User avatar
Yasu0

07 Dec 2020, 19:45

One day after everybody trashes 99% of the vintage rubber domes and mechs rule the world... the rubber dome keyboard will be valuable. Mark my words. :lol:

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