Uncommon Apple keyboard?

veyern · 29 Jun 2021, 17:09

https://imgur.com/8aaOMKL
Can't identify this thing for the life of me. Anyone know what it is?

hellothere · 29 Jun 2021, 17:11

It's a Macally keyboard.

hellothere · 29 Jun 2021, 17:16

Back in the day, these were a couple steps up from an Adesso.

viewtopic.php?t=22576

raoulduke-esq · 29 Jun 2021, 17:19

Adesso build quality was terrible, but there were some white clicky Alps in mine.

veyern · 29 Jun 2021, 17:24

Okay thanks, that makes more sense. What switches were cloned for these and how did they compare with real Alps?

hellothere · 29 Jun 2021, 17:45

raoulduke-esq wrote: 29 Jun 2021, 17:19 Adesso build quality was terrible, but there were some white clicky Alps in mine.

Yup. I've got one with the nice fluorescent Xiang-Min green and yellow switches and my other one is white Alps. I don't remember if that one is bamboo or pine. Because the caps weren't yellowed on either KB, I wonder if they are PBT.

I can say that, on the Xiang one, you can see the perforation where the PCBs were supposed to break off in the assembly line. I've got a couple extra inches of another PCB.

hellothere · 29 Jun 2021, 17:50

veyern wrote: 29 Jun 2021, 17:24 Okay thanks, that makes more sense. What switches were cloned for these and how did they compare with real Alps?

Looking at the thread I mentioned and some pix online, it doesn't look like they only used one manufacturer, so it's going to be variable. I can say that OA2 Alps clones can be good and clicky, if they're clean. Matias and Ducky used Xiang-Min, so they're not a terrible switch. Now that I actually have a couple KBs with bamboo white Alps, I can say that they can be quite good. I've not tried simplified white Alps, so YMMV.