Vintage home-made keyboard

snuci · 19 Oct 2015, 18:42

Does anyone have any interesting home made vintage keyboards? I personally find this one awesome and is one of the best keyboards I have regardless of the key switches and key caps (coming from a vintage computer collector... sorry guys). I just figured you keyboard hackers would enjoy this.

This keyboard is something I acquired last year in a collection of items and was a "throw in". To me, it's one of my most treasured items because of it's home-made construction. To be honest, I don't know what the keyboard mechanism is at this point but I'll take some more pics in the next day or two.

Look at this construction!

: Intel 8080-based keyboard; 8080 keyboard.jpg (92.42 KiB) Viewed 6746 times

After assuming it was a simple home-made parallel or serial keyboard in it's era, some research indicated it's actually more than a keyboard. Along with the keyboard is an internal computer board from a Diablo paper-based terminal (before CRT) that was smart. Internally, it has an Intel 8080 CPU that was the same used as the central processing unit in most computers of the time (including the Altair 8800 and the IMSAI 8080).

: Diablo Hyterm board; Diablo Hyterm board.jpg (98.51 KiB) Viewed 6746 times

If you look carefully, you can see the keyboard from the paper-based terminal pictured below with more information on the Diablo terminal here: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/diablo.html

As mentioned, I'll take some more pictures and clean it up in the next couple of days. I guess it would be difficult to guess what the keyboard is? At the time, I didn't care about keyboard specifics so it will be a surprise (or disappointment) to me too

Hope you enjoy.

mr_a500 · 19 Oct 2015, 19:22

Your keyboard looks like it could be Key Tronic. I've got a keyboard with similar look and fonts. It's hard to tell though. It could also be Hi-Tek or early SMK.

I don't have any keyboards with home made cases, but I'm planning on making some cases for some of my caseless 70's keyboards. I'll probably bend and cut some sheet metal and make a two piece case, the way many keyboards of the era were put together - like my TEC keyboard:

8620 4.JPG

I like this home made keyboard (unfortunately not mine). It's beam spring... with blue keys!

orion-bellatrix.jpg

snuci · 19 Oct 2015, 19:59

mr_a500 wrote: I don't have any keyboards with home made cases, but I'm planning on making some cases for some of my caseless 70's keyboards. I'll probably bend and cut some sheet metal and make a two piece case, the way many keyboards of the era were put together - like my TEC keyboard:

That "IBM Blue" metal is perfect with the speckled paint pattern. I have a few computer cases like that. If you make some, maybe you can make a few more and sell them. I have three keyboards I could use them for. I was also thinking plexiglass but that, of course, would not e the correct time period. They would be more for display.

terrycherry · 19 Oct 2015, 20:13

Very interesting here. Please keep it ongoing!
I found the wooden home-made keyboard from other forum. That's the Futaba low-profile linear!

01.jpg

02_back.jpg

Hope to get this from the seller!

snuci · 20 Oct 2015, 01:11

snuci wrote: To be honest, I don't know what the keyboard mechanism is at this point but I'll take some more pics in the next day or two.

After taking it apart, the keyboard mechanism of my home-made keyboard is a Micro Switch keyboard with hall-effect switches. It's got an interesting shift lock where the shift keys next to the space bar actually unlock the shift lock and pop up the Shift Lock key.

I'll take more pics tomorrow once it clean it up. Here's a quick pic:

: Homemade - Micro Switch keyboard with hall-effect key switches.; Homemade - Microsowitch hall-effect.jpg (249.49 KiB) Viewed 6655 times

mr_a500 · 20 Oct 2015, 03:05

I was going to say it could also be Micro Switch (no really

), but Micro Switch keycaps don't usually yellow. Those grey keycaps look a bit yellowed. The flat-topped three means it isn't vintage Cherry, IBM, ALPS or Clare Pendar.

Muirium · 20 Oct 2015, 03:34

Hogwash! Micro Switch's doubleshots are just as ABS, and prone to yellowing, as any out there. Especially the pale ones on my Honeywell:

http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/a-hon ... t6296.html

Wouldn't surprise me if Snuci's board here even has Micro Switch branding on the PCB. You know, presuming a homemade board like this actually *has* a PCB!

By the way, I want to know everything about that homemade beamspring board. It sounds amazing. My favourite switch! And a right prickly bugger to capsense, I gather. Challenging!

snuci · 20 Oct 2015, 04:09

Muirium wrote: Wouldn't surprise me if Snuci's board here even has Micro Switch branding on the PCB. You know, presuming a homemade board like this actually *has* a PCB!

It has a regular PCB. Here's a quick shot but my lighting is bad. You can see the steel bar that allows both of the Shift keys to unlock the Caps lock.

: Homemade - Microswitch board.jpg (305.26 KiB) Viewed 6616 times

mr_a500 · 20 Oct 2015, 13:39

Muirium wrote: Hogwash! Micro Switch's doubleshots are just as ABS, and prone to yellowing, as any out there. Especially the pale ones on my Honeywell:

Hogwash yourself. Different companies used different plastic formulations. Micro Switch sphericals don't seem to yellow nearly as much as others from the era. What about IBM? I've never seen a yellowed beam spring keycap. Have you?

snuci · 20 Oct 2015, 13:57

While you guys argue about yellowing of Micro Switch key caps, I'd like to point out that the yellowing you may perceive in my original picture is the lightly toasted dust and grunge on the key caps. You can see how clean the ones I posted in the last picture are (even with bad lighting).

I have seen some yellowing on key caps on one of my Intertec Superbrain computers (I still giggle when I say that name because it's an awesome name). Since I have two, I will post the differences but that was going to be the topic of another post

More information and a picture on the Superbrain (*giggle*) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertec_Superbrain

Muirium · 20 Oct 2015, 14:00

Yup.

So, seen any Micro Switch branding inside this board of yours?

mr_a500 wrote: What about IBM? I've never seen a yellowed beam spring keycap. Have you?

Seen one? I own one!

ABS is yellow-happy, plain and simple. Give it time and every vintage doubleshot will go sickly yellow. A lesson in entropy from the plastic Buddha!

seebart · 20 Oct 2015, 14:01

mr_a500 wrote:
Muirium wrote: Hogwash! Micro Switch's doubleshots are just as ABS, and prone to yellowing, as any out there. Especially the pale ones on my Honeywell:
Hogwash yourself. Different companies used different plastic formulations. Micro Switch sphericals don't seem to yellow nearly as much as others from the era. What about IBM? I've never seen a yellowed beam spring keycap. Have you?

No yellowing on (the white ones

) these whatsoever:

: IMGP0142.JPG (973.15 KiB) Viewed 6558 times

http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/mic ... 11231.html

mr_a500 · 20 Oct 2015, 14:03

Muirium wrote: Seen one? I own one!

ABS is yellow-happy, plain and simple. Give it time and every vintage doubleshot will go sickly yellow. A lesson in entropy from the plastic Buddha!

That's a Eurotrash keycap.

They probably used a different supplier for those. Either that or somebody kept it up their ass for a couple years.

Muirium · 20 Oct 2015, 14:04

How about an experiment. You put your pearly white caps on a sunny windowsill all next summer?

@Seebart: That's nice. Better put it back in the box, or you know what will happen!

All it takes is a single example of yellowing in any given cap family to prove that they are all susceptible to it. I've got a yellow Honeywell A key and a yellow IBM Ü. Nothing is sacred! Argh!!

seebart · 20 Oct 2015, 14:09

Muirium wrote: How about an experiment. You put your pearly white caps on a sunny windowsill all next summer?

@Seebart: That's nice. Better put it back in the box, or you know what will happen!

All it takes is a single example of yellowing in any given cap family to prove that they are all susceptible to it. I've got a yellow Honeywell A key and a yellow IBM Ü. Nothing is sacred! Argh!!

My nicest sphericals will not be used for your brutal frakenstein experiments.

Honestly considering those Micro Switch keycpas are 38(!) years old I don't think the yellowing is coming on any time soon.

All it takes is a single example of yellowing in any given cap family to prove that they are all susceptible to it. I've got a yellow Honeywell A key and a yellow IBM Ü. Nothing is sacred! Argh!!

Unfortunately very true. And the mystery continues!

mr_a500 · 20 Oct 2015, 14:11

Muirium wrote: How about an experiment. You put your pearly white caps on a sunny windowsill all next summer?

OK... but I'm not putting any keycaps up my ass.

Wait a minute, I did have my pearly white keycaps in the sun last year. My window blind fell down and some of my keyboards were in direct sunlight. There was definite UV because my lava lamp liquid went from blue to clear. Nothing yellowed so far. Get back to me in 38 years. I'll be dead, but you can leave a message on my bluetooth enabled tombstone.

Muirium · 20 Oct 2015, 14:16

Future visitors to the Virtual Graveyard:

This one says "Bluetooth." Was he a pirate, do you think?

No, centuries too late. He probably just thought he was a pirate.

Oh, makes sense.

(They peer into the alcove in the tombstone, where something reflects the daylight.)

Hmm. What do you reckon those little cubes are?

Eew! So yellow. Do you think they were his teeth!?!

seebart · 20 Oct 2015, 14:18

Doubleshot teeth? But please don't go into visuals Mu!

mr_a500 · 20 Oct 2015, 14:33

I'm not saying they won't ever yellow. I'm just saying that it appears that some companies used a different formulation (less bromine fire retardant?) that make them yellow less compared to others.

Don't talk to me about teeth. Yesterday, while casually flossing, a chunk of tooth went flying out. Damn it. I chipped three teeth this year! Why can't humans be like sharks and regenerate teeth? My teeth were perfect, now they shatter like glass. (too much bromine?)

stratokaster · 20 Oct 2015, 14:33

I no longer have it, but when I was young, we used to have a ZX-Spectrum clone of late Soviet vintage. It was very crude, almost homemade, its keycaps labeled with bits of paper under transparent covers. It looked like this:

: s36115230.jpg (26.16 KiB) Viewed 6511 times

FWIW, it was horrible to type on.

seebart · 20 Oct 2015, 14:46

mr_a500 wrote: I'm not saying they won't ever yellow. I'm just saying that it appears that some companies used a different formulation (less bromine fire retardant?) that make them yellow less compared to others.

That is very likely, I'd say 38 years is a pretty extensive test period, although I do not know how storage conditions were most of that time.

mr_a500 · 20 Oct 2015, 14:59

snuci wrote: While you guys argue about yellowing of Micro Switch key caps, I'd like to point out that the yellowing you may perceive in my original picture is the lightly toasted dust and grunge on the key caps. You can see how clean the ones I posted in the last picture are (even with bad lighting).

Ah ha! See, so if you had cleaned your keyboard first, I would have been more accurate in my prediction.

(...and I bet Muirium's keyboards are just not clean enough... those filthy Scots!)

Muirium · 20 Oct 2015, 15:08

Teeth like sharks, eh? How about Jaws:

Spoiler:

@Stratokaster: looks like a Tipro, relegendables and all! (Someone sound the Kbdfr alarm. Incoming corrections!)

mr_a500 · 20 Oct 2015, 15:17

Muirium wrote: Teeth like sharks, eh? How about Jaws:
Spoiler:

Fun fact: my old man looked a lot like this 007 villain when he was younger. I can always piss him off by pointing out the similarities in old pictures! Alas, I did not inherit the adamantium teeth.

Well I have been biting through steel cables a lot recently. Do you think that has anything to do with my chipped teeth?

Muirium · 20 Oct 2015, 15:37

Interesting way of rigging sail…

andrewjoy · 20 Oct 2015, 15:43

Thats how men feel they look when they strip a wire with there teeth.

terrycherry · 20 Oct 2015, 16:03

snuci wrote: While you guys argue about yellowing of Micro Switch key caps, I'd like to point out that the yellowing you may perceive in my original picture is the lightly toasted dust and grunge on the key caps. You can see how clean the ones I posted in the last picture are (even with bad lighting).

I have seen some yellowing on key caps on one of my Intertec Superbrain computers (I still giggle when I say that name because it's an awesome name). Since I have two, I will post the differences but that was going to be the topic of another post More information and a picture on the Superbrain (*giggle*) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertec_Superbrain

That's cool. I was wondering what switch is has. I couldn't id this.

: 02.JPG (345.44 KiB) Viewed 6401 times

mr_a500 · 20 Oct 2015, 16:06

That looks like SMK or Maxi-Switch.

DanielT · 20 Oct 2015, 17:19

stratokaster wrote: I no longer have it, but when I was young, we used to have a ZX-Spectrum clone of late Soviet vintage. It was very crude, almost homemade, its keycaps labeled with bits of paper under transparent covers. It looked like this:

s36115230.jpg
FWIW, it was horrible to type on.

this remembers me of the Romanian HC 85+ . Used to have one in the early 90's , also a ZX-Spectrum clone. Such a crappy piece of hardware

but still brought me a lot of joy. When it got hot some of the switches started to act crazy. Wrote my first programs in BASIC on this.
And yes, it was horrible to type on it...

snuci · 21 Oct 2015, 00:37

Rather than fill up this post with images, I'll post a few pics here and you are welcome to view a post on my website at http://vintagecomputer.ca/vintage-homemade-keyboard/

Here are some pics of he clean keyboard.

: Homemade - Keyboard mechanism full top; Homemade - Keyboard mechanism full top.jpg (224.83 KiB) Viewed 6349 times

: Homemade - Keyboard mechanism bottom; Homemade - Keyboard mechanism bottom.jpg (280.41 KiB) Viewed 6349 times

: Homemade - Keyboard mechanism empty top; Homemade - Keyboard mechanism empty top.jpg (222.9 KiB) Viewed 6349 times

: Homemade - Microsowitch hall-effect key switches close-up; Homemade - Microsowitch hall-effect key switches close-up.jpg (304.32 KiB) Viewed 6349 times

: Homemade - locking Lock key released by Shift left; Homemade - locking Lock key released by Shift left.jpg (255.93 KiB) Viewed 6349 times

: Homemade - key caps.jpg; Homemade - key caps.jpg (198.69 KiB) Viewed 6349 times

: Homemade - key caps profile; Homemade - key caps profile.jpg (241.53 KiB) Viewed 6349 times