deskthority

Found this at the thrift store yesterday for just a few bucks. At first glance it looked like one of those terrible Apple rubber domes from the 2000's but once I pressed a few keys I knew it was something more interesting than that.

After some light cleaning:


Majority of the keyboard uses these clicky ivory Alps clones, they are somewhat stiff but very tactile and smooth with no roughness. But there is a tactile, non-clicky black switch used on the enter key and a green, linear switch used on the "clear" key





Label:



If anyone has more information about this keyboard please share!

FCC grantee L83 is a company called Micromachines in California, but the keyboard is labelled Datadesk; this is the only FCC ID associated with Micromachines.

You can see an opaque version here, with a built-in trackball and external number pad:

keyboards-f2/keyboards-for-mac-t250.html

The only manufacturer confirmed to use clones with diagonal mould cavity numbers is Himake (used on AK-CN2 (2) and AK-CN2 (2) in the 2003 samples I received).

The green linear switch is there to provide a num lock light. You'll notice that this a different mould numbering style, and one that appears to be consistent with T1 switches:

http://kbd.rzw.jp/mechanical/glidepoint_maft5c1s0008/

(I checked Xiang Min KSB-LE and that's got the number off to one side.)

T1 is the only 90s switch type tentatively confirmed to be Himake.

The LED switch is likely Himake AK-LE. The ivory switch, I can't tell. That's not a numbering style associated with any of the common types (OA2, T1) so it could be anything.

The black switch, I can't make out clearly enough. According to the catalogue details, it should be green if it's linear, but plenty of switches that appear to be Himake use the "wrong" slider colour.