Datadesk "Lil' Big Board with three Alps clones.

klennkellon

16 Apr 2017, 04:43

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:
Image

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

Image

Image

Label:

Image

If anyone has more information about this keyboard please share!

User avatar
Daniel Beardsmore

16 Apr 2017, 13:21

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.

Post Reply

Return to “Keyboards”