deskthority

This keyboard was made in 1989.

I don't know a lot about the videoton one. It's probably a rebranded OEM one. I got it for free from a kind seller. It has an interesting layout.

Videoton keyboard controller:



I'm very happy with these! Even if the cherry doesn't work, it still has nice caps, so I won't have to pay outrageous money for GMK caps now!


Original reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... ea_market/

What do you think?

Mm, that's nice for $3.50, and it's interesting to see another Schneider keyboard. And it's a 3000 variation I haven't seen before, too. Do you want to add it to the wiki's list of variations, or shall I?

The Videoton looks like rubberdome to me - the smaller keys are hard to achieve with mechanical switches. There's the outside chance of MLs or half-size Alps or small caps on MX, but realistically it's probably domes. And the media keys are definitely too small for switches! I think I tried a keyboard with similar caps once and found it quite soft, with a cushioned feel but not much tactility - but what with rubber's tendency to degrade, "your mileage may vary"...

Thanks! I added it. Never edited a Wiki article before.

The videoton is 100'% rubberdome (took it apart).

Great! We need more wiki editors.

Just noticed the Schneider's got the original-type MYs. Which might actually be reasonable to type on...

Cool! The switches feel better than modern MY, but I still prefer my MX black keyboard.

I notice that the G81-3000 page doesn't have any pictures of the insides of any of the examples, several don't show the labels (you may not realise this, but the labels on Cherry keyboards generally give the date of manufacture) and only one example even demonstrates the type of switch and keycaps used. You may as well add as many photos of yours as you can. If in doubt, include every detail, because other people will always notice things that you don't in the pictures, maybe now, but more often years later when the person who took them has long gone and there's no way to obtain the missing details. (When I came to compile the MY usage chart I found that almost every example of a G81 keyboard lacks the date and/or switch.)

As for the Videoton (that name rings a bell — some Hungarian manufacturer apparently) there's something odd about the photo. It looks like rubber domes go over the top of the LEDs, but that would be weird. I can't work out what I'm looking at. Sometimes you can ID a keyboard from the PCB codes — for example a Chicony-made Cherry keyboard I had (at a time when we didn't realise this was a thing), ID'd solely off the obscure codes on the PCB that followed Chicony's pattern. So long as all the details are recorded somewhere, you can come back to it at a later date.

I will try my best to take pictures of the important things on the inside. Not today though, I'll have a maths and a chemistry test tomorrow, but I'll try to do it as soon as I can.

As for the videoton, I highly doubt it's anything special. After the 80s (post eastern block era, during which Videoton was the domintant and one of the only electronics/hi-fi/TV makers in the country), videoton had no place in the market anymore (like tesla in chekoslovakia), so only their CD publishing division survived to this day.

This keyboard, made in 2006, is probably just some rebranded media keyboard. I've seen a boxed version of this on a local auction site, and it really looked like chinese OEM bollocks. It's a small tactile dome (not a sheet) that goes over every key.

I only took it cause the seller was nice and I can't pass up a freebie like this.

BTW, the same seller has a very cool giant industrial keyboard (clicky buttons, not a mech) that was part of a big machine. It has all sorts dials and buttons and sliders, and a trackball, but nobody is taking it. There's no branding on it. I think it's around $15. I'm just starting to run out of space, but should I take it?

It's a rabbit hole … depends how far down it you want to go.

Hmm.. I don't really know. I'll pass up on that board.

The only thing left to try out for me would be tactile and clicky switches, so that's how deep I'll probably go.