deskthority

Hello,

this is my first real post here in Desktority since I've been lurking for quite some time trying to learn as much as possible from the veterans.

Instead of jumping in to Mr. Wodan's Rabbit Hole and begging for a vintage mech keyboard, I followed Mr. MechMerlin suggestion of going out and finding vintage mech keyboards by myself (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdfrYM ... y8-j_WIxAw) .

It's not been an easy task, since here in Italy pulling parts from recycling centers , as Mr. Wodan does, is strictly forbidden, so I had (and have) to follow a different approach.

Last week I eard that a Company dealing with computers went bankrupt and that they where selling all the old stuff they had piled in a large shed.

The place was a real mess, with piles of old hardware as dirty as hell and with rain pouring from the roof. I started patiently examining every part. It took me 5 Hrs to check all the containers, boxes etc.
All the good stuff came out after the fourth hour and from the same area.

I now start with this thread showing the vintage keyboards I found, one by one, at least the most interesting ones.

I have cleaned them; if You want to see all the keyboards before cleaning, You can check my Youtube video here:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J10pHNhcoo[/youtube]

The first is this (rare?) Honeywell 86SD23 .

I have not much to say about it because I'm not an expert so any information that You'd like to add to this thread about it is very much welcome!

As I said, the keyboards were really dirty so I had to tear them down and clean 'em.
Here is the final result:


















































I found only one identical keyboard online that is this one:
https://vintagecomputer.ca/honeywell-mi ... -keyboard/

More to follow in the next threads

Cheers
Luca

Great job! Did you get the original Honeywell terminal too?

Very cool board, thanks for posting.
I fixed your youtube link:

Like the Olivetti, the MicroSwitch board and the black terminal.
It's good to have an Italian vintage keyboard saving operation.

Ottimo ritrovamento! E, anche se è un po' che lurki, benvenuto!

A few observations:

In snuci's, most of his switches are sink pulse (—B), which makes me wonder if they do not support auto-repeat. The blank key, BRK, RPT and shift are all sink level (—A) suggesting that they can be detected as being held down. Instead of having key behaviour set in the controller or the system software, it seems to be set in the switches. I don't honestly know the detail of the output modes, but it seems like the behaviour of each key is set in hardware. Most switches are 4A3B: momentary, sloped, 2.5 oz, sink pulse.

In the OP's, it's hard to tell from the tiny photos uploaded to scumtastic wasteground Photobucket. I do notice what seems to be U4A3S, which is momentary, sloped, 2.5 oz, logic scan. The initial "U" is not listed on the wiki; nobody knows what those sporadic initial letters mean.

In both cases, you can get a glimpse of the alternate action switch design.

Those Honeywells are just fantastic, especially the last type with the black case and gorgeous caps. Just my kinda style. Great haul.

This is such a beauty, I LOVE the yellow/black on white colour scheme.

How do the switches feel?

lucar wrote: I found only one identical keyboard online that is this one:
https://vintagecomputer.ca/honeywell-mi ... -keyboard/

I have seen variations of this keyboard several times now, each time a little different. One sold on ebay recently:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/253376686688?V ... 3376686688

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: A few observations:


In the OP's, it's hard to tell from the tiny photos uploaded to scumtastic wasteground Photobucket. .

OOOPPSSS! Sorry guys, I did'nt notice Photobukets spamtastic image unzoom service.
Thanks Daniel for having pointed that out.

Which is the standard You use here? Imageur?

I can edit and reload everything..

Luca

green-squid wrote: Great job! Did you get the original Honeywell terminal too?

Unfortunately the terminal was'nt there or , at least, I didn't see it. There was such a mess that most of the time I had to walk over the baskets and boxes of full of , mostly broken, computer parts.

I'm checking to see if they'll let me go in again but I doubt.

DustGod wrote: Ottimo ritrovamento! E, anche se è un po' che lurki, benvenuto!

Thanks! I see that I have to learn a lot here, even how to present threads

lucar wrote: Which is the standard You use here? Imageur?

I can edit and reload everything..

Luca

Me? If it's an informal image, I attach it directly to the forum post. Proper images go on the wiki of course.