deskthority

With my limited photography skills, I'll probably never be able to fully capture this keyboard's beauty. But my god, is she a stunner or what?

Holy cow. I had no idea focus even made black boards. It's fantastic.

Have any more details? What switches does it use? You don't typically see black keycaps made by Tai Hao, especially ones as old as this! Not even any windows keys...

Lbibass wrote: 03 Mar 2019, 15:35 Holy cow. I had no idea focus even made black boards. It's fantastic.

Have any more details? What switches does it use?

Yes, Focus made a very limited amount of black keyboards. To my knowledge, only first-generation ones. I'll be showing multiple in videos that are coming down the line . All of them use white Alps (although I know of ones that use clones, too).

Looking at these photos made me sad:

I bought a PCB with white Alps two years ago, and the seller asked if I want also the key caps. Why not? I thought.
Then it came with these Focus FK-2001 black caps.

Why couldn't the seller sell the whole keyboard as a unit? Perhaps that was damaged, otherwise it was just not right.

Chyros wrote: 03 Mar 2019, 15:37 Yes, Focus made a very limited amount of black keyboards. To my knowledge, only first-generation ones. I'll be showing multiple in videos that are coming down the line . All of them use white Alps (although I know of ones that use clones, too).

Nice, thanks for sharing!

Are the caps double shots? I have a black FK-2002 from 1992 with U.S. ISO layout, and no "any key" or backslash in the bottom row, which I guess makes it a pre-first generation Focus? I bought it new at a computer show and used it for a while, but the caps are ink stamped and the legends wore off pretty quickly:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12915&p=387690#p387690

I recently (after that photo) replaced the alpha caps with double shots, which should keep it going for a while.

Polecat wrote: 03 Mar 2019, 20:53

Chyros wrote: 03 Mar 2019, 15:37 Yes, Focus made a very limited amount of black keyboards. To my knowledge, only first-generation ones. I'll be showing multiple in videos that are coming down the line . All of them use white Alps (although I know of ones that use clones, too).

Nice, thanks for sharing!

Are the caps double shots? I have a black FK-2002 from 1992 with U.S. ISO layout, and no "any key" or backslash in the bottom row, which I guess makes it a pre-first generation Focus? I bought it new at a computer show and used it for a while, but the caps are ink stamped and the legends wore off pretty quickly:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12915&p=387690#p387690

I recently (after that photo) replaced the alpha caps with double shots, which should keep it going for a while.

The zeroth-generation boards are 727, 747, and 555. Even the really early blue Alps FK-2001s were nothing like them. Besides, all black FK-2001s that I know of were from the early 90s; several years later than the oldest FK-2001s. The black ones are old, but not THAT old, it seems.

The caps on this one are doubleshots, yes. I also have a black FK-2002 and its caps are pad-printed, even though it's older than this one).

Chyros wrote: 03 Mar 2019, 21:17 The zeroth-generation boards are 727, 747, and 555. Even the really early blue Alps FK-2001s were nothing like them. Besides, all black FK-2001s that I know of were from the early 90s; several years later than the oldest FK-2001s. The black ones are old, but not THAT old, it seems.

The caps on this one are doubleshots, yes. I also have a black FK-2002 and its caps are pad-printed, even though it's older than this one).

Got it, thanks! I've passed up a couple black 2001s thinking they were pad printed.

I agree that the black ones didn't come out until the '90s. I was active in the computer world at that time, and not far from Computer Ground Zero (Silicon Valley), and I was already an Alps user. so I was always on the lookout for Alps keyboards, and especially black ones. The only two I ever managed to find (not counting the Dell AT101W, since it wasn't clicky, nor really black...) were the Focus and a version by Datacomp. And some of the Datacomps had Futaba switches, so you had to try them or pull a cap to be sure. Took me 26 years to find some black double shot caps for the 2002, but thanks to one of the good guys here I finally scored a set for less than a king's ransom. I also have a blue Alps (beige) FK-2001, but I'm keeping that one stock since it's in really nice shape.