deskthority

I recently picked up 3 ITW Licon keyboard modules. The oldest has a date code 7514, with the newest showing 7610. The modules come from Trendata 4000 terminals. They are all in different condition, with one being just a little dusty, and another looking like it has been buried. I was expecting some sort of ITW siwtch, with the ITW branding visible on the PCBs and the association between ITW and Licon, but the switches turned out to be a clicky variant that I don't think I've seen before, although they do look very much like the normal ITW 'Magnetic Valve' switches. The switches are very loud, although much of the sound appears to come from bottoming out. The click is generated by a spring loaded sliding rail on the top of the switch housing. The rail has a peg which fits into a recessed track on the side of the slider, similar to those found on many locking switches. As the switch is depressed, the peg/track pushes the sliding click rail to the right until it reaches the top of the track. When the rail reaches the top of the track, a small spring underneath the rail snaps it back to the left against its stop, generating an audible click. Via very un-scientific measurement, the click appears to occur at around 2.5mm into the ~4.5mm travel, and is entirely decoupled from the switch actuation. The click rail and spring can be easily removed from the switch housing (on the bottom row switches, this can be done without even removing the keycap), resulting in a linear switch. Two of them have 'indicator panel' daughterboard, which is actually only attached to the main PCB by plastic standoffs, with no electrical connection. These indicator panels have several labeled socketed lamps for the original terminal, of which most are missing. The third board (without the indicator panel) has had a cable soldered directly to the traces of the edge connector, indicating that it may have been used or tested externally to the main terminal (possibly also explaining the missing indicator panel). The alpha block has thin cream/brown doubleshots, and the modifiers are brown/white. The numpad to the right has different, very thick doubleshot caps. The part number on the metal plates of the keyboards are all 55-500081, with the oldest serial number being 025470, and the newest being 51439. The PCBs all have the 80-51178 part number, but while the two newer boards show Rev D, the older board has Rev B, although the B appears to be crossed out with a hand written '4' next to it. All have 'CSI-1' marking on the PCB, although the oldest has a 'CSI-4' stamped on the PCB, and the youngest has a 'CSI-1' stamp

Oh wow! That has gotta be some of the oldest non-ibm clicky switches I've seen! Didn't know ITW made a variation like this.

Yeah I've not seen any info on these anywhere else - if anyone is has seen them elsewhere I'd be interested. I'm not even certain they are ITW, just assumed it because they're on an ITW board and look the same as the more well known versions.