Nabu KBD-2
This article is a stub. You can help Deskthority by expanding it.
 |
This article requires photographic illustration — pictures with better lighting |
 | |
| Model no. | KBD-2 |
|---|---|
| FCC ID | N/A / Unknown |
| Branding | Nabu |
| Manufacturer | Nabu Manufacturing Corporation |
| Keyswitches |
Alps SKCC Cream Alps SKCC Lock |
| Switch mount | Plate mount |
| Interface | Serial RS422 (Physical DIN-6) |
| Years of production | 1981-1984 |
| Price | $950 CAD (1983, entire system) |
The Nabu Personal Computer "Keyboard Unit" is a keyboard made for use with the Nabu Personal Computer System. The keyboard model is KBD-2, with part number 90000180.
Contents
Description
The keyboard was created for and bundled with the Nabu Personal Computer System. It uses a 6-pin DIN connector with serial RS422 to communicate with the PC, which enabled communication to and from the PC itself. The keyboard also features two joystick DB-9 ports for use with joysticks which were sold separately at the time. The keyboard is 2KRO with autorepeat enabled, which exponentially increases in speed over time. Special keys such as the eight key cluster to the right of the keyboard do not autorepeat, and instead send a signal when a key is depressed as well as when it is released.
The normal keys consist of Alps SKCC Cream switches, while the Caps Lock has a Alps SKCC Lock switch on it.
It is said that the keyboard and computer were manufactured by Samsung in South Korea, but this is yet to be fully confirmed.
Construction
Case
The keyboard consists of a top half and a bottom half, both made out of plastic. The top half of the case has a sticker on it labeled "NABU PERSONAL COMPUTER," with various function labels supposedly used in conjuction with the "SYM" key. The bottom half has a label that identifies the company and various other information such as the serial number, manufacturing date, and revision letter.
The case is held together with six screws in total, with five being standard screws with washers and one countersunk screw.
Internals
A SKCC Lock switch is present on the "CAPS" key. The SKCC Cream switches are infilled with a sort of resin or glue in the switch terminal recess, supposedly to prevent dust or solder fume incursion during manufacturing. They are the black switchplate variant, likely manufactured around 1982 using IC dating.
The switches are soldered to a PCB and clipped into a painted black steel plate on one side. The switch-plate assembly is then secured to the bottom half of the case with double-sided foam tape. The adhesive from the tape corrodes the steel plate over time, and the corrosion is present on NOS (new old stock) units. There are four slots for screws present on the plate; however, these are not used in the keyboard.
The PCB is connected to the controller board through a ribbon cable that is soldered in. The controller on the keyboard is a Motorola MC6803P.
There is a female DIN-6 connector present on the back side of the keyboard labeled "TO COMPUTER," along with two DB-9 joystick ports labeled "CONTROLLER" with a number below each port. All of the ports are soldered onto the controller board. Pins one and six are unused on the DIN-6, pins two and three for power, and pins four and five for data. The shield is connected to ground.
Keycaps
The keycaps are doubleshot ABS, with a white-on-black color scheme for most of the keys. A couple of keys, namely the "PAUSE", "TV⇔NABU", and "GO" keys have different legend colors, being red, yellow, and dark blue respectively. The keycaps are textured on the top, while the sides are smooth. The keycap profile seems to be unique to the keyboard. The 8-key cluster on the right of the board all have the same keycap profile.
Conversion
Currently, there are no known converters that work for this keyboard. The difficulty of creating a converter is that the controller board accepts +10V unregulated, and the baud rate is nonstandard. However, the scancodes are known, so it would be possible to create a converter with a separate power supply if need be.
Matrix
| Row/Column | COLUMN 1 Pin 15 | COLUMN 2 Pin 16 | COLUMN 3 Pin 17 | COLUMN 4 Pin 14 | COLUMN 5 Pin 09 | COLUMN 6 Pin 04 | COLUMN 7 Pin 08 | COLUMN 8 Pin 07 | Special Pin 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ROW A Pin 12 | YES | PAUSE | - _ | 9 ( | 7 & | 5 % | 3 # | 1 ! | |
| ROW B Pin 13 | UP | TV/NABU | = + | 0 ) | 8 * | 6 ^ | 4 $ | 2 @ | |
| ROW C Pin 03 | LEFT | DELETE | [ { | O | U | T | E | Q | |
| ROW D Pin 02 | RIGHT | ] } | P | I | R | W | ESC | ||
| ROW E Pin 01 | NO | , " | L | J | G | D | A | TAB | |
| ROW F Pin 20 | DOWN | GO <-' | ; : | K | H | F | S | Y | |
| ROW G Pin 19 | <<<< | . > | M | N | Z | B | C | ||
| ROW H Pin 18 | >>>> | SYM l+r | / ? | , < | SPACE | V | X | ||
| CAPS Pin 05 | CAPS | ||||||||
| CTRL Pin 06 | CTRL | ||||||||
| SHIFT Pin 11 | SHIFT l+r |
Gallery
Pictures of the Nabu PC keyboard.
Top
Bottom
Profile
Interfaces on back
Keyboard mechanism back
Keyboard mechanism top
Keycaps removed
Profile with no keycaps
Key switches
Top of double shot keycaps
Underside of double shot keycaps
Top of SKCC switch
Underside of SKCC switch
