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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: SamirD on Wed, 06 December 2017, 12:50:21

Title: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: SamirD on Wed, 06 December 2017, 12:50:21: I ran across this old ad for an Apricot computer and check out those keys!
(http://actapricot.org/history/apricot_ad_portable_practical_comp_dec_1984_pages_10_11.jpg)

Are there any keycaps out there like this?
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: Findecanor on Wed, 06 December 2017, 13:08:06: You forgot to post a picture or a link.
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: TalkingTree on Wed, 06 December 2017, 14:21:33: Quote from: Findecanor on Wed, 06 December 2017, 13:08:06
You forgot to post a picture or a link.
Hotlinking might be forbidden on that server.
Direct link is here (http://actapricot.org/history/apricot_ad_portable_practical_comp_dec_1984_pages_10_11.jpg).
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: Findecanor on Wed, 06 December 2017, 15:14:45: Thanks. I have seen a similar style bus higher profile on Tandberg keyboards (https://deskthority.net/photos-f62/tandberg-tdv-5010-cherry-g84-9021spmde-t165.html) with Cherry ML, and on keyboards by Tandberg or Siemens with Siemens switches (https://deskthority.net/photos-f62/found-another-siemens-stb-11-switch-keyboard-in-the-trash-t13613.html) or Rafi switches.
None that is Cherry MX-compatible though ... but that does not say that it does not exist.

I have also seen a few concept renderings of keyboards with a similar style. For example this one (http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Ultimate-Windows-Vista-Computer-Design-65871.shtml).
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: OfTheWild on Thu, 07 December 2017, 02:07:26: (https://i.imgur.com/IJxeb1c.jpg)

fixed that for you
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: Findecanor on Thu, 07 December 2017, 06:55:03: Square keys on top of a square base are more common. Late-model Apple II keyboards such as the Apple Desktop Bus Keyboard (https://deskthority.net/wiki/Apple_Desktop_Bus_Keyboard) (Alps) had cylindrical keys.
The typewriters Triump-Adler Gabriele 7007 (https://deskthority.net/photos-f62/triumph-adler-gabriele-7007-swedish-finnish-layout-t10475.html), 8008 (https://deskthority.net/videos-f63/triumph-adler-typewriter-cherry-m6-gabriele-8008l-t6648.html#p129284) and 9009 have Cherry MX-compatible keycaps with cylindrical depressions in a square but only for the 1×1 symbol keys. I have seen at least one project for converting such a keyboard into USB.

.. and then there are the various retro typewriter-inspired keyboards/keycaps with circular keycaps but with no rectangular skirts so there are wide gaps between the keys. But you must have seen those.
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: AMongoose on Thu, 07 December 2017, 07:01:50: There is the z series from devlin (http://www.devlin.co.uk/products/components/keycaps.html) not exactly the same.

(https://images.bigcartel.com/product_images/194692075/Main_Image.jpg)
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: OfTheWild on Thu, 07 December 2017, 19:38:45: I cant imagine that it would be nice to type on those.
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: AMongoose on Fri, 08 December 2017, 04:24:27: Quote from: OfTheWild on Thu, 07 December 2017, 19:38:45
I cant imagine that it would be nice to type on those.

You could be typing with gloves and probably still feel the caps center tho :p
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: davkol on Fri, 08 December 2017, 17:55:37: TBH they look closer to XDA except for the weird edges.
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: OfTheWild on Fri, 15 December 2017, 19:52:18: It looks like RAMA is going to find some though:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcezFl5n-ad/
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: Findecanor on Fri, 15 December 2017, 21:45:49: Check out the Sinclair QL (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Working-Sinclair-QL_cropped.jpg).
These keys are a bit more dished, but cut off at the top. The keycap mount is supposedly cross-shaped mount -- which may be Cherry MX compatible, but I don't know.
The ZX Spectrum + had a similar look but not the same.
Title: Re: Are There Keycaps Like This?
Post by: Coreda on Sat, 16 December 2017, 06:25:11: I feel like I've seen keycaps like those before (with the lip around the concave inner shape, possibly not with such a rounded radius) but don't seem to have saved it in my KB images directory. There are of course the vaguely similar but different Apple 'Cassie' prototype (http://www.applefritter.com/node/312) board and the one mentioned earlier though.