ALPS AKB-3420 vintage board, SKCC Creams, DS caps

[ander]

ALPS vintage 80ish ascii keyboard (eBay)





It's an ALPS AKB-3420 with SKCC Cream (T-mount) switches, cylindrical DS caps, and an awe-inspiring metal case.

Seller (100% positive rating) sez: "Clean but the traces for ribbon connection are in need of retracing. Uses 8048 and 74159 chips. Comes with manual and schematics."

Currently at $27.50 + free shipping, with 1-1/2 days to go on the auction.

[Halverson]

Way cool, except the 'Q'!

[fohat.digs]

That's wicked.

Reprogrammed, that would make a very user-friendly small board. Surprisingly close to modern ANSI.

[openmiceagle]

Would MX keycaps fit on this guy? Or is throwing aftermarket caps onto a 'vintage' board heresy.

[Air tree]

Hmm.. Very interesting. I might try and pick this up. 


I have never seen this board before.

[Bucake]

would place a bid but i'm not confident i'd get it working
beautiful thing!

[chyros]

Would MX keycaps fit on this guy? Or is throwing aftermarket caps onto a 'vintage' board heresy.

Definitely heresy! Do you know any MX caps that look better than those? D:

[ander]

I agree—regardless of its practicality, it's a thing of beauty. I hope we've all been lucky enough, at one time or another, to have had a few girlfriends of that nature.

[openmiceagle]

I appreciate ander's connections of keyboard and women

[chyros]

I agree—regardless of its practicality, it's a thing of beauty. I hope we've all been lucky enough, at one time or another, to have had a few girlfriends of that nature.

Hahaha ) . That's pretty brilliant xD .

[ander]

What, it's not obvious? (At this point I'm tempted to use my Photoshop skills to create a graphic of a Model M with boobs, but it's nearly 3 a.m. so I'll excuse myself.)

[snuci]

Just saw this post.  I was hoping nobody would see it on eBay   I was the person who picked this up.  I will try to use this as a period keyboard for one of my vintage computers. It was a pretty good deal with low shipping to Canada.  There are three trace holes I need to fix as someone unsoldered the keyboard wire (who knows why?) but it looks like a great keyboard with docs including the schematic.  Worst case, I add some jumpers.

Here's some pics if you're curious:


Alps AKB-3420 - complete


Alps AKB-3420 - profile


Alps AKB-3420 - front of keyboard assembly


Alps AKB-3420 - back of board


Alps AKB-3420 - keyboard assembly profile


Alps AKB-3420 - serial number


Alps AKB-3420 - key caps removed


Alps AKB-3420 - back of key caps


Alps AKB-3420 - empty case internals

[chyros]

Lovely! A very nice board .

[ander]

Congrats, Snuci! And what a great price for such a wonderful piece of hardware in excellent shape.

Are those vintage T-mount Alpses extra-sproingy? I love the sound they make on the Teensy-convertible NIB Japanese/Chinese IBM boards some of us picked up earlier this year (a few of which, incredibly, are still available on eBay). Dorkvader was moved to dub them "Pingmasters".

[dorkvader]

Congrats, Snuci! And what a great price for such a wonderful piece of hardware in excellent shape.

Are those vintage T-mount Alpses extra-sproingy? I love the sound they make on the Teensy-convertible NIB Japanese/Chinese IBM boards some of us picked up earlier this year (a few of which, incredibly, are still available on eBay). Dorkvader was moved to dub them "Pingmasters".

I'm performing serious modifications to mine and I have determined the source of the ping to be the plate. I preferred the "pingmaster" to the competing term "pingsaver", which I disliked it because it's based on the SSK and the "jokingly termed" unsaver.


Anyway I suspect this won't "ping" as much due to the shorter plate.

Excellent KB though. The case construction is very similar to hall effect KBs

[ander]

Anyway I suspect this won't "ping" as much due to the shorter plate...

I hereby request that Snuci make an audio demo of his new acquisition so we can determine that in a more informed manner.

Ideally, he could also get one of those bargain NIB Asian IBMs and do a side-by-side demo. That would be the only authoritative way to resolve such an important controversy regarding high-level pinginess.

[snuci]

Anyway I suspect this won't "ping" as much due to the shorter plate...

I hereby request that Snuci make an audio demo of his new acquisition so we can determine that in a more informed manner.

Ideally, he could also get one of those bargain NIB Asian IBMs and do a side-by-side demo. That would be the only authoritative way to resolve such an important controversy regarding high-level pinginess.

Actually, I was going to compare it to my other Alps keyboard that appears to be the same vintage with a longer plate. Can someone describe exactly what "ping" is?  Is it a hollow sound?  If there is a post describing this, please let me know.

[CPTBadAss]

Actually, I was going to compare it to my other Alps keyboard that appears to be the same vintage with a longer plate. Can someone describe exactly what "ping" is?  Is it a hollow sound?  If there is a post describing this, please let me know.

That board is awesome. The layout and the colorway are so sick.

[snuci]

I hereby request that Snuci make an audio demo of his new acquisition so we can determine that in a more informed manner.

Would this work?  I did a couple of other keyboards too.  I really don't know if this helps but here are the keyboards:

1. Alps AKB-3420 (this thread)
2. Alps 12KC155C (thread)
3. Polymorphic Systems keyboard (thread)
4. IMSAI IKB-1 (thread)

[ander]

Thanks for the video, Snuci. (Smooth editing, too!) However, I must be frank and say that none of your otherwise quite cool vintage KBs are in the Pingmaster's league in terms of sheer pinginess.

By "ping", we mean an actual ringing, bell-like sound that lingers briefly after you've released a key. As Dork theorized, it's the IBM 6112884 and 6113442's combination of vintage T-mount Alps switches and substantial metal plate design that give them their unique, world-dominating pinginess. (But then, Ping is a Chinese name, ha ha.)

Knowing how great these boards are, it's all I can do to keep myself from ordering up, like, 10 more of them before they're gone forever. (Well, there's the idea of staying married, too.) Don't let the shipping cost dissuade you; for some reason the seller selected Expedited Shipping by default. Standard Shipping is also available for about half as much.

That said, none of this is meant to detract from the splendour of your swell new purchase, nor any of the other remarkable boards you've shared with us. We may have gotten a bit sidetracked.