Sold previously?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1980s-Texscan-MSI-Model-82300-Video-compuvid-Government-Keyboards-/151164890847#ht_134wt_1428
No, just ended with no takers. eBay applies a "sold" label to the thumbnail if it's sold.
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Ok so it's mine now. Seller accepted my offer (basically this amount, agreed to be paid after payday)
They created broadcastable text over simple backgrounds. Think mid-80s weather channel, if you're old enough to recall such beasts. Similar video broadcasts used for announcements in government facilities. Initially used in places like the US Census, State Congresses, etc for messages like "House Bill #473928j now voting. Cafeteria lunch is fish filet and sirloin." When those places got upgrades, they got moved to places like schools, libraries, etc for messages like "Detention moved to sub-basement C. Cafeteria lunch is fish fingers and beef bits." No clue what type of switch the keyboard itself uses, sadly.
Great info! Thanks very much for it. I love learning about this history of such equipment (and your descriptions of the types of messages are great).
Hall effect switches?
You heard it here first.
There was initially some debate about this, as it uses very similar keycaps to some of the early model kaypro keyboards (SMK) and the font looks nearly identical. I'm still not 100% sure on this, but there's some evidence supporting the hall effect theory. Mainly in the look of the spacebar (also you can kinda see the switch of the key next to the spacebar and it looks offcenter to me. That's very much a microswitch thing).
See, on single magnet hall effect keyboards, the spacebar is a bit odd. You can see it in the pictures that it looks a little bent. The spacebar does bend outwards in the middle. Not sure why. Also, the "top" of the spacebar is very small and rounded. Even though the bend isn't seen in the old "dual magnet" type switches, the small rounded top does. I really like this spacebar shape, as it "feels" like it was designed to be hit in almost a forward motion by a thumb.
I don't think this has tripleshots like many of my other hall effect keyboards. They look infilled to me. (makes sense as the tri-colour legend keycaps on top would have required 4 shots to manufacture!) We'll see.
Anyway, expect a detailed disassembly to show up on GH and DT sometime when they arrive. Even if it's not Hall Effect, the item itself is cool enough to dig into for the price.
