Sometimes the right keyswitches and the right chassis come together at just the right time.
I've been searching for some good Salmon ALPS switches for almost six months now, spurred by some conversations I've had with ShawnMeg on here (who, btw, is an extremely cool and helpful person). Without going into any detail, I continue to be unable to track down any
clean boards with Salmon ALPS in them, at least not for a reasonable price. However, a few weeks ago, Chyrosran22 released a video on the GYUM9
7SK Dell AT101, in which he mentioned that Pine Black ALPS switches are extremely similar to Salmon ALPS switches. Therefore, I broadened my horizons to include that keyboard, although I figured that Thomas's video would make the price of old logo Dell keyboards shoot up even more.
Amazingly however, last week I found an eBay listing for a GYUM97SK for $35 shipped. I bought it immediately. However, I never planned to keep the switches and chassis together. I really have a hard time using keyboards without Windows keys. I'm one of those weird anomalies who prefers keyboards to have no
fewer than 104 keys. I can't really do anything smaller than fullsize. Bigger than fullsize is even better! I absolutely love my pair of Focus FK 9000's. Getting back on topic, I planned to harvest the Pine Black switches from the Dell and save them for an interesting ALPS chassis with Windows keys (one that isn't a GYUM90SK Bigfoot; I've had three of those already and although they're great, they're just not unusual enough for these switches, not even the ones with black cases, at least in my opinion.)
Amazingly, two days after I bought the Dell keyboard, I came across a super interesting Northgate Omnikey that Halverson was selling in his classifieds ad. Shout out to Halverson for being extremely pleasant to deal with, pricing his items very reasonably, shipping super quickly, and packing the keyboard very well. Anyway, the interesting thing about this Omnikey (in case you haven't guessed by the title of this thread) is that
it has Windows keys. They're in an extremely unusual layout, with the spacebar being the same large 7u size as on regular Omnikeys. The keys to the right of the spacebar are all 1u in size, as is the Windows key to the left of the spacebar. Furthermore, the Windows keys and context menu key are pad printed, not doubleshot like all of the other keys on the keyboard with the exception of the Up arrow, which curiously has an integrated LED. At any rate, I thought this would be a fantastic chassis for the Pine Black ALPS switches, so I contacted Halverson and purchased it!
Omnikeys are well known to come with Pine White ALPS, except for some very early versions which came with Blue ALPS. However, Dell Bigfoot keyboards aside, Windows keys were introduced a fair bit after ALPS Electric stopped producing complicated switches, and instead moved production to Forward Electronics, who then produced simplified ALPS switches, which are generally regarded to be of lower quality. I was hoping that this Omnikey would have simplified ALPS switches in it, as I would feel bad ripping out a bunch of nice complicated White ALPS switches. I like White ALPS to a degree, but I want to use this keyboard at work, so I don’t want clicky switches in it. The other problem with clicky ALPS switches is that they now have to compete with Kailh's click-bar box switches. At home, my daily driver has Box Pale blue switches, and I just don't think clicky ALPS switches stack up favorably. That may be heresay to some, but of course that is just my personal opinion, and speaks to the amazing quality of Kailh's clicky Box switches more than it does make a statement about a lack of quality with regard to complicated clicky ALPS switches. I do not think there are any tactile Cherry clone switches which can hold a candle to tactile ALPS switches, however.
Upon receiving my Omnikey in the mail, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it did indeed contain simplified ALPS switches. I have to say, compared to some simplified ALPS clones that I've tried, these aren't that bad. However, I like Matias clicky switches better, as the Matias switches are less pingy and feel slightly more refined. At any rate, I desoldered all of the simplified ALPS switches from the Omnikey without feeling too bad about it. If anyone would like the simplified ALPS switches, contact me. Otherwise, I’ll likely discard them.
I also did some research on this keyboard. I can find out very little information about it. This is the only post on the internet that I can find which even mentions the existence of an Omnikey with Windows keys:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=20506.msg397099#msg397099As noted in that post, this keyboard has a number of weird quirks:
- The door for the DIP switches is still present in the upper left corner of the keyboard, but there are no dip switches. It's just empty space underneath the logo.
- As aforementioned, it uses simplified ALPS switches.
- Despite a copyright date of 1995 and the presence of Windows keys, it still uses an AT plug, which had been supplanted by PS/2 by the time this keyboard came out. I've never seen a keyboard with Windows keys that uses an AT plug.
- The up arrow has an integrated LED. My research has led me to believe that it has something to do with programming the keyboard.
It seems that this keyboard was programmed with software that Northgate provided instead of the DIP switches present on older Omnikeys. I found a reference to such software online, but anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that it will only run on Windows 3.1 or possibly Windows 95.
Now onto some pictures. Congratulations if you survived my long-winded, detailed introduction. Here is what the keyboard looked like then I got it. Credit for the pictures goes to Halverson:
Initially, wasn't sure if I wanted to convert it to USB or try to track down the Northgate software to program in some macro's. However, upon receiving the keyboard, I could not get it to work with my computer. I decided I didn't want to spend hours tracking down ancient software, so I wired up a Pro Micro and flashed it with Soarer's firmware:
Note my DasKeyboard cameo; it has the Box Pale Blue switches that I referenced before. In case you're wondering, yes, I have tried Box Navy and Jade; I like the Pale Blues better.
There were a few some rust spots on the mounting plate, and it was grey. I don’t like grey mounting plates. I sanded off the rust, hit the rust spots with some rust converter, and spray painted it satin black. I also (messily) cut out some craft foam. The overhang won't be noticeable with switches installed, but the acoustic damping I strove to achieve should be fairly obvious:
Here is the PCB and mounting plate reunited:
Also note the foam I put in the bottom case. I noticed that, because there was nothing to support the middle of the mounting plate/PCB, it flexed quite a bit when pressed upon. The foam supports I built up solved that problem! Now it feels even more solid, and the foam should make the typing noise a little less hollow.
I cleaned and lubricated the Pine Black ALPS sliders and top housings:
Unfortunately, upon reassembly, the switches were still slightly scratchy. However, I have a Dell AT101W that I got brand new. I don't use it much, so I am swapping the Pine Black sliders with the Bamboo black sliders. I feel kind of bad for my Dell. I love that keyboard! It's mostly for looks though: it's the black version, which I think looks particularly sinister and imposing. Nevertheless, the Pine Black ALPS feel amazing with the sliders from the Dell, and I plan to actually use my Northgate, so I will be swapping away later this week. I also ordered slightly stiffer, new springs for these switches. I like switches with a medium heavy weighting. The stock weighting is almost heavy enough for me, so I suspect it will be heaven once the springs arrive and I get everything assembled.
If you don't like irreversible modifications to vintage keyboards, enter at our own risk! Now, I know that this Omnikey is at least somewhat rare and unusual. I also know that it hails from an era in which everything was beige; to many, beige keyboards symbolize a time when products were built to last. However, this keyboard was just
too beige for me. I therefore dyed the top plastic case black. I am not touching the bottom metal case:
I even dyed the back of the top case, even though it will never be seen once assembled:
For now, that's it! I need to harvest the Bamboo black sliders and wait for the new springs to arrive before I can assemble the switches. I believe the springs should be here on Friday, so stay tuned!
