geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: SamirD on Wed, 06 December 2017, 12:50:21
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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?
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You forgot to post a picture or a link.
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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).
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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).
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(https://i.imgur.com/IJxeb1c.jpg)
fixed that for you
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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.
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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)
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I cant imagine that it would be nice to type on those.
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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
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TBH they look closer to XDA except for the weird edges.
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It looks like RAMA is going to find some though:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcezFl5n-ad/
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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.
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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.