Author Topic: Looking for info on my old keyboard  (Read 1354 times)

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Offline bout

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Looking for info on my old keyboard
« on: Thu, 13 May 2021, 02:08:52 »
Hello!

I am looking for info on my old keyboard. I estimate it to be over 10 years old, possibly close to 15. I assume the reason I can't find anything about it on the internet is that it's irrelevant because of its "release date" and it is a piece that is no longer manufactured. Perhaps someone around here will know something about the model I still use to this day. I'm looking for information like when it was manufactured, what type it is etc. I THINK it's called "A4TECH Evo Slim Sun", pic below.


Offline Leslieann

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #1 on: Thu, 13 May 2021, 04:38:10 »
A4tech is still around.
They've never made anything that impressed me really, I wouldn't say any of it's terrible, but nothings really great either.

It's the typical stuff you would get ant office Depot.
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Offline bout

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #2 on: Thu, 13 May 2021, 05:32:35 »
I know A4T is still around, but I'm inquiring about this particular model.

Offline Leslieann

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #3 on: Thu, 13 May 2021, 06:48:03 »
It's either a scissor or rubber dome, beyond that, it's nothing special.
Not sure what you're hoping to find.
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Offline bout

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #4 on: Thu, 13 May 2021, 14:36:37 »
I explained it in the OP

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #5 on: Thu, 13 May 2021, 15:04:53 »
I explained it in the OP

Around here no keyboard made during this millennium is "old" and generally nothing with Windows keys, which came into common use in the mid-late 1990s. By then rubber dome keyboards had generally supplanted mechanical keyboards for cost-saving reasons. More recent mechanical keyboards were/are manufactured for the specialty market and sold at premium prices.

"Mechanical" keyboards have switching mechanisms that register the key presses. "Rubber dome" keyboards have rubber domes under the key caps that collapse to register the stroke. There is little or no interest in rubber dome keyboards in this forum unless there is something unusual or special in the configuration or mechanism.

Sorry
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Offline Faceman76

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #6 on: Thu, 13 May 2021, 21:08:41 »
To add to the very useful information above...have you tried contacting the manufacturer?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

TKC 1800, Crystal Box Navy, Sprit 100g

Offline Leslieann

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #7 on: Thu, 13 May 2021, 23:16:47 »
I explained it in the OP
I get what you're asking, I don't think you understand what I'm saying.

This is like finding a Walmart branded soap and asking who, what, when, why and how when it's just a rebranded generic "soap". This keyboard is a generic rubber dome or scissor switch board among billions where the only difference was a minimal styling change and the screen printed logo slapped on it.

The slim in the name suggests it may be a scissor (easily checked by looking under the caps), but odds of it being a BTC with sliders or something almost as good is pretty much slim to none. A4tech has been known to produce some oddities but they have never had any hype because it's almost entirely the same stuff everyone else sells but with their own logo on it. Even if it was a BTC dome with sliders, they aren't really rare or worth anything (due to no demand) and if it was something that came with say Alps blues or creams, you'd find info about it and people would be destroying your inbox wanting to buy it for a fair bit of money.

It's a generic keyboard.
I can probably give you a date range though, everything about it screams 2000-ish, maybe sold up to about 2005. Probably comes from the same production line as HP and E-Machine keyboards of the era.
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Offline bout

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 14 May 2021, 01:43:29 »
I see, thank you for the answers.

What surprises me is how long it lives with heavy use, though I still have no idea what kind it is, which makes it difficult for me to have casual conversations about keyboards. I suspect it to be membrane, but I wouldn't know better, because I don't really have any knowledge on keyboards, a friend of mine recommended this forum to me.

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 14 May 2021, 07:04:40 »

What surprises me is how long it lives with heavy use


Rubber dome keyboards can sometimes survive astonishing amounts of abuse, and the lack of "mechanisms" inside can be an advantage when something happens like a milkshake being spilled into it.

People use specialty keyboards because of ephemeral aesthetics such as subtleties in "feel" and "actuation" which are personally appealing to the user. Or because the appearance or styling appeals to them. I am typing this on a very large keyboard made in 1984 and weighing about 9 pounds. Why? Because I like it. That is really all that matters.

Keyboards like yours are generally discarded when the legends wear off of the key caps even as the device itself continues to operate properly.
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Offline bout

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  • Posts: 5
Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 14 May 2021, 07:31:47 »
Not a single one worn out on mine, which is also astonishing

Offline Leslieann

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Re: Looking for info on my old keyboard
« Reply #11 on: Fri, 14 May 2021, 12:15:47 »
Most of the time if I see anything other than HP, Dell, or whatever it's almost always because something got spilled on it, most people only change them when they get a new computer and it comes with a new one.

Same applies to mice and monitors as well, it all rarely fails and despite being the parts you actually interact with people tend to ignore them because they don't offer better performance and what they have works. It's only when you hand someone a better peripheral that they actually realize how much nicer it can be to use. It just doesn't occur to them. Most people really don't understand how bad their computing experience really is.
Novelkeys NK65AE w/62g Zilents/39g springs
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62g Zilents/lubed/Novelkeys 39g springs, HK Gaming Thick PBT caps, Netdot Gen10 magnetic cable, pic
| Filco MJ2 L.E. Vortex Case, Jailhouse Blues, heavily customized
More
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| GMMK TKL
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| PF65 3d printed 65% w/LCD and hot swap
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| Magicforce 68
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| YMDK75 Jail Housed Gateron Blues
More
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| KBT Race S L.E.
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| Das Pro
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| Logitech Illumininated | IBM Model M (x2)
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