74 keys old hand solidered keyboard found in homeforclosure cleanout

[Jason bloomquist]

I came across this and i felt it may be rather special im 45 yrs old first computer i had was a Commodore 64 and this seems to predate that by at least a decade
74 keys double spacebar shift key & enter key are vertical not horizontal.which ive been told older english keyboards were vertical has shallacked coating over button tops to hold identifying lables on claire pendar switches clair on 1 side and pendar at a 90° from it
Other old switches from clair pendar are written all on same side
Which after looking dates switches to late 60's early 70's
The board their attached to is made by nelco electronics the wires yes wires are hand soldered to buttons ive looked into nelco and clair pendar at the dates of 67 thru 71 which seems to be timeframes of the board and switches 2 programs both companies were paired up working on was boeing 747 and appolo missions

[Jason bloomquist]

Any of your knowledge on this would be greatly appreiciated for i have looked into it several searches found nothing similar to it
What would be best way of checking switches to see if they still function simple digital tester and check continuity open closed is my guess.but may not be as easy as i think it should be

[suicidal_orange]

That's one rough looking board (it' wasn't even cut straight or clean )) and the matrix is very damaged but I agree - very old and interesting.

You're right about testing the switches - when pressed the two pins should have continuity, when not pressed they shouldn't.  You can use an analogue or digital tester or a simple circuit of a button battery with an LED.

Thanks for sharing this piece of history

[Hak Foo]

Theory:  It may have been a custom replacement for a Sinclair computer.  They're famous for terrible keyboards, so it would not be too odd for people to get a surplus keyboard and wire it to fit.  By the time these machines were on the market, an early '70s keyboard could have been attainable through surplus dealers.  The BASIC keywords on each key are a feature of their machines.