Author Topic: Anyone have info about this board?  (Read 2729 times)

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Offline SweGZzzz

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  • Posts: 3
  • Location: Canada
Anyone have info about this board?
« on: Sat, 19 June 2021, 21:36:22 »
Hey guys, first post here. Hope this is in the right place.

I was looking around online at various vintage keyboards as I want to start collecting them, and stumbled across this thing



Its a Pro Key 124, and with the 10-ish minutes I spent researching, I can't find a single thing about it.
Anyone here got a clue?

Offline CbR4

  • Posts: 10
  • Location: Australia
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 19 June 2021, 22:21:36 »
Looking here, it looks like it's a keyboard from 1995 by a company called Maxi Switch. The company seems to have been on-sold and now defunct. Can't find any images to confirm this, but the description seems to match closely.

Really interesting layout, especially the programmable keys around the navigation cluster. Looks like a pretty sweet find! Where did this come from?

Edit: It also seems really similar to the Gateway AnyKey which was made by Gateway 2000. The Wiki page references Maxi Switch there too, so maybe this was a competitor to the Gateway AnyKey?

Edit Two: Apologies, looks like Maxi Switch may have been the OEM and Gateway 2000 used their own branding. Check out this YouTube video that I just found on the Gateway Anykey. It might give you some clarity on your keyboard.
« Last Edit: Sat, 19 June 2021, 22:40:04 by CbR4 »

Offline Suds

  • Posts: 24
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #2 on: Sat, 19 June 2021, 22:22:10 »
Found this: https://www.electronicproducts.com/fully-programmable-keyboard-has-124-keys/#

Looks like it's one made by Maxi Switch that Deskthority doesn't have listed in it's wiki. You should post this over there. What kind of switches does it have?

Edit: Feh. No points for coming in second.

Offline SweGZzzz

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  • Location: Canada
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #3 on: Sat, 19 June 2021, 22:50:59 »
Thanks for the replies you two! Definitely seems about right.

I actually found this while sifting through FB Marketplace.
I would pick this up, but unfortunately I'm in Canada and the seller is in the US (Don't even know how I found it in the first place, thought FB Marketplace was only local. Just remembered I didn't turn off my VPN. Oops)

Took a look at the seller again, and they have another one listed that is BNIB and it is branded as a Maxi Switch. Only thing missing seems to be the Pro Key badge.




After seeing that there is almost no info on this thing, I'm tempted package forwarding service just to get it over here...
Also, I'd love to link both items here, but I don't know if that's against the "B/S/T only in the Marketplace" rule. I'm sure I can DM it, though, if someones wants one of these.

Offline CbR4

  • Posts: 10
  • Location: Australia
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #4 on: Sat, 19 June 2021, 22:57:00 »
If you do decide to get yourself one of these shipped over, please give us an update. The YouTube video I linked seems really interesting and I would love to hear your take on it too because it seems like they're mostly forgotten. Interesting that the second one of these is labelled as the "Maxi-Pro II". I wonder what changed between the models.

I think shipping from the US to Australia might be a bit much for something like this, but thanks for the thought.

Offline Suds

  • Posts: 24
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #5 on: Sat, 19 June 2021, 23:44:38 »
Well if it weren't too expensive... no. I'd have to sign up for Facebook, and no keyboard is worth that.

Offline SweGZzzz

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  • Location: Canada
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #6 on: Sun, 20 June 2021, 00:04:06 »
Yeah, Mr. Zucc had me under his control since I got a Quest 2 last year. Was it worth it? Not sure, but getting scared by ghosts is always good fun.

After giving it more than 10 seconds of thought, I won't I'll be grabbing these, at least any time soon.
Cool collectors pieces, but with all the troubles I'd have to go through to get it here, I don't think it's worth it.

Did I mention that the Pro Key was $100 and the Maxi Switch was $120? That ain't chump change for me.

Offline Maledicted

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  • Location: Wisconsin, United States
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 22 June 2021, 14:16:09 »
Being a mid 90s keyboard with what are effectively Windows keys, this is almost guaranteed to be a dome with slider board. I don't remember offhand if I have ever tried Maxi Switch dome with sliders, but they're basically usually just nice/less cheap rubber domes. I don't think Maxi Switch boards are particularly rare, they just don't tend to contain anything anybody particularly cares about.

I may have one with the same dome with sliders lying in my pile of random scrapyard boards. I would have to check. I know I wouldn't pay even a fraction of those prices for a mid 90s mystery board. I usually don't buy mystery boards unless they've got a 5-pin DIN plug and have no Windows keys (ala the original ANSI/Model M configuration).

Even then, shooting in the dark without some educated guesses is likely to net you a foam and foil or dome with slider board, which isn't necessary bad if that's what you're actually looking for.

Update: I do have a Maxi Switch dome with slider board. I had a feeling.

271085-0

This was in a batch of random gaylord pulls at a recycling facility. I have owned it for months but haven't cleaned it. Very tactile, nice and snappy. Stiffer than 55g Topre though, which is already too heavy for some people. I know I would take it over any modern MX tactiles/clones I have ever tried, but that says more about my opinion of MX than anything. There's no demand for dome with slider boards though, so shop around. You can usually find nice ones on Ebay for $20-40 USD.
« Last Edit: Tue, 22 June 2021, 18:37:43 by Maledicted »

Offline edlee

  • Posts: 22
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 26 November 2021, 16:48:08 »
I just purchased a used Pro Key 124 keyboard which did not come with a manual.  This keyboard feels and mostly functions like an early Gateway AnyKey keyboard which was also made by Maxi Switch.  The keys in the upper left corner labeled, "Field", and, "Delay", do not appear to do anything.  They do not return any scan codes with the hid_listen program.  The key between the left Ctrl and Alt keys also does not return a scan code.  The key between the right Ctrl and Alt keys also does not return a scan code.  It looks like I cannot use those keys with Soarer's converter unless I remap them to some other key with the keyboard's built-in ability to remap keys.

Offline edlee

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Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 26 November 2021, 18:09:17 »
It appears that the Field and Delay keys in the upper left corner of the Pro KEY 124 keyboard cannot be remapped or used as macro keys.  I wish I had a manual that tells me what these keys are supposed to do.

Offline edlee

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Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #10 on: Sat, 27 November 2021, 11:18:53 »
I figured out what the Field key does.  The Field key allows you to insert a data entry field in the middle of a macro.  This is a capability that does not exist on the Gateway AnyKey keyboards.  For example, you can press Program Macro and then press the key you want for the macro, such as the F1 key on the left side.  You can then type the text of the macro and press the Field key anywhere in the macro that requires dynamic user input.  So, you could type:

Dear Field:Enter

and press the Program Macro key to end the macro.  When you press F1, the keyboard will play back:

Dear

and pause for user input.  You can then type the text for the field, such as, "Mr. Lee", and press the Field key to end data entry.  The keyboard will then play back the rest of the macro recording, in this case the colon and the Enter key:

Dear Mr. Lee:

You can use the Field key more than once in a macro wherever dynamic data entry is required.

The Delay key seems to insert a delay into a macro, but I don't understand how I would use it.  While in the middle of recording a macro, you can press the Delay key twice.  The last key that you pressed before the first press of the Delay key will then be repeated for the duration of time in between the presses of the Delay key.  If you press the Delay key just once and begin to type some other text, then the last character that you typed before the Delay key will be repeated once after a pause before the rest of the macro plays back.

« Last Edit: Sat, 27 November 2021, 11:21:36 by edlee »

Offline edlee

  • Posts: 22
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #11 on: Sat, 27 November 2021, 11:28:46 »
I think I figured out how to use the Delay key.  You can press the Pause key before the Delay key to insert a delay.  You can either press the Delay key once and type the rest of your macro, or you can press the Delay key twice for a longer delay.
« Last Edit: Sat, 27 November 2021, 11:41:05 by edlee »

Offline edlee

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Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #12 on: Sat, 27 November 2021, 11:36:26 »
It looks like the Delay key inserts a 0.5 second delay each time that it is pressed rather than recording the time interval between presses of the Delay key.  So, the way you use the Delay key is you press the Pause key followed by the Delay key for each 0.5 second that you want to pause macro playback.

Offline Chalkboard

  • Posts: 32
Re: Anyone have info about this board?
« Reply #13 on: Sat, 27 November 2021, 16:26:07 »
It is basically an OEM Gateway 2000 AnyKey with MaxiSwitch dome with slider. Fully programmable and key remappable on the board without software or firmware tweaking.