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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: didjamatic on Sat, 12 June 2010, 22:57:12

Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: didjamatic on Sat, 12 June 2010, 22:57:12: The word is definitely out on Dolch (http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-DOLCH-SPACE-SAVER-CHERRY-KEYBOARD-PS-2-BLUE-/250650174453?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item3a5bea23f5#ht_5263wt_1137). Not too long ago 2 complete units with keyboards went for around $100. Not so much lately. This price is high but it IS a fully doubleshot cherry blue board that is PCB mounted, detachable PS/2 cord and more solidly built than most Cherry G1800's.
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: chimera15 on Sat, 12 June 2010, 23:08:23: ncbound never ceases to amaze me with the stuff he's got. Wonder where he finds it all.. He's got a one screw tbe without a ball too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Microsoft-Trackball-Explorer-Optical-USB-1-0-Trackball-/250646497546?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5bb2090a
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: kriminal on Sat, 12 June 2010, 23:58:58: yeah he is my favorite seller, :) only second to didj...
oh yeah LOL!! @ the thread name.
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: kriminal on Sun, 13 June 2010, 00:04:14: was pondering this (http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-AMPTRON-KEYBOARD-BLUE-CHERRY-SLIDERS-/290444249210?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item439fd3887a) too...
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: EverythingIBM on Sun, 13 June 2010, 00:49:03: Quote from: chimera15;192607
ncbound never ceases to amaze me with the stuff he's got. Wonder where he finds it all.. He's got a one screw tbe without a ball too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Microsoft-Trackball-Explorer-Optical-USB-1-0-Trackball-/250646497546?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5bb2090a

Well it's lunacy computers!
(http://www.lisisoft.com/imglisi/12/Action/3304lland_scr1.jpg)

Yeah, I'm surprised ncbound gets so many wonderful treasures. If I was him, I'd just keep all those wonderful treasures.
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: kishy on Sun, 13 June 2010, 01:03:38: Quote from: EverythingIBM;192649
If I was him, I'd just keep all those wonderful treasures.

That's...in all sincerity...quite in line with varying degrees of Asperger's syndrome.

Thread about this came up on the Vintage Computer forums a while back.
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: JBert on Sun, 13 June 2010, 15:35:27: Quote from: didjamatic;192601
The word is definitely out on Dolch (http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-DOLCH-SPACE-SAVER-CHERRY-KEYBOARD-PS-2-BLUE-/250650174453?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item3a5bea23f5#ht_5263wt_1137). Not too long ago 2 complete units with keyboards went for around $100. Not so much lately. This price is high but it IS a fully doubleshot cherry blue board that is PCB mounted, detachable PS/2 cord and more solidly built than most Cherry G1800's.
He says this is the first one which comes with a PS/2 connector instead of an RJ-xx connector, or to use a better term: it is plug and play.
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: didjamatic on Sun, 13 June 2010, 22:09:15: Correct, the Dolch Pac-60 has a PS/2 port on the left side, which a standard PS/2 cable can be used to connect it to your PC. Pac-61-64 models have to have a custom cable made because their cable is a RJ style. 60-64 all have Cherry Blues and Doubleshot keys as far as I know. Pac-65 could have MX switches or ML's, you can tell by looking at pics... if the board looks exactly like the earlier Pac models, it should be the kind you want. If it looks different, it's probably after the change to ML switches.

Ricercar sold me a Dolch Pac-60 keyboard and it's the best Cherry Blue keyboard I've used.
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: Findecanor on Mon, 14 June 2010, 04:13:08: I just won a Dolch unit with RJ-cable on eBay.

Who here has made a RJ-PS/2 converter and knows how to do it? Are the wires colour-coded, and in any sensible way?
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: didjamatic on Mon, 14 June 2010, 07:37:08: Congrats on the score! This may help.
(http://koti.mbnet.fi/gkos/gkosnet/gkos-y-cable-ps2.gif)

I'm happy to crack a Dolch board open if you want to see it. There has been a discussion of them including photos on this (http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=9033)thread.
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: ricercar on Tue, 15 June 2010, 12:51:04: Going out on a bicycle ride ... touring surplus electronics shops ... bringing panniers in case the Dolch 386 is still $39 ...
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: elbowglue on Wed, 16 June 2010, 00:42:43: Man if it is $39 bucks for a dolch that is a fricken steal! Sell it to me =)
Title: Pass the Dolch on de left hand side
Post by: Findecanor on Fri, 18 June 2010, 11:49:24: I have got my Dolch PAC-62 keyboard now, with "RJ-cable". There is no connector on the outside of the case, but there is a 4P4C-connector mounted to the circuit board inside the case! This is the same connector as on a typical telephone handset, and the cable is just as short and coiled as a typical handset cable.
Most likely, I will need only to make myself a new cable to make it work with my PC. I have just to find myself an old phone ...

Mine has got a ISO layout, which is what I am used to. The switch PCB and controller PCB were were both made by Cherry.

I noticed that the location of the Alt Gr key is the same as on a PC/AT keyboard with windows-keys, which means that my muscle memory for typing special characters does not have to be re-learned.
The space between Esc and F1 is smaller than on most PC keyboards, but there is no space between left Control and the Alt key which aligns it against the F1..F4 keys just as on a typical PC keyboard. This is nice for those of us who have established muscle memory for those key combos under Linux to switch console/workspace.

Smells nice too. :)