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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: mr_a500 on Thu, 18 November 2010, 10:01:38
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Has anybody here heard of or used a George Risk keyboard? I once heard somebody mention the best keyboard they ever used was a George Risk keyboard. I finally got around to researching it - and it seems they're still being made.
http://www.grisk.com/keyboard/8095.html (http://www.grisk.com/keyboard/8095.html)
(http://www.grisk.com/keyboard/images/8095.gif)
And the smaller one:
http://www.grisk.com/keyboard/3075.html (http://www.grisk.com/keyboard/3075.html)
(http://www.grisk.com/keyboard/images/3075.jpg)
It looks nice and retro - doubleshot keycaps with spherical tops, old style weirdo layout, metal case, magnetic reed switches with gold contacts.... wait a minute, I'm starting to drool here... and optional custom keycaps.
I have no idea what it costs for all this goodness, but I wish I was rich enough not to care.
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I've typed quite much on magnetic reed switch. IIRC, the tactility comes from a spring so it must've been plain linear. Was painful to service a faulty key that starts to chatter.
The first keyboard's page has a dead PDF link.
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Hmm, interesting.
Now, how to acquire one...
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They list individual switches too. Could be interesting.
George Risk. Sounds like a movie hero.
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George Risk. Sounds like a movie hero.
Barack Hussein Obama...is now known as...
George Risk
(http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Politics/Images/barack-obama-president-of-awesome.jpg)
Christmas 2010. Coming to a theater near you.
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Little nitpicking, but they don't say anything about magnetic reed switches. They just say gold plated, self cleaning, mechanical contacts.
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It's not? Then how do you explain this, SIR?
(http://imgur.com/P4kQm.png)
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It's not? Then how do you explain this, SIR?
My brain just imploded.
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If it had a Tab key it would be a Tabby.
I am so officially disturbed now, Ripster. Thanks?
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How does a mechanical switch clean itself?
It's not a cat.
Well, it may not be a cat, but I'd think "self-cleaning" simply means that normal usage is sufficient to keep the contacts nice and shiny. Gold-plated contacts have very low wetting current requirements.
If you've ever had to clean or replace a protection relay in a hi-fi amplifier or rx/tx relay in a transceiver, you know what is not "self-cleaning". Those protection relays typically have silver-plated contacts which can be switched under load if needed (unlike their gold-plated colleagues), but if the relay isn't at least halfway airtight, the contacts will slowly oxidize due to sulfur compounds in the air (like silver cutlery). Usually there is not enough current flowing over them to burn away these oxide layers, which in turn build up over time, degrading damping factor and eventually even causing intermittency. Silver-plated contacts need about two orders of magnitude more wetting current than gold-plated ones, so you might see like 20 mA vs. 0.3 mA.
(I once had the pleasure of cleaning a drum tuner with silver-plated contacts in a VEF 206. Those didn't look too good before, and the set didn't say much either. Heck, the old Grundig Satellit sets had drum tuners with gold-plated ones which commonly STILL need good cleaning to restore optimum reception.)
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Self cleaning means the contacts slide against each other as they connect, rather than going straight together. Thus the contact points wipe each other each time the switch is actuated, helping to keep oxide at bay.
Were they magnetic reed switches, they wouldn't be self cleaning, nor would there be any point in them being so, because magnetic reed switches are hermetically sealed, so there is no possibility of oxide formation or contamination.
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Doesn't really make sense for me atm, but it looks like you can ask for catalogs.
http://www.grisk.com/info_request_keyboard.htm (http://www.grisk.com/info_request_keyboard.htm)
Edit: NVM Email is an option :P
Edit2: Sent them a message. Now to see what happens.
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That website is like stepping back in time 20 years