geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Daniel Beardsmore on Wed, 01 June 2011, 12:41:38
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8bs.org has resurfaced, and they've posted some interesting photos of the switches used in various BBC Microcomputers:
Keyswitches and keytops (http://8bs.com/insides.htm#Keyswitches%20and%20Keytops)
My Beebs have all (but one?) had the Type 1 keyboard. (I had one with a different, much better keyboard but it appears that I gave it away, which is really sad.)
The Type 2 switch bears a curious resemblance to an old Cherry MX switch (http://sandy55.fc2web.com/keyboard/old_cherry_mx.html) but they're not the same. I don't know how they differ from Type 4.
I'll ask 8bs to see if they can identify any of them or post some larger photos.
I don't know what the C64 had – it's said of a new C64 with PC innards, "The new Commodore 64 features genuine Cherry brand key switches, which provide a feel much better than the original". I don't know if that's because the new switches are tactile, or because the old ones were membrane.
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I have a Type I BBC Master keyboard lying around if you are interested in it.
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Thanks for the offer. I no longer have any Masters though, only two Model Bs (Issue 4 and Issue 7) and one spare Type 1 keyboard. The latter machine is tidied away, kept as a spare for when the Issue 4 machine finally dies. It has "Issue 4 Disease" where it keeps freezing, and the mean time between freezes decreases with use (until it crashes during POST) and increases with inactivity. No-one else ever recognises this symptom, but it's my third Issue 4 machine with it, and the behaviour pattern points to a bad capacitor somewhere.
I thought I'd mentioned the nasty Master keyswitches, maybe that was in the e-mail to 8bs. Masters have a very similar switch to the B, except they all wore out. I gave a friend's brother my only Master with a fully working keyboard along with the 20 MB HDD, mouse and Quest Paint, and I don't expect to ever see it again.