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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: leoblack9 on Thu, 24 May 2012, 06:48:17

Title: Stumbled on a pile of old keyboards, help identify a good one
Post by: leoblack9 on Thu, 24 May 2012, 06:48:17

Hi GH, I'm leo.

I--

• joined this forum after starting my quest to find a good mechanical kb. Good (for me) means tactile is not linear / mushy.
• don't have money so I look at thrift stores / flea markets to find second hands or surplus keyboards.
• was lucky to find a stash of them in a Japanese surplus store nearby.
• was unlucky to find out that these are mostly rubber domes and the others that aren't are linear switches / mushy. Also unlucky to find out that the owner of this store takes the clicky / tactile ones for himself and ships them somewhere else.
• came here anyway to ask for help identify the value (or lack of) what I've found so I can probably resell them online or somewhere for a higher value.

Sorry I don't know how to attach images here so I'm putting a link to my gallery (http://www.flickr.com/photos/64593460@N06/sets/72157629875553476/detail/)

Title: Stumbled on a pile of old keyboards, help identify a good one
Post by: leoblack9 on Fri, 25 May 2012, 10:55:38

Done with the first step, now to tinker with that vb4 image contraption...

btw nice font thread, and I'm studying information design; I'm a typographic hipster though.

Title: Stumbled on a pile of old keyboards, help identify a good one
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Fri, 25 May 2012, 10:58:36

Bunch of rubberdomes, though the Gateway seems it may have MX compatible keycaps. I am sure there are some that would be interested in a set of JIS layout keycap.

Title: Stumbled on a pile of old keyboards, help identify a good one
Post by: leoblack9 on Fri, 25 May 2012, 11:01:20

Quote from: lysol;599904

Bunch of rubberdomes, though the Gateway seems it may have MX compatible keycaps. I am sure there are some that would be interested in a set of JIS layout keycap.

That's what I thought too, but what switches are they exactly? Not the typical rubber dome in a hole I'm used to.

Yes the gateway does have some sort of tactility on it, it felt decent typing on. Which keyboard are you referring to with the JIS layout? The yellowed ones?

Title: Stumbled on a pile of old keyboards, help identify a good one
Post by: czarek on Fri, 25 May 2012, 11:13:04

Hmm rather than asking for judgement based on looking at pics, isn't it better to try them all and just pick the ones that feel the best?
I personally wouldn't mind reading reviews of some nice feeling rare boards.

Title: Stumbled on a pile of old keyboards, help identify a good one
Post by: leoblack9 on Fri, 25 May 2012, 11:16:52

Quote from: czarek;599923

Hmm rather than asking for judgement based on looking at pics, isn't it better to try them all and just pick the ones that feel the best?
I personally wouldn't mind reading reviews of some nice feeling rare boards.

The only ones decent to type on are the Gateway, the Logitech (not seen in the gallery), and the Elecom keyboard.

All the other keyboards felt like utter donkey dung. My fingers were asking me wth was I typing on as i press the very very mushy keys of the other keyboards (special mention: the NEC yellow board). But feeling aside, I also wanted to know if there was some value to it.

Title: Stumbled on a pile of old keyboards, help identify a good one
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Fri, 25 May 2012, 11:17:28

The Gateway might be oem'd by BTC, it looks like their sliders and your description of the feel sounds like also. BTC are fairly good for domes board.

Title: Stumbled on a pile of old keyboards, help identify a good one
Post by: leoblack9 on Fri, 25 May 2012, 11:21:05

Quote from: lysol;599933

The Gateway might be oem'd by BTC, it looks like their sliders and your description of the feel sounds like also. BTC are fairly good for domes board.

Alright, I will keep an eye on that one.