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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Jgs5093 on Thu, 21 March 2013, 19:50:44
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Something about the color of the font on those keys is fantastic.
(http://i.imgur.com/mayKJVP.jpg)
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seen those on ebay many times, can you pull a keycap and turn it backwards so we can see if its double shot ABS and its thikness, or is it PBT and its thinkness. If its PBT they look like dyesub, but they might be printed which I doubt.
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It is a HP workstation keyboard. BTW, there is a HP logo on the keyboard.
The switches are leaf-spring. There have been a few threads about it on Geekhack before.
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Yeah those keyboards shipped with HP Vectras - I loved the look, feel and unique profile. Thinking of picking one up.
[)amien
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That was a fast home run.
It is a HP workstation keyboard. BTW, there is a HP logo on the keyboard.
The switches are leaf-spring. There have been a few threads about it on Geekhack before.
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Very similar to red alert sets...interesting.
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Slightly clicky and tactile leaf spring, at that. Not particularly pleasant though, probably due to the odd keycaps that don't tolerate off-center presses well at all. Note that the versions ending in 1A are dome and looks identical. Other versions may be dome too; YMMV.
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Sorry for making a duplicate post, is the 5 pin din that it has standard or is it mapped like a console keyboard?
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You need a custom converter (which I've built already), for the 1A version. Not sure about other versions, but they are likely similar.
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It is a HP workstation keyboard. BTW, there is a HP logo on the keyboard.
The switches are leaf-spring. There have been a few threads about it on Geekhack before.
Uh. No.
That particular model is a C1405A#ABA. Which A) is SDL to DIN5 and speaks AT and B) is rubber dome (http://www.recycledgoods.com/zoom/16540). The C1405A shipped with Vectra, Kayak and NetServer. I believe the caps are dye-sub PBT but it's been ages since I touched one.
The keyboard you seem to be thinking of is the C1429A#ABA, which looks similar but is an entirely different beast and shipped with the HP 9000 730's IIRC. Still rubber dome.
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Uh. No.
That particular model is a C1405A#ABA. Which A) is SDL to DIN5 and speaks AT and B) is rubber dome (http://www.recycledgoods.com/zoom/16540). The C1405A shipped with Vectra, Kayak and NetServer. I believe the caps are dye-sub PBT but it's been ages since I touched one.
The keyboard you seem to be thinking of is the C1429A#ABA, which looks similar but is an entirely different beast and shipped with the HP 9000 730's IIRC. Still rubber dome.
Woops. Shamefur dispray! Especially since I own one.
46010A is the one with leaf springs (mostly?), with the 46011A being dome. And of course looks rather different in terms of layout. I blame lack of sleep.
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I stand corrected. The leaf-spring keyboards have similar keys, though.
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Hmm, I'd argue that this one is probably AT or PS/2 due to the leds. The protocol for the converter I built has no way of communicating back to the keyboard.
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Theres a zillion of these for sale right now at the local San Jose electronics salvage shop WeirdStuff. Probably 30 or so. theyre solid keyboards and look pretty cool, but they are in fact rubberdome.
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When I was there a while ago (last fall), I'm pretty sure I found at least one that was fujitsu leaf spring, though I didn't pick it up as I had too much other stuff I was grabbing :P.
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Theres a zillion of these for sale right now at the local San Jose electronics salvage shop WeirdStuff. Probably 30 or so. theyre solid keyboards and look pretty cool, but they are in fact rubberdome.
Went there, they had about 3 of the AT style and about 3-4 of the odd terminal layout ones. Picked one up for $1 :)
Also picked up a 3M/Razer branded optical mouse surface (my desk is glass) for $0.95... strangely no amount of Googling came up with this thing.
[)amien
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Theres a zillion of these for sale right now at the local San Jose electronics salvage shop WeirdStuff. Probably 30 or so. theyre solid keyboards and look pretty cool, but they are in fact rubberdome.
Went there, they had about 3 of the AT style and about 3-4 of the odd terminal layout ones. Picked one up for $1 :)
Also picked up a 3M/Razer branded optical mouse surface (my desk is glass) for $0.95... strangely no amount of Googling came up with this thing.
[)amien
well i was there a week ago, and they had probably 30-40 of those boards just chilling in a huge pile out back with the rest of the cheap keyboards. Too bad theyre pretty much useless, they look kinda cool.
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I wouldn't say useless, they're one of the best rubber domes I've used and have some unique features such as the keycaps profile and the nice purple dyesub + font.
I just cracked mine open and also found a couple of surprising things about the plate over the rubber dome/membrane.
First off it's made of steel which explains both the weight and the fact it feels so good for a rubber dome.
Secondly you know all those blanked off keys? Well, there are holes in the plate... and bumps on the dome... and membrane contact points for them.
[)amien
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Hmm, either my memory isn't so great or the rubber is a bit mushy with time.
The keycaps are really nice though, pretty sure they're PBT. They sink but I don't have any spare keys to throw nail polish remover at yet.
Also, I put a key in the bottom row left blank and remapped it to left Windows key. Works a treat.
Now how would I go about getting these caps mounted on a Cherry or an Alps...
[)amien
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Those are some really nice looking caps, shame that they're rubber dome.
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Sadly, the font is copyrighted to HP so I don't think we could get SP to manufacture these in Cherry MX quite so easily.
As far as material/color - SP ABS RBC for legends. GTH, GSC, and I think WFM. (Yes, the base is tricolor.)
Sadly, I don't think the really, really styling caps of the HP .. I forget which model it is, but it's got cut keycaps. You know which one I'm talking about. Also rubber dome, similar to C1405A, but even cooler.
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Sadly, the font is copyrighted to HP so I don't think we could get SP to manufacture these in Cherry MX quite so easily.
As far as material/color - SP ABS RBC for legends. GTH, GSC, and I think WFM. (Yes, the base is tricolor.)
The font is Universe except for some symbols which looks like Helvetica on ?'";*
Additionally while you can copyright a TTF/OTF file you can't actually copyright the visual look of a typeface in the USA. (The TTF/OTF file is copyrightable only because it contains hinting which are small programs for laying out the pixels on-screen).
As a side note my HP Keyboard I picked up is PS/2 not AT.
[)amien