From afar I can see it a nice looking old board but I didn't have any noteworthy input until I reluctantly agreed to pitch in from my bit of google-fu skills. I am not sure if any of these links are useful but I hope they may continue to shed some light on the said topic.
I was looking for numbers or letters that I could harvest with on google to see what results comes up. There was a lacking closeup photo of the label printed on the side of the board;
(http://i.imgur.com/C9kwVul.jpg) I am looking in particiular at the inscriptions on the label printed with black backgroiund and white/silver letters.
I found a ebay listing of possibly the similar sort of keyboard but it has a slightly better photo of the inscriptions: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICRO-SWITCH-KEY-BOARD-KEYBOARD-KEY-PAD-CIRCUIT-BOARD-SW-12589-63SW5-15-S-/300621173764
(From ebay listing):
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/MICRO-SWITCH-KEY-BOARD-KEYBOARD-KEY-PAD-CIRCUIT-BOARD-SW-12589-63SW5-15-S-/00/s/NTU4WDEwMjQ=/$(KGrHqYOKocE6vyuSoknBOuZEMnW+!~~60_1.JPG)
I then found this link: http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f8/1977-microswitch-keyboard-t5395.html
Of some interesting hint was this:
Microswitch is a division of Honeywell. It was purchased in 1950 by Honeywell (first started in 1932 in Freeport, Illinois).
Source. (http://deskthority.net/post104267.html#p104267)
Another thread of interest: http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f8/micro-switch-64sw1-4-t3906.html
Could there be another PCB that is missing in your photos (CommunistWitchDr)?
Show Image
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JAatF2TD-s0/UFes4xpj0OI/AAAAAAAAIYw/VhIyMNNGarY/s800/2012-09-17%252015.33.58.jpg)
Source. (http://deskthority.net/post76583.html#p76583)
Unfortunately other ASCII bits and pieces resulted in nothing relevant on google search apart from the words "microswitch keyboard".
What was this used for originally? Any idea?
The previous owner says it was from a military computer (air force IIRC), but I don't know the exact application.
Is that space larger than a 10x space? o_o
It's actually only 8x. The keys look larger than cherry keys (at least they did to me) but they actually have right about the same dimensions on the bottom.
From afar I can see it a nice looking old board but I didn't have any noteworthy input until I reluctantly agreed to pitch in from my bit of google-fu skills. I am not sure if any of these links are useful but I hope they may continue to shed some light on the said topic.
I was looking for numbers or letters that I could harvest with on google to see what results comes up. There was a lacking closeup photo of the label printed on the side of the board;
Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/C9kwVul.jpg)
I am looking in particiular at the inscriptions on the label printed with black backgroiund and white/silver letters.
I found a ebay listing of possibly the similar sort of keyboard but it has a slightly better photo of the inscriptions: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICRO-SWITCH-KEY-BOARD-KEYBOARD-KEY-PAD-CIRCUIT-BOARD-SW-12589-63SW5-15-S-/300621173764
(From ebay listing):
Show Image
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/MICRO-SWITCH-KEY-BOARD-KEYBOARD-KEY-PAD-CIRCUIT-BOARD-SW-12589-63SW5-15-S-/00/s/NTU4WDEwMjQ=/$(KGrHqYOKocE6vyuSoknBOuZEMnW+!~~60_1.JPG)
I then found this link: http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f8/1977-microswitch-keyboard-t5395.html
Of some interesting hint was this:
Microswitch is a division of Honeywell. It was purchased in 1950 by Honeywell (first started in 1932 in Freeport, Illinois).
Source. (http://deskthority.net/post104267.html#p104267)
Another thread of interest: http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f8/micro-switch-64sw1-4-t3906.html
Could there be another PCB that is missing in your photos (CommunistWitchDr)?
Show Image
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JAatF2TD-s0/UFes4xpj0OI/AAAAAAAAIYw/VhIyMNNGarY/s800/2012-09-17%252015.33.58.jpg)
Source. (http://deskthority.net/post76583.html#p76583)
Unfortunately other ASCII bits and pieces resulted in nothing relevant on google search apart from the words "microswitch keyboard".
There is no second PCB. At least nothing present, and by the looks of things nothing missing either. I think that hall board with two PCBs HaaTa had was a much older one than mine.
I took some more pics of the keyboard labels, snapped one of pretty much anything with a number.
(http://i.imgur.com/RDuKbw1.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/3ChdjEe.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/dlGllp4.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/2QhkfWU.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/8VD9qOb.jpg)
There is no second PCB. At least nothing present, and by the looks of things nothing missing either. I think that hall board with two PCBs HaaTa had was a much older one than mine.
I took some more pics of the keyboard labels, snapped one of pretty much anything with a number.
Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/RDuKbw1.jpg)
Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/3ChdjEe.jpg)
Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/dlGllp4.jpg)
Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/2QhkfWU.jpg)
Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/8VD9qOb.jpg)
Thanks for the photos. The last photo I was able to get the information I need from your initial thread however all of these inscriptions, numbers, etc seems to be cropping up nothing useful on google search. At least not for images anyway. I guess part of the blame would have been the fact that the keyboard predated the time of internet (on a global scale).
The ribbon cable I thought in your initial post was way too big/thick. As a result maybe there might have been an "intermediate board" in between to communicate with that ribbon cable. Also the lack of IC (Integrated Chipset) is somewhat of a little concern (at least to me). Apart from that the cable looks like it is probably as big as those IDE/SCSI cables used on hard drives.
I am pretty much stumped at this point as to what other further information I can harvest out.
Good luck with the modern conversion! I'll try and keep tabs on it and maybe add some inputs where possible.