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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: chimera15 on Sat, 16 May 2009, 13:59:42
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I've been surprised to find that I keep digging up compact alps keyboards, usually from Japan or China, but some apparently have had some distribution in the west as well.
Namely the mck-84sx(fx?) which is an english variant of a Japanese board and was produced in Taiwan, and now the kpt-84(aron) which is a korean board, but seems to have had a lot of different incarnations, such a gse early version with blue alps sliders and was sold in Germany as well.
Others of course are the Siig minitouch and smk-85.
Anyone know any others?
so far:
Siig minitouch original/ps2 kb1948/din kb1903/ Filco DFK-81E/ ortek mck-84 (fx)??
smk-85 original
ortek mck-84/86 sx/fx /filko fkb-86e / FKB89J/JUSTY JKB-89S mkb-84sx gm8mck-84bpad ortek
kpt-84(aron) GSE
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Found another one, the FILCO FKB-86E. Seems to be a clone of the mck-84/86.
Nice page here.
http://www.koredo.com/pc/old/kb.htm
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There actually is a current tenless Filco board with white ALPS ("XMs" in Filco-speak...)
The Filco Zero Tenkeyless... I believe there is a thread on it somewhere... Goes for about $130 shipped from jGoods....
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Think I might have found another, but I'm not sure, can anyone confirm? The
QTRONIX QX-083?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120315065552
I found another article on it here in Japanese, which based on my poor Japanese skills would seem to indicate it is a clicky at least?
http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~silencium/keyboard/html/otherpc.html#qx083
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There actually is a current tenless Filco board with white ALPS ("XMs" in Filco-speak...)
The Filco Zero Tenkeyless... I believe there is a thread on it somewhere... Goes for about $130 shipped from jGoods....
I don't consider the tenkeyless to be a true compact since it still retains the arrow and page down key in the extended format. Perhaps I should clearify I'm only interested in a list of true full sized key compacts, that use alps keyswitches, not simply space saver keyboards. Those that only have the keyset plus another line of pg keys, or less. Same goes for keyboards like the Nan Tan KB-6551.
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I found another article on it here in Japanese, which based on my poor Japanese skills would seem to indicate it is a clicky at least?
http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~silencium/keyboard/html/otherpc.html#qx083
"ラバードーム クリックタイプ" = rubber dome click type. Not sure what that's supposed to mean, but it does seem to be rubber domes.
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Think I might have found another, but I'm not sure, can anyone confirm? The
QTRONIX QX-083?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120315065552
I found another article on it here in Japanese, which based on my poor Japanese skills would seem to indicate it is a clicky at least?
http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~silencium/keyboard/html/otherpc.html#qx083
I did a better translation and figured out it's a rubber dome.
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"ラバードーム クリックタイプ" = rubber dome click type. Not sure what that's supposed to mean, but it does seem to be rubber domes.
Yup thanks! :)
I got excited. Thanks ;) I read click type first, and couldn't figure out rubber dome immediately. lol So is it a click type rubber dome? hmm.. maybe it's like an acer key or something... That page is interesting..has force measurements. Interesting to see how they compare
Oh I see.. 金属コイルバネ？？ クリックタイプ So that's the type of switch, or mechanical rubber dome, ect.
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I don't consider the tenkeyless to be a true compact since it still retains the arrow and page down key in the extended format. Perhaps I should clearify I'm only interested in a list of true full sized key compact, not simply space saver keyboards. Those that only have the keyset plus another line of pg keys, or less. Same goes for keyboards like the Nan Tan KB-6551.
The Tenkeyless is a lot smaller than it looks, as it's moved the arrow block closer and has very thin surrounds.
Nice page here.
http://www.koredo.com/pc/old/kb.htm
Interesting, the second keyboard on there is similar to a keyboard on ebay UK currently (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cherry-Keyboard-12-x-6_W0QQitemZ220415904742QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_ComputerComponents_KeyboardsMice?hash=item220415904742&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1690%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50), does it say what sort of keys it uses?
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The Tenkeyless is a lot smaller than it looks, as it's moved the arrow block closer and has very thin surrounds.
Interesting, the second keyboard on there is similar to a keyboard on ebay UK currently (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Cherry-Keyboard-12-x-6_W0QQitemZ220415904742QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_ComputerComponents_KeyboardsMice?hash=item220415904742&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1690%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50), does it say what sort of keys it uses?
It's not really about how small the keyboard is, but the format. If it's smaller than these compacts then it's not full sized keys. There are a lot of boards that are the same as the tenkeyless except they truncate off the page and arrow key's. It's not what I'm interested in. I think the siig minitouch/smk85 has the best format there is and don't really want any board that doesn't have that format anymore, but the problem is they're all out of production and expensive and hard or rare to find, so I'm trying to compile a list that I can make search's for on a regular basis.
I haven't looked again, but I'd guess it was rubber dome. My guess is that keyboard may be a scissor like in a laptop. I have a similar Japanese model to that. It's like the old lenovo keyboards. They have a tiny rubber dome to provide a bit of resistance and a scissor arrangement.
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I found another really interesting thing when looking at filco. Apparently the siig minitouch was rebranded by filco, or the siig minitouch is a rebranded filco board.
Filco DFK-81E2
(http://www.d2.dion.ne.jp/~n1093/LOVELOG_IMG/20041102412c2b2f.jpg)
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It's not really about how small the keyboard is, but the format. If it's smaller than these compacts then it's not full sized keys. There are a lot of boards that are the same as the tenkeyless except they truncate off the page and arrow key's. It's not what I'm interested in. I think the siig minitouch/smk85 has the best format there is and don't really want any board that doesn't have that format anymore, but the problem is they're all out of production and expensive and hard or rare to find, so I'm trying to compile a list that I can make search's for on a regular basis.
I haven't looked again, but I'd guess it was rubber dome. My guess is that keyboard may be a scissor like in a laptop. I have a similar Japanese model to that. It's like the old lenovo keyboards. They have a tiny rubber dome to provide a bit of resistance and a scissor arrangement.
Alright. I looked again. That page doesn't really specify what type of key those keyboards have. The writer basically just says what the keyboard sounds like and junk, not too useful.
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Found another one. Apparently the mck-84/86 sx/fx /filko fkb-86e Was rebranded yet again as the JUSTY JKB-89S. This is the Japanese version.
http://park16.wakwak.com/~ex4/kb/main_justy_jkb-89s.htm
(http://www.moon.sannet.ne.jp/uiui/pc/juskey01.jpg)
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Found a japanese version of the siig minitouch...cooool
This seems to be an ortek version, mck or mkb, but not sure exactly what the title is.
(http://homepage3.nifty.com/nish/minikeyboard/mkb04.jpg)
It's especially interesting that the backspace key was moved farther over to the right into the page key line to allow for the yen key to be in the number series, and the return key was diminished to a single line as well to allow for another key I'm not sure exactly what it is, after the p. I guess it's an @ key.
If this was the original format of this keyboard, and the english version was produced second to it, it might explain some of the arrangement of the siig minitouch, and why there's a blank key in the upper right.
I think this definitely puts a nail in the coffin of siig as far as being the producer of this keyboard. It's clear as with the plus version of the minitouch, they're just a repackager of a Japanese or far east produced board.
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So today I found a mkb-84sx at a medical supplier and bought their last one. My guess is that it's either a rebranded siig minitouch, or the filko fkb-86e type. I think ortek's can either be mkb's or mck's. Rebranded siigs or the real Japanese rarer type in the west. This place had it listed with mkb which was the only place on the net that had them like that, and for a good price. Pretty interesting. Be my 5th compact clicky though, yippie! I'll post pics when it comes, whatever it is it's likely to be a real odd duck.
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See my new thread about the mkb here: http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?p=91779#post91779
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Found a really great page on a siig minitouch from a korean page. Related to the kbdmania pages. Apprently he converted it to blue alps. Pretty sweet.
http://blog.paran.com/blog/detail/postBoard.kth?pmcId=redface2&blogDataId=17802127