geekhack
geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: Melvang on Fri, 27 June 2014, 04:23:54
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So I stopped into my local (hour away) e-waste shop and I was talking to the guy in the back that handles the ebay side and he showed me these beautiful specimens.
This beauty (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-AID-3-CDA-Keyboard-with-Trackball-and-DB-9-Female-Connector-Geekhack-/161334504915?pt=US_Vintage_Computing_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2590492dd3) has pretty short keystroke and seems to feel like rubber domes but feels very close to a MX Clear in terms of tactility and feels very even across the board. Not mushy at all. The legends I am guessing are lasered and old due to the fading to a slight purple/with reddish tones.
These beauties (http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-ADDS-VIEWPOINT-VPT-3A-KEYBOARD-and-4-355-11200-KB-BOARDS-/390860907875?pt=US_Vintage_Computing_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5b01202563) are a very linear switch with a spring on the outside of the switch mechanism. I didn't see any soldered connections on the bottom side of the PCB but when holding up to the light you can see two large pads that almost resemble the pads on a capacitive PCB keyboard. Any idea what these are? If I remember correctly they said Keytronics on the bottom in a couple places printed in different methods between different boards.
Guess who said keyboard enthusiast is in the second link.
Edit: After looking at Deskthority's wiki I am leaning toward foam and foil on the second one. Granted they felt a bit on the scratchy side but felt surprisingly nice but had some fairly thick abs SA style caps.
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What you're describing about the second link sounds really similar to my foam & foil board, I bet that's what they are.
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the adds viewpoint are keytronic foam and foil. I suspected as much, and received confirmation from the seller.
I pulled off the 0, comma, and period keys off te keypad and they said KEYTRONIC on the top and SPOKANE on the bottom. Each one has a spring to make key come up after depressing. Looks like you were right. Are these of any value?
I have a vintage keytronic wang terminal keyboard that I thought was quite nice.
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I was sure I read about the AID-3 on GH sometime before. Here is all I could find now when I searched though:
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=47318.5