geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: iowaseven on Sun, 11 January 2015, 21:23:40
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So I just got a keyboard from a Beeb from ebay, with the intent of harvesting its wonderful, wonderful doubleshot caps. I used to use a Beeb as a kid, and wanted the caps, but I figured that if the board was nice to type on, I may de-solder the mechs and solder them onto a harvested modern pcb. Firstly, they are linear, where as I thought that I remembered them being tactile, and secondly, they feel horrible! The board seems to be in decent condition, so I don't think it's rusty inside or anything. The only way I could tell it was as old as it is is from the dust (which probably belonged to the biological matter of people who are now dead. Kinda spooky come to think of it.) However, the keys feel squelchy and just... wrong. Rubber domes feel better! The only key that doesn't feel completely terrible is, oddly enough, the space bar, which is a lot lighter to bottom out, and feels like a looser mx red. Does anyone have a Beeb they can talk to me about? I last used one in the early 90s, so maybe the problem is with me.
Because I just purchased the board, I'm not sure which revision or version of the Beeb it's from. The cap fittings look like cherrys, but arn't compatible. I can provide pics if anyone needs them.
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According to the page on the Deskthority wiki (http://deskthority.net/wiki/Acorn_BBC_Microcomputer) there were several different keyboards used in the BBC Micro and almost all variants were linear.
The Master Compact had rubber dome switches, that would have been tactile. There was also the rare
PED key switch (http://deskthority.net/wiki/PED_keyswitch) in some original BBC Micro and supposedly it feels different to the other ones and it is unclear whether it was tactile or linear.
There are pictures on the DT Wiki that you can compare yours to. (maybe not in the article on the Acorn BBC, but you could click around).
(I expect Daniel Beardsmore who wrote that article to chip in later...)
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First thing to do is pull a keycap and take a photo of the switch and we can see which keyboard you've got.
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First thing to do is pull a keycap and take a photo of the switch and we can see which keyboard you've got.
+1
There are plenty of pretty old switches that use cruciform stems that aren't MX compatible. Also, early Cherry switches like M5/6/7