geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: engicoder on Tue, 28 July 2015, 19:28:08
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Cross post from DT (http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/itt-courier-1700-keyboard-help-id-the-switches-t11225.html)
I recently picked up an ITT Courier keyboard that was used with the ITT Courier 1700 terminal, a competitor for the IBM 3178 in the early mid 80's. The keyboard is quite beefy at over 3 kg. It has cast upper and lower case halves. The switches are the interesting part. I am not familiar with them and was hoping someone could identify them. There is a Micro Switch sticker on the plate. The switches are very short and appear to sit on top of a single membrane, sandwiched between two plates. They are very tactile and have a solid metallic sound. After bending a few tabs to separate the metal plates, I discovered that it uses a diaphragm spring over membrane mechanism. The switch plunger acts on a coil spring, which acts on the diaphragm spring (similar to the beam spring). When the diaphragm buckles, it makes contact with the membrane sheet.
Here are some pics:
(http://deskthority.net/w/images/thumb/c/c3/ITT-Courier-1700-Front.JPG/1200px-ITT-Courier-1700-Front.JPG) (http://deskthority.net/w/images/c/c3/ITT-Courier-1700-Front.JPG)
(http://deskthority.net/w/images/thumb/a/ad/ITT-Courier-1700-PCB-Switches-Front.JPG/1200px-ITT-Courier-1700-PCB-Switches-Front.JPG) (http://deskthority.net/w/images/a/ad/ITT-Courier-1700-PCB-Switches-Front.JPG)
(http://deskthority.net/w/images/thumb/f/fb/ITT-Courier-1700-Rear-Plate-2.JPG/1200px-ITT-Courier-1700-Rear-Plate-2.JPG) (http://deskthority.net/w/images/f/fb/ITT-Courier-1700-Rear-Plate-2.JPG)
(http://deskthority.net/w/images/thumb/0/00/ITT-Courier-1700-Switch-Top.JPG/1200px-ITT-Courier-1700-Switch-Top.JPG) (http://deskthority.net/w/images/0/00/ITT-Courier-1700-Switch-Top.JPG)
(http://deskthority.net/w/images/thumb/9/9e/ITT-Courier-1700-Switch-Leaf-All.JPG/1200px-ITT-Courier-1700-Switch-Leaf-All.JPG) (http://deskthority.net/w/images/9/9e/ITT-Courier-1700-Switch-Leaf-All.JPG)
(http://deskthority.net/w/images/thumb/6/69/ITT-Courier-1700-Membrane.JPG/1200px-ITT-Courier-1700-Membrane.JPG) (http://deskthority.net/w/images/6/69/ITT-Courier-1700-Membrane.JPG)
Here is a short video of the sound: