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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Mental Hobbit on Fri, 05 March 2010, 06:05:03

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: Mental Hobbit on Fri, 05 March 2010, 06:05:03

Last weeks dunno-why-i-bought-it-but-it-was-only-one-euro:



White Alps, tactile, clicky. Didn't feel like opening a switch, but the smooth feel indicates complicated ones.



Plastic backplate. Feels surprisingly good and solid though.



No clue on the manufacturer, not even a "made in..." anywhere to be found. Neither outside, nor inside, nor on the PCB.



Turned out an exceptionally nice, compact full-size keyboard. Despite it's cheap plastic built, it feels solid and reliable. Switches are smooth and precise, without any hint of the common alpsy friction. Great fun to type on.
It seems to have a rather unusual matrix: Initially I thought it had NKRO, as it registers up to 12 keypresses - but only in the same row. Actually it has only a measly 2KRO.

Anyway, a good example for a very well built low cost keyboard. Cherry engineers should take a close look.

Does anybody have a clue who might have manufactured this little plastic gem?

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: ch_123 on Fri, 05 March 2010, 06:08:17

Do the switches say "ALPS" on them (specifically, on the top below the slider)? Sometimes the marking is faded, so your picture is ambiguous.

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: Mental Hobbit on Fri, 05 March 2010, 06:15:06

Yes, it's not visible on the photo, but the switches do say ALPS.

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: Half-Saint on Fri, 05 March 2010, 08:18:04

Nice find!!! Sieht fast wie neu aus!

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: Nonmouse on Fri, 05 March 2010, 10:25:18

Nedfield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedfield) AKA Tulip (http://www.tulip.com/Default.aspx?cms=2) Computers.  An old (http://'http://www.tulipgv.nl/ts1.htm') Tulip system.

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: quadibloc on Fri, 05 March 2010, 12:26:51

Quote from: Nonmouse;161964

An old (http://www.tulipgv.nl/ts1.htm) Tulip system.

There was a problem with this link to

http://www.tulipgv.nl/ts1.htm

which is a page with interesting pictures.

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: Nonmouse on Fri, 05 March 2010, 13:13:53

Quote from: quadibloc;161983

There was a problem with this link to

http://www.tulipgv.nl/ts1.htm

which is a page with interesting pictures.

D'oh.  " instead of '.  Is fixed now.

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: Mental Hobbit on Fri, 05 March 2010, 13:41:20

Quote from: Half-Saint;161950

Nice find!!! Sieht fast wie neu aus!

It's in mint comdition. Must have spent all his life in a box. =)

Quote from: ripster;161960

Looks very much like the internals of my Focus 2001 - not exact but close.  

Looks indeed very similar. Does the Focus have a plastic backplate too? Who manufactured Focus keyboards?

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: kode on Fri, 05 March 2010, 16:14:56

I had an old tulip laptop, 386, about A4 sized. Disk died a few years back. I may have it around somewhere, but it's likely I threw it away instead.

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: keyb_gr on Thu, 11 March 2010, 14:36:16

FKD = Monterey Int'l Corp., so that seems to be a Monterey K108.

Title: Tulip what?
Post by: Mental Hobbit on Thu, 11 March 2010, 14:47:58

Quote from: keyb_gr;163230

FKD = Monterey Int'l Corp., so that seems to be a Monterey K108.

The only legend on the PCB says "K108", didn't even mention that as I thought it couldn't help with identification. Thank you very much keyb_gr! =)

I've only ever heard of Monterey as the namesake of Monterey switches, but never seen a keyboard made by them. Does anybody know of other boards?