Does anyone have info on this old keyboard?

[woody]

I had some Silitek keyboard, bought in 1993, which I cannot find anymore, but I just recovered it's packing box .. well, empty. The part number on the box says "Silitek SK-4100R-1U".

Anyone have it or at least some info - what type was it? I can't cite the proper mumbo-jumbo for Google to be useful, so I'd be thankful to anyone with bits of information.
________
vaporizer

[woody]

No cookies for anyone!! That mysterious Silitek will haunt me for the rest of my life ...

Now for the advanced question - I had in storage some kind of terminal keyboard, and I just took time to take some photos of it. I received it couple of years ago, and I was told it's got serial output and is capacitive. For sure it's got nice keycaps. :-)

Keybord overall. I got it this way, no case, but it's got sturdy frame:



Left side, notice the uber-geek F0 key:



Right side, it's got also C1..C4 keys:



MCU & EPROM:



Bottom side of hand-routed PCB:



Zoom of PCB revision:



Zoom of PCB production sticker. "Keytronic Corporation, Spokane WA", 1982:



Look at them springs:



Anyone got info about it?

[msiegel]

pretty nice!

...sorry, i know nothing

[InSanCen]

I've not encountered the keytronic, but I'll take a stab at Foam n Foil. Loving the keys though, do they pull so we can see the bottom of the cap?

[woody]

Yes, I pulled one and it looked very nice. Each key base is labeled "Keytronic", just as you can see on the right of the spacebar in one of the photos, where random light shines favourably by some chance.

I will try taking a keycap and bare key shots, but I just got a fixed non-macro 50mm lens and no lighting at all.
________
Gaston Chevrolet specifications

[InSanCen]

I will try taking a keycap and bare key shots, but I just got a fixed non-macro 50mm lens and no lighting at all.

Use a tripod, ad crop down after the shot. It does a good enough job usually.

[Findecanor]

The BBC Micro had a row of function keys very similar to this keyboard. F0 through F9 were red. The rest of the BBC keyboard was black, though.

Other than that, the layout is pretty standard: DEC's standard, which seems to have had many followers at the time, both for terminals and for personal computers.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Those keycaps look high quality. Double shots ?

[keyboardlover]

On the next episode of 'This Old Keyboard'...

[woody]

In the new episode - GH erotics.

Keycaps:


Nice old-school double-shots, big springs.

Looking at the PCB, I think the probability of being a capacitive keyboard is quite big. There are two ICs that might be because of this. There is an EPROM for those wanting to spend time in RE.

Soon I'll probably check how is Ripster's cat doing in there - power up the board and look for serial output or signs of life. After that maybe will offer it to collectors, dunno yet.

[woody]

Update - the lazy me got to actually test the beast. It's alive and well, some 28 years after production. :biggrin: It has had to be from a terminal, since it's got serial output. I have looked over the net at the various VT terminals introduced before 1983, but nothing comes close judging by pictures. Still a mystery, being a US product.

Power: +5V
Output: TTL level UART, 300 bps, 8n2

The function key row gives sweet codes 0xC0 .. 0xCE, and the numpad is wild as well, with the '.' at 0xCF and "Enter" at 0xA0. Now a keyboard with both Return and Enter, how cool is that!

For those typing at more than 27 cps, this keyboard will be definitely limiting.:lol: I don't know, there are some other pins on the header, so it could potentially have UART input and commands to configure higher comm speeds.

It's got a nice red LED in CapsLock, too.

Kinda keyboard hacker's dream - supposedly capacitive switches, high quality thick double-shot keycaps, socketed DIL40 MCU, socketed EPROM, UART output. Even off-the-shelf TTL UART to USB converter might bring this sturdy board to current PCs.

What do you think - should I offer it to collectors, or keep it?

[KillerBee]

What do you think - should I offer it to collectors, or keep it?

I had a similar dilemma with my 1985 Model M and I was going to sell it because I had not tried it and deemed it incompatible with PC's but a controller swap aided that and she types great and hence I did not sell it.

SO just as long you dont get it to work you should sell it

[woody]

Ah, it's easy for myself to make it interface to PS/2, USB or whatever. The problem is I don't have infinite storage, nor intention to collect keyboards. I just appreciate them. :-) And while I dig it very much, for the build/history/interface/etc, I really have to give up on pack rat behaviour.

Perhaps will go to Classifieds.

[mr_a500]

Left side, notice the uber-geek F0 key:

Show Image

Right side, it's got also C1..C4 keys:

Show Image

That is very nice. Somehow, it reminds me a bit of the "Mother computer" keyboard in the original "Alien".  (except that one had weirdo symbols on it)

[Sam]

I had some Silitek keyboard, bought in 1993, which I cannot find anymore, but I just recovered it's packing box .. well, empty. The part number on the box says "Silitek SK-4100R-1U".

Anyone have it or at least some info - what type was it? I can't cite the proper mumbo-jumbo for Google to be useful, so I'd be thankful to anyone with bits of information.

Silitek is a division of LiteOn Technology Corp, so you might have better luck searching using "Lite-On" or "Liteon" and variations of the model number.

[Sam]

No cookies for anyone!! That mysterious Silitek will haunt me for the rest of my life ...

Now for the advanced question - I had in storage some kind of terminal keyboard, and I just took time to take some photos of it. I received it couple of years ago, and I was told it's got serial output and is capacitive. For sure it's got nice keycaps. :-)

Keybord overall. I got it this way, no case, but it's got sturdy frame:

Show Image

Left side, notice the uber-geek F0 key:

Show Image

Right side, it's got also C1..C4 keys:

Show Image

MCU & EPROM:

Show Image

Bottom side of hand-routed PCB:

Show Image

Zoom of PCB revision:

Show Image

Zoom of PCB production sticker. "Keytronic Corporation, Spokane WA", 1982:

Show Image

Look at them springs:

Show Image

Anyone got info about it?

That keyboard reminds me somewhat of some of the keyboards on old Hewlett Packard and other manufacturer's test equipment.

[woody]

Thanks, Sam.

I have tried Lite-On search as well (even if they merged with Silitek after Y2K), but to no avail. What I wanted to know is the key type, as I have forgotten everything about it already. Was it a membrane contact with some mech on top?

Found this picture on an ebay-like Serbian site:




As to the terminal board - full mystery. It has a pound sign, so must've been UK-related somehow.

[ch_123]

Looks like a capacitive foam and foil keyboard. Probably for some sort of clone of the DEC VT-100.

[spolia optima]

Yup, it's an old Keytronic foam-and-foil. In nice condition, too. The foam is probably nothing but dust after 28 years of use/storage, so you might want to consider replacing the foam if you ever get it working.

[woody]

I am fairly sure it' capacitive, butI don't know about the foam. It is working fine, btw. No strange sounds, foam crumblings or anything. Uniform key feeling across the board. Each key produces output code the way I expect it to work.

I am not saying it is definitely not foam - I'm just saying that I don't know this, and it's in an excellent working condition. Since I couldn't see quick and easy way to disassemble a key and look at the innards, I will leave the presence of foam/foil in a Heisenberg state. Until it gets into the hands of a more adventurous person.