Author Topic: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps  (Read 2231 times)

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Offline voided

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Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« on: Wed, 06 August 2014, 08:36:09 »
Hi all,

I've found an NMB board that is missing it's top case and I'm wondering whether someone might be able to help me identify it, or even perhaps link to a photo of what it looked like when complete?

Keyswitches are one-eyed white linears. Keys are very distinctive, being done in green on white with a stylish tall & narrow font.

It's solidly made, and actually very nice to type on, even though the space bar (which has a fluoro green keyswitch) is incredibly heavy compared to many other boards.

Photos to follow. These show all the identifiers I could see. I tried putting all the photos together with this post but they were not managing to upload.

Offline voided

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 06 August 2014, 08:43:11 »
.

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 06 August 2014, 08:44:46 »
Are you talking about one of these? Sorry, too late.

Mine is nice but I swapped black clicky switches for white. I need to replace about a dozen of them that don't feel as good as they should. If you are comfortable with linear switches, leave the whites.

I was thrilled to find a true-ANSI layout, even with some of the odd legends.

As far as the keycaps, they are strong and feel very good but the font for the legends is an absolute abomination. And I love green, but I am an old man and I simply can't see them without straining or putting on my reading glasses. It may be enough to make me get rid of the keyboard, even though I like it otherwise, because I could NEVER find an appropriate set of replacement caps that would even remotely blend in.

« Last Edit: Wed, 06 August 2014, 08:50:00 by fohat.digs »
"However, even though I was born in the Mesozoic, I do know what anyone who wants to reach out to young people should say: Billionaires took your money. They took your chance to buy a home. They took your chance at a good education. They stole your opportunities. Billionaires took the things you want in life. If you really want those things, you have to take them back.
That's the message. That's the whole message. Say that every day, not just to reach America's frustrated young white men, but people of every age, race, and gender.
Late-stage capitalism is a wealth-concentration engine, focused on vacuuming up every dollar and putting it in as few hands as possible. Republicans are helping that vacuum suck.
How does a tiny fraction of the population get away with this? They do it by dividing the other 99% of Americans against themselves."
- Marc Sumner 2025-05-30

Offline voided

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #3 on: Wed, 06 August 2014, 09:04:48 »
That was quick! Very impressed.

Yep, looks the same as mine, as far as I can tell. Is this known by any particular name or code, so that I might be able to find other info/discussion about them?

Offline voided

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 06 August 2014, 09:10:33 »
And a follow-up question: have you re-organised the key layout to suit your preferences at all?

Where you have the control key, for example, is a handy spot. However, this switch position triggers capslock on my board. And yet, perplexingly, the capslock key isn't a good fit in the space!

I use autohotkey, so not a problem either way. Just curious.

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #5 on: Wed, 06 August 2014, 13:08:49 »
On mine, simply booting up to PS/2 made everything work properly as long as my eyes were closed.

What was this thing originally supposed to be? Not a clue.
"However, even though I was born in the Mesozoic, I do know what anyone who wants to reach out to young people should say: Billionaires took your money. They took your chance to buy a home. They took your chance at a good education. They stole your opportunities. Billionaires took the things you want in life. If you really want those things, you have to take them back.
That's the message. That's the whole message. Say that every day, not just to reach America's frustrated young white men, but people of every age, race, and gender.
Late-stage capitalism is a wealth-concentration engine, focused on vacuuming up every dollar and putting it in as few hands as possible. Republicans are helping that vacuum suck.
How does a tiny fraction of the population get away with this? They do it by dividing the other 99% of Americans against themselves."
- Marc Sumner 2025-05-30

Offline voided

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #6 on: Thu, 07 August 2014, 06:37:05 »
Thanks again fohat.digs. Is this keyboard of yours something you've ever discussed here before? Or has it flown under the radar until now?

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #7 on: Thu, 07 August 2014, 07:59:29 »
Is this keyboard of yours something you've ever discussed here before?

It has been discussed, but Space Invaders are often mentioned as random tangents to other conversations.

Often, buying/selling threads get de-railed and expanded into serious discussions that really deserve discreet threads of their own.

My biggest complaint about this forum is that so much good information is completely buried in mountains of TL;DR where it is all but impossible to extract.

I always advocate for more and shorter threads with concise and descriptive titles.
"However, even though I was born in the Mesozoic, I do know what anyone who wants to reach out to young people should say: Billionaires took your money. They took your chance to buy a home. They took your chance at a good education. They stole your opportunities. Billionaires took the things you want in life. If you really want those things, you have to take them back.
That's the message. That's the whole message. Say that every day, not just to reach America's frustrated young white men, but people of every age, race, and gender.
Late-stage capitalism is a wealth-concentration engine, focused on vacuuming up every dollar and putting it in as few hands as possible. Republicans are helping that vacuum suck.
How does a tiny fraction of the population get away with this? They do it by dividing the other 99% of Americans against themselves."
- Marc Sumner 2025-05-30

Offline False_Dmitry_II

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 08 August 2014, 02:36:59 »
As far as I've seen fohat's is the only other one of this model known to exist. This is the first full picture of it I've seen, previously he only showed pictures of some of the caps to show the font. I still think pics of it should go in the SI discussion topic.

Is this keyboard of yours something you've ever discussed here before?
It has been discussed, but Space Invaders are often mentioned as random tangents to other conversations.

That and even your recent thread about space invaders in general has already stopped being posted in. I don't have anything to add to it currently, and neither apparently do the other three people that have SI boards.

Often, buying/selling threads get de-railed and expanded into serious discussions that really deserve discreet threads of their own.

I always advocate for more and shorter threads with concise and descriptive titles.

To the OP: Certainly the MX crowd has nothing to add to any of these discussions, so when something comes up that is worthy of discussion in threads like those that's where it happens.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin (11 Nov. 1755)

Offline jacobolus

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 08 August 2014, 04:11:45 »
My biggest complaint about this forum is that so much good information is completely buried in mountains of TL;DR where it is all but impossible to extract.
This is true of pretty much any community discussion site I’ve ever seen. The good thing about this is that google searches with (site:geekhack.org OR site:deskthority.net) added to them will usually turn up a bunch of relevant material.

If you want proper summaries of knowledge, that takes a lot of work for someone to compile. The Deskthority wiki is a marvel, basically from the immense effort put in by one guy, Daniel Beardsmore. Other folks (like me, tsk tsk) should add relevant stuff to the wiki instead of procrastinating.

There are now so many keyboard-related things I need to properly write up and put online somewhere. I’m sure that goes for a lot of other folks here too.

Offline terrpn

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 08 August 2014, 23:55:57 »
interesting..............never saw one like that before :eek:

still looking for one that has the white switches :-\
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Offline ComradeSniper

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Re: Identifying NMB board with green-on-white keycaps
« Reply #11 on: Sat, 09 August 2014, 00:26:26 »
As far as I've seen fohat's is the only other one of this model known to exist. This is the first full picture of it I've seen, previously he only showed pictures of some of the caps to show the font. I still think pics of it should go in the SI discussion topic.

I'd love some more info on that board. Didn't you say it had something to do with Apple, fohat?