Still one white alps Focus FK-5001 left?

[Voixdelion]

Wow, good BIN price - How come these aren't gone yet?:
Focus Electronics FK-5001
Snag it if you want to try the white Alps, (Full size, but its programmable and has nifty LCD calculator over the num pad).  These are not commonly found (or weren't, anyway, before this latest cache of them turned up in storage), so around $50 bucks shipped seems like a pretty good deal to me.  Please someone buy the last one so I can stop seeing the listing taunt me by costing a third of what I paid for mine... (Though since I got it from another GH'er I'm betting mine's nicer! So THERE!)

[Barney]

I'm one of the people who bought one.  The thing is basically unused. There isn't  scratch or scuff on it.  It's sweet...almost as good as an Omnikey.

[Voixdelion]

To recap the missing posts and catch up to where we, or at least I, last saw things:
 
The board is XT/AT switchable in case folks are afraid of that XT in the title - It is a complicated clicky white alps programmable board with nifty LCD calculator function over the num pad, though the calc part is apparently prone to fail about 50% of the time.  No specifics on whether this is fixable or not. I have a 3001 and an 8000 and the lcd is very dim on one of them, but the 5001 is good (I didn't get it from this listing tho,  And I've another 3001 that was in less than pristine condition that had a solar panel for powering the calc rather than a battery, which is apparently even more unusual.)

Barney - Does your calc work?  (It takes a standard 2032 battery- the one in it is most likely toast by now.)  

It needs adapters to work on ps2/usb ports as it only has the 5-pin DIN connector (cost about $3 tops).  The same board (with minimal variations such as led indicator locations) had multiple model numbers: FK-9000, FK-5001, FK-5000 (FK-9001?)  (3001,8000 also have the calculator, but not programmable.) If anyone needs it I do have a copy of the printed manual it came with; it isn't particularly illuminating, though.

  Pretty stellar board if you like clicky.   If it sticks around too long I'll have to buy the last one myself and wait until someone wants one REALLY  bad enough to pay through the nose to get it (MWaahh hahahah!)   Seriously though - used to be hard to find this until someone found a dozen or so in a storage unit and made my collectible rarity a bit less rare. If I had the extra cash laying about I'd have snagged it already as a backup.  I think they will be scarce again in the near future, so I encourage any white Alps interested folks to pull the trigger on this before I scare up some money and do it myself...

Oh yeah - and double-shot keycaps.

[lilraver018]

You said it is programmable, but  through what software, drivers, regisitre?

I would buy if it can use it to micro and macro manage games and program keys so they can be used for media functions.

Let me know if you have some input on the question above,

Thanks.

[Hak Foo]

On the 9000, there's a weird battery.  The kind used for the BIOS settings storage on really old mobos (286-486), before CR2032 was common.  The shop wants $20 for a replacement.  The 5001 may be different.

[Barney]

Yes Voixdelion, my calculator does work.  Everything on this keyboard works great.  It is in unbelievable, unused condition (not a spec of dust on it).  I did end up sending the first one back because I could not get it to work.  The first one he sent was the one with the gold logo.  The replacement one had the black logo.  Overall I must say I am very pleased with it so far.  By the way, I just found a FK-2001 in a flea market today for $5.  It also looks unused.

Barney

[The Solutor]

Ah, I stand corrected then.  Not NVRAM.

That's only been around for 20 years.

Somebody should tell the Topre engineers that NVRAM has replaced DIP switches for most consumer electronics.

 
Hahaha

At least they should use some capacitive dip switches.

[Voixdelion]

And there she goes...