Vintage sphericals: TS 803H

[hashbaz]

I took a trip up to Santa Rosa this past weekend with my dad to visit his brother.  My uncle is a classic old-school hacker.  Post-hippie type, motorcycle and gun enthusiast, BBS sysop and Linux early adopter.  No UNIX beard these days, but judging by the pictures he had on his wall he used to rock one.

So, I asked him about old keyboards he might have lying around and he produced his spare TS 803H, which he used to use with his beloved CP/M machine.  I believe he still has this machine, along with two working IBM Selectric typewriters.  (The Selectrics are awesome to type on, by the way -- imagine the buttery light feel of Topre switches combined with the visceral click of MX blues.)

He let me keep the TS 803H, along with a few other old rubber dome keyboards, one of which is sporting doubleshots.  I'll post pictures of these later.  Interestingly, one of them seems to have a combination dome and spring switch mechanism.

As you can see a lot of the standard caps are missing, replaced with relegendables.  And this thing is filthy.  The others are even dirtier.  After pulling a cap I had hopes that at least the alphanumerics would be MX-compatible, but the height of these keys and the angle of their mounting socket is such that they won't fit on my Rosewill.  I did verify that they fit one of the rubber domes he gave me which also accepted some SP caps I had with me.  So maybe there's hope yet.

The switches feel stiff and linear.  I could be wrong, but it looks like switch mechanism can be popped out of its housing, perhaps to ease replacement.

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[dorkvader]

Wow, looks nice! good pictures.

Why won't they work on cherry MX? is the keyspacing different? I don't see how height is an issue, though I DO see how an angle other than 90 degrees could be. Can you elaborate?

good find, though. You have a cool uncle. Show him a glider sometime

A few notes: that's a weird enter key! Also, how tall are the number row keys. They look extra-high from the picture.

[hashbaz]

Yeah the number row is a bit taller than the others.  The issue with the keycaps is that the stem is not parallel with the bottom of the key.  The stems would fit onto a modern MX keyboard, but the caps can't be pushed down far enough at the correct angle.

[hashbaz]

The issue with the keycaps is that the stem is not parallel with the bottom of the key.  The stems would fit onto a modern MX keyboard, but the caps can't be pushed down far enough at the correct angle.

Took a picture to illustrate:

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[REVENGE]

Nice, I have similar vintage sphericals for old style Cherry switches. I imagine you could shave off top and bottom portions of the stem to allow them to mount on modern MX stems.