I bought a Northgate Omnikey 101 off eBay for about 55 bucks because it's supposedly well-built and ALPS. My mentality was to clean it up. If the switches were bad, I'd throw Matias ones in, figuring I'd still have a board with a sensible layout and solid build.
Of course, things immediately went south.
* Filthy. I expected that, but still to note.
* The top plastic case is missing a chunk, and three of the six points where the bottom bolts onto it have cracked. I will give the seller the benefit of the doubt and suggest that perhaps it was damaged in shipping. (although one of the bolt points does look like it was repaired in the past)
* The |\ keycap looks suspiciously non-doubleshot, like it was swapped from an AT101 or AT101W. (since the Omnikey 101 is one of relatively few sources for doubleshots of ANSI 1.5x |\ and 2.25x Enter, this was a big part of the appeal of it).
* Some of the switches seemed poorly responsive or weak and missing click. A few started activating after a few mashes, like they were oxidized or something, but Esc doesn't respond at all.
* The LEDs don't light, even though the attached PC recognizes the corresponding keystrokes and another attached board DOES light.
* Plate has many rust sports.
I noticed a sticker indicating it was refurbished at some point (date worn off). The PCB has several marker annotations and ugly solder blobs like switches had already been changed in a few spots; there's even a jumper to one switch around a lifted pad.
I'm not sure if doing a switch swap would leave me with a really worthwhile board-- the lock light behaviour makes me wonder if something else is going south I've yet to diagnose, or if I've just managed to mis-configure the DIP switches and the rusty plate doesn't inspire confidence about the long-term.
The parts salvage angle is weak-- I get a complete 101 doubleshot set (except for the |\) , featuring some shininess and yellowing; the switches are worn-out and erratic, and now even the PCB/controller/plate is suspect.
Making it right would be a massive labour sink-- desolder the whole thing while not making the situation worse, remove and refinish the plate, swap in new switches while not causing any further damage to the PCB, and then hope that somehow the LEDs start to work-- all to get a board which while heavy, remains imperfect (no Windows keys, will need to be Soarer converted or use that weird nonstandard (and fraying) PS/2-a-like cable.
Your opinions? (I suppose I'm just looking for the excuse to buy the bloody Tactile Pro 4 and be over with
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