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Offline roadblock2thesun

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Thrift store finds!
« on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 20:57:33 »
Hey everyone,

Just thought I would share news of my luck today...

Went thriftstore shopping hoping to spot some good keyboards and came home with two AEKII's and an ETC PowerGlide 105.  I've never heard of the ETC but it is a strange layout, i think maybe british?

The AEK's are both in pretty good condition, just in need of some cleaning. Both have white alps like I expected. The PoweGlide on the other hand has a bunch of keys that dont appear to register, and the case is a little messed up. The switches appear to be similar to those inside the AEK's but are much noisier. The alps label is on one side of the switch, and the other side says '5G'. I can post pictures later if anyone is interested. I will likely open the board sometime on sunday to see if it can be repaired and will take some pictures then.
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Offline bigpook

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #1 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 20:59:24 »
post some pics : )
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Offline roadblock2thesun

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #2 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 21:19:50 »
Ha, that was quick!

Here are some rough shots one of the group, just the PowerGlide, and then the switch from the PowerGlide, I will post some better pictures later this weekend.





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Offline msiegel

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 21:28:38 »
weeeird number keys on that powerglide :)

congratulations, you've got ALPS! :D
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Offline timw4mail

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« Reply #4 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 21:49:55 »
The number keys on the AEKII are the same way...

What I find weird are the legends from Home, End, PageUp, and PageDown.
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Offline roadblock2thesun

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #5 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 21:56:17 »
Yeah, they are totally awesome, I might swap them into one of the AEK's I like the texture of them a lot better, the PowerGlide does not appear to have gotten that much use, whereas the AEK's are slick..
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Offline hyperlinked

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #6 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 22:28:44 »
How come the AEK II's always have that strange striped yellowing pattern in which the strip between the func keys and the number keys is not nearly as yellowed as the rest of the frame?
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Offline msiegel

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« Reply #7 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 22:30:28 »
Quote from: hyperlinked;122466
How come the AEK II's always have that strange striped yellowing pattern in which the strip between the func keys and the number keys is not nearly as yellowed as the rest of the frame?

there was a plastic overlay for writing the names of user-programmed function-key functions :)

edit: the tiny pegs on the board's top left and right helped hold the overlay
« Last Edit: Fri, 02 October 2009, 22:34:03 by msiegel »
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Offline timw4mail

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 22:30:59 »
Quote from: hyperlinked;122466
How come the AEK II's always have that strange striped yellowing pattern in which the strip between the func keys and the number keys is not nearly as yellowed as the rest of the frame?

They don't, but my guess is those used to have those application placards over the keyboard, and those disappeared.
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Buckling Springs IBM Model F AT, New Model F 77, Unicomp New Model M
Clicky iOne Scorpius M10, OCN-branded Ducky DK-9008-C, Blackmore Nocturna, Redragon Kumara K552-1, Qtronix Scorpius Keypad, Chicony KB-5181(Monterey)
Tactile Apple AEKII (Cream damped ALPS), Filco FKBN91M/JB (Japanese Tenkeyless), Cherry G84-5200, Cherry G84-4100LPAUS, Datalux Spacesaver(Cherry ML), Redragon Devarajas K556 RGB, Newmen GM711, Poker II (Cherry MX Clear), Logitech G910 Orion Spark, Logitech K840
Linear Lenovo Y (Gateron Red), Aluminum kiosk keyboard (Cherry MX Black)

Offline roadblock2thesun

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« Reply #9 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 22:36:56 »
Yeah the label area was my guess as well, but I had no idea what the pegs were for...
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Offline TWX

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 22:46:29 »
I think it's Canadian, not British.  The various named keys have icons instead because Canada requires all text to be in both English and in French, so it's just easier to skip text and go straight to pictures.  The labels under the function keys are stick on probably so they can personalize for a language when necessary without having to make something more expensive.
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TWX
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Offline roaduck

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #11 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 23:46:20 »
Years ago one could pick up some absolute bargains in Thift shops (or charity shops) as we say in England but now they are run by CEO's coming from the corporate World, they are run as ruthlessly efficient professional businesses even though they are largely staffed by volunteers.

For example, Oxfam (Oxford Famine Relief) set up for the African Biafra crisis in the late 60's/early 70's used to virtually give away designer label clothes and valuable collectables, now they are very savvy, do their research on the net etc and find out exactly what things are worth so they maximise profit so I prefer to go to car-boot sales and second-hand markets because not everybody knows the true value of the goods that they are selling.

Ebay is a lottery and it is easy to get burnt and the prices are usually top of the market anyway with no guarantees and expensive postage.

The classifieds in papers like http://www.loot.com or the local rag are usually much more lucrative and I've picked it up some amazing items for next to nothing.
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Offline msiegel

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« Reply #12 on: Fri, 02 October 2009, 23:47:17 »
also see how the open paren is on the 5 and the close paren is on the whatever the hell that is after the zero XD
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Offline msiegel

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #13 on: Sat, 03 October 2009, 01:04:39 »
Quote from: kishy;122504
Any chance this particular variety was intended for some odd post-Apple modified Mac? (I don't know what to describe them as; there were Mac systems from companies other than Apple, those are what I'm referring to)


it sounds like those guys were just a peripherals company; i have no idea whether the keyboard was intended to be packaged with a larger system :)

http://geekhack.org/showpost.php?p=67714&postcount=14
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Model F Mod Log * Open Source Generic keyboard controller

Offline quadibloc

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« Reply #14 on: Sat, 03 October 2009, 03:36:27 »
Quote from: roadblock2thesun;122443
I've never heard of the ETC but it is a strange layout, i think maybe british?


Since the numbers on the number keys are in the shifted positions, this appears to be a French AZERTY layout, but with the letter keys arranged to be in the QWERTY positions.
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Offline roadblock2thesun

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Thrift store finds!
« Reply #15 on: Sat, 03 October 2009, 12:27:37 »
Quote from: quadibloc;122529
Since the numbers on the number keys are in the shifted positions, this appears to be a French AZERTY layout, but with the letter keys arranged to be in the QWERTY positions.


Now that you mention it and I look more closely, the slope of the A, Z, Q, and W keys looks off, like they belong in different places, So I think you are right, it is an AZERTY.
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Offline quadibloc

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« Reply #16 on: Sat, 03 October 2009, 13:39:01 »
Quote from: kishy;122591
Actually I believe that's "Canadian Multilingual". Any unfortunate sole who has that layout installed when using a normal keyboard always types the accented E by right space when asking a question.


Which one? The keyboard Ripster showed in a photo, as pointed out by the Wikipedia reference, is the Canadian French keyboard.

The Canadian Multilingual arrangement still has the numbers on the bottom, not on the top, so the third-party Macintosh keyboard shown at the beginning of this thread indeed has to be a rearranged AZERTY from France.
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