NMB RT-101 UNIX operator's console keyboard

[Red October]

So of late I've been retained by a local shop to help with ebay sales.  Among other things of note, they have a lot of keyboards.  I mean a lot.  On Sunday afternoon I mush have heaved two hundred rubberdome rubbishboards out the back door onto the loading dock while looking for gems to post on ebay.  And I did find some winners among all that junk, a handful of AT101 variants, a few old terminal keyboards, several Apple Extendeds, that sort of thing.  Since they're a small operation, I'm sometimes given stuff for my services in lieu of payment in cash.  This is one of those ...stuffs.  A rather unusual (well, to me, keep in mind it's my first such keyboard) NMB RT-101.  The unusual layout and green legends caught my eye.

I showed it to my dad, who's been around computers since they ran on vacuum tubes, and he said it was most likely an ordinary UNIX operator's console keyboard, explaining the PS/2 connector.  Some experimentation shows that that is indeed the case, this is a standard PS/2 keyboard and when connected to a Windows machine it behaves exactly as a normal keyboard, so Control is Caps Lock and Line Feed, Setup, Option, etc. don't do anything special.  The lights also act a little wrongly for their markings.

These are what we call "Space Invaders", yes?  If so it is my first "Space Invader" keyboard.  It was monumentally filthy when I took possession, and could still obviously stand for some more cleaning.  I just wiped it down with some Crazy Clean; I might take it apart and give the individual case halves a bath.  I don't know if I'll do the keycaps, they're a bit difficult to remove, although a lifetime of using model Ms may have spoiled me in that regard.

Forgive me if this sort of thing is old news, but I've not been around here much lately and only came back to seek help getting a 6112884 working on my machine (Thanks Hasu!)

[rm-rf]

imo, its a great find.
i'd like to see more photos, once you've got it all cleaned up!

[Magna224]

That's really awesome! Hardly see any of these. Clean it up and take good care of it. If space invaders ever get popular it would probably be worth quite a bit.

[CPTBadAss]

Nice looking board. Great find and I'm jealous of that job haha.

[chyros]

XMIT or someone else has one of these. I can remember the green font. It's the original RT-101 model in ANSI - rare for a Space Invaders keyboard. A very nice find!

[childofthehorn]

As an owner of a number of NMB HiTek boards myself, these are fantastic! Best feeling switch out there. Like an Alps and Cherry had a baby with a Model M for an uncle.

No Wobble, more tactile and higher actuation like an Alps, but that "bump" like a buckling spring.

The keycaps on these are a real treasure, almost all are deep dish cylindrical PBT dyesub caps and just cradle fingers wonderfully. works fine with a PS2 converter and a BlueBox USB adapter.

Too bad you can't put these switches in any modern board.

[LiquidEvilGaming]

One of the few switch types i have never had the pleasure of trying.  Hopefully one day i will get to use one just to truly experience what it feels like.  Those keycaps are simply gorgeous.

[Red October]

Yes, it does feel really nice.  It's got enough activation force that I don't think just resting my fingers on it would activate keys like happens to me with my 6112884, which has a very light activation force.  It doesn't click like a Model M but, really, what does?

[chyros]

NMBs are great, but I wouldn't call them top-tier switches tbh. The stability comes at the cost of relatively high binding, and they're generally very stiff (although lighter varieties of the switches also appear to exist). The clicky sound is better than Cherries but not as good as Alps, although they're quieter than either. The tactile variant is MUCH more tactile than the clicky type is, but has a rather strange feel and they're generally considered the least pleasant in the family.

Still, if you haven't tried them out, I'd definitely encourage people to . The build quality of the boards is usually excellent, and they have some of the best dyesub PBT caps out there, at least as good as IBM's.

It doesn't click like a Model M but, really, what does?

A Model F . Omrons are louder too (they're the loudest electromechanical switch I know).

[Red October]

NMBs are great, but I wouldn't call them top-tier switches tbh. The stability comes at the cost of relatively high binding, and they're generally very stiff (although lighter varieties of the switches also appear to exist). The clicky sound is better than Cherries but not as good as Alps, although they're quieter than either. The tactile variant is MUCH more tactile than the clicky type is, but has a rather strange feel and they're generally considered the least pleasant in the family.

Still, if you haven't tried them out, I'd definitely encourage people to . The build quality of the boards is usually excellent, and they have some of the best dyesub PBT caps out there, at least as good as IBM's.

It doesn't click like a Model M but, really, what does?

A Model F . Omrons are louder too (they're the loudest electromechanical switch I know).

Mm, this is true   I have several, but no room in the budget right now for another protocol converter to use them with my PC.  Two are Original 5150 keyboards and two are "bigfoot" terminal keyboards, although different ones.  Only one of the 5150 keyboards is in good shape so the others I mostly have pulled keys from to customize the M5-2 that I'm actually not using right now.  But I'm not the only one here who likes to change keyboards. 

Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, дамы и господа, here are more photographs of the RT-101.

With the lid off.


Two shots of the details inside, including a hand-filled-in option sheet.

Very early Intel microprocessor, methinks.

My daring attempt to clean the cable.  Only sort of worked.  The curly cable, although nice, is difficult to clean because you can't just pull it through your fist.  The cleaning bath is hot water with some Murnel's Big Bite which is industrial cleaner/degreaser, but it's not a strong solution because I was worried about taking the legends off.  I didn't dip the lower half of the case because I was certain it would spoil the labels.

I figured, why not see if the keycaps are easier to remove with the top of the case off?  Well, they're not.  This happened.  Reminds of a Stackpole switch like a VT-100 keyboard.

And here it is all back together.  Now it gets to sit idle for a week or two to make sure everything is as dry as can be.  It's not perfect, I think I can get between the keys with a Q-tip, once my extra Crazy Clean spray cleaner arrives later this week.  It's not supposed to be this yellow, I'm sure; the inside of the case is much more grey.  I don't know if the yellowing can be removed.

[chyros]

NMB Hi-Tek switches are notorious for being somewhat awful to work with if you're not experienced. It's easy to pull the slider out when trying to pull a keycap and when you do the spring tends to wander off into orbit. It's also easy to damage the contacts hands this way. I made a video on how to pull caps on these boards effectively but I'd advise to not mess with these unless you're comfortable working with them.

[fohat.digs]

I had one of those and sold it to XMIT. It is very rare to find a straight-ANSI PS/2 model (although the legends say otherwise) but the font simply made my tired old-man eyes insane.

Pretty sure that those are PBT dye-subs so you can clean them harshly if need be.

For these switches, I use a ring puller placed side-to-side - never grab the corners or you will pull up the top assembly and lose springs!