So a Cherry keyboard followed me home this time...

[Red October]

And boy is it a beast! 

MX Blacks and a really impressive collection of board chow, especially considering that it had a keyboard condom on it when I got it.


It has some really interesting keycaps on it, I love the "Bye" key.  They all send some kind of signal and there are instructions out there for using AutoHotkey to make use of the extra keys.  I was worried that they only send signals out the telecoms port on the back (there's a modular connector beside the DIN-5 on the back).

So this is my first Cherry keyboard.  Not to use, I worked at a shop that used a Cherry Black keyboard from KeySource International for a long time, and this one is nicer, smoother.  But when I got it, some keys didn't work well.  I was able to get them all working mostly by just pressing them a bunch of times, leading me to believe the contacts are dirty (and given the board chow buildup, I'm not surprised).  Is there some convenient way to clean them?  The "B" key was especially bad, you had to peg it really hard to make it type a "B", but after I poked at the stem with a letter opener, it's working fine now.  Sometimes the keys seem a little unresponsive or bouncy, though.  I maybe just am not used to it, or maybe it's just a tired old telecoms board. 

Soooo... there's another one of these sitting in the parts pile at work, missing a lot of keycaps.  If there's interest in it here, though, I can throw it up in an auction for $40 or $50 or so, if anyone wants a keyboard that I call "Fleet Carrier" as I understand that "Battleship", "Aircraft Carrier" and "Supercarrier" are all taken...

[merlin64]

Very nice find! Do you think you could post more pics such as any labels on the back?

I wonder if any of the MX blacks are vintage with the big cherry logo.

[xtrafrood]

I poked at the AHK info, very cool stuff! Looks like Cheetos were very popular during this keyboard's career 

[1391406]

Great looking caps.

[Red October]

Very nice find! Do you think you could post more pics such as any labels on the back?

I wonder if any of the MX blacks are vintage with the big cherry logo.

Yeah sure that's easy.  There's just one label on the back:


Here's the connectors on the back:

I had to cut down the rubber insulation on a DIN-5 to PS/2 adapter to get it to go in there, I don't have any cables with a female DIN-5.
So if we're curious about who made it and all, why not take a little peek inside?

Eeeuughh.....  I have no idea how this comes to pass.  Needless to say it got fed to the vacuum cleaner.

There's some marking on the circuit board.



Very interesting.  Looks at least partly hand-assembled.  Of course, to quote Jeremy Clarkson, "Hand-made is just another way of saying the door'll fall off".

[rowdy]

That's an awesome keyboard!

Do you plan to restore and use it, or just salvage parts?

[keshley]

Those are some fantastic caps, nice shine to them too!

[Red October]

That's an awesome keyboard!

Do you plan to restore and use it, or just salvage parts?

I'd love to restore it but I don't know how to clean the switches.  I mean, if it's just a matter of squirting tuner cleaner into them, that's easy, but I don't know if there's some other concern. 

[keshley]

If you want to take the board apart, can clean the switches in iso alcohol. Otherwise you probably won't get all the nooks and crannies. Its a bit of a job, but worth it if you want to use the board in its original glory. Disclaimer: This is a multi-hour effort.

[Red October]

If you want to take the board apart, can clean the switches in iso alcohol. Otherwise you probably won't get all the nooks and crannies. Its a bit of a job, but worth it if you want to use the board in its original glory. Disclaimer: This is a multi-hour effort.

I assume you mean to de-solder the switches from their mounts?  I am crap at soldering.  At some point in the near future I'll be having it apart more completely to give it a really thorough vacuuming and I'll be trying tuner/contact cleaner/lubricant in the switches and see if that clears up the intermittent functionality of some of the keys.  I hope so, I'd love to be able to get in on the Data General Dasher-inspired keyset that someone is cooking up.  I tried to order from Signature Plastics around Christmastime but they were sold out all the SA keysets and had no information about when there would be more.

[rowdy]

The switches might be ok, mostly.  There's not many places where dust and dirt can get in.

But to clean the plate properly, especially if it has become rusty, you might have to desolder all the switches.

Depends on how much work you want to put in to it.