« previous next »
Pages:  [1]     Go Down

Author Topic: Tulip what?  (Read 3066 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Mental Hobbit

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 461
Tulip what?
« on: Fri, 05 March 2010, 06:05:03 »
Last weeks dunno-why-i-bought-it-but-it-was-only-one-euro:



White Alps, tactile, clicky. Didn't feel like opening a switch, but the smooth feel indicates complicated ones.



Plastic backplate. Feels surprisingly good and solid though.



No clue on the manufacturer, not even a "made in..." anywhere to be found. Neither outside, nor inside, nor on the PCB.



Turned out an exceptionally nice, compact full-size keyboard. Despite it's cheap plastic built, it feels solid and reliable. Switches are smooth and precise, without any hint of the common alpsy friction. Great fun to type on.
It seems to have a rather unusual matrix: Initially I thought it had NKRO, as it registers up to 12 keypresses - but only in the same row. Actually it has only a measly 2KRO.

Anyway, a good example for a very well built low cost keyboard. Cherry engineers should take a close look.

Does anybody have a clue who might have manufactured this little plastic gem?
Logged
Typing on blues.

Offline ch_123

  • * Exalted Elder
  • Posts: 5860
Tulip what?
« Reply #1 on: Fri, 05 March 2010, 06:08:17 »
Do the switches say "ALPS" on them (specifically, on the top below the slider)? Sometimes the marking is faded, so your picture is ambiguous.
Logged

Offline Mental Hobbit

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 461
Tulip what?
« Reply #2 on: Fri, 05 March 2010, 06:15:06 »
Yes, it's not visible on the photo, but the switches do say ALPS.
Logged
Typing on blues.

Offline Half-Saint

  • Posts: 371
Tulip what?
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 05 March 2010, 08:18:04 »
Nice find!!! Sieht fast wie neu aus!
Logged
IBM Model M (6) - Acer Alcatel 6312-KW - IBM Model M Space Saver - IBM Model M 122-key - Cherry G80-3000 (2) - IBM Model F AT - TG3 BL82A (2)

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
_______________________________________________
My geek blog: http://onlyageek.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_mayhem/

Offline Nonmouse

  • Posts: 298
Tulip what?
« Reply #4 on: Fri, 05 March 2010, 10:25:18 »
Nedfield AKA Tulip Computers.  An old Tulip system.
« Last Edit: Fri, 05 March 2010, 13:02:25 by Nonmouse »
Logged

Offline quadibloc

  • Posts: 770
  • Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  • Layout Fanatic
    • John Savard's Home Page
Tulip what?
« Reply #5 on: Fri, 05 March 2010, 12:26:51 »
Quote from: Nonmouse;161964
An old Tulip system.
There was a problem with this link to

http://www.tulipgv.nl/ts1.htm

which is a page with interesting pictures.
Logged

Offline Nonmouse

  • Posts: 298
Tulip what?
« Reply #6 on: Fri, 05 March 2010, 13:13:53 »
Quote from: quadibloc;161983
There was a problem with this link to

http://www.tulipgv.nl/ts1.htm

which is a page with interesting pictures.

D'oh.  " instead of '.  Is fixed now.
Logged

Offline Mental Hobbit

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 461
Tulip what?
« Reply #7 on: Fri, 05 March 2010, 13:41:20 »
Quote from: Half-Saint;161950
Nice find!!! Sieht fast wie neu aus!


It's in mint comdition. Must have spent all his life in a box. =)

Quote from: ripster;161960
Looks very much like the internals of my Focus 2001 - not exact but close.  


Looks indeed very similar. Does the Focus have a plastic backplate too? Who manufactured Focus keyboards?
Logged
Typing on blues.

Offline kode

  • Posts: 106
  • Location: Sweden
Tulip what?
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 05 March 2010, 16:14:56 »
I had an old tulip laptop, 386, about A4 sized. Disk died a few years back. I may have it around somewhere, but it's likely I threw it away instead.
Logged

Offline keyb_gr

  • Posts: 1384
  • Location: Germany
  • Cherrified user
    • My keyboard page (German)
Tulip what?
« Reply #9 on: Thu, 11 March 2010, 14:36:16 »
FKD = Monterey Int'l Corp., so that seems to be a Monterey K108.
Logged
Hardware in signatures clutters Google search results. There should be a field in the profile for that (again).

This message was probably typed on a vintage G80-3000 with blues. Double-shots, baby. :D

Offline Mental Hobbit

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 461
Tulip what?
« Reply #10 on: Thu, 11 March 2010, 14:47:58 »
Quote from: keyb_gr;163230
FKD = Monterey Int'l Corp., so that seems to be a Monterey K108.


The only legend on the PCB says "K108", didn't even mention that as I thought it couldn't help with identification. Thank you very much keyb_gr! =)

I've only ever heard of Monterey as the namesake of Monterey switches, but never seen a keyboard made by them. Does anybody know of other boards?
Logged
Typing on blues.
Pages:  [1]     Go Up
« previous next »