Focus FK-9000 - MINE!

[Hak Foo]

The local casino did a hamfest and swap meet on Saturday.

One seller had a box of keyboards, which I eventually took the lot for USD 2.50 in sum.  Sadly, the savings was offset by $120 spent in the slot machines (which have nasty linear switches FWIW).

The one which really drew me in was a Focus FK-9000.  It looks much like Microsoft Windows', the same Keypro badging, the same colour schemes, the same "aircraft carrier" layout.

Mine had a few insert cards for old apps, and some blank "what do PF1-PF12 do" cards.

I'm gonna dissect it, clean it, replace the dead battery before I review further.

It came with a manual, but the manual doesn't mention the correct battery replacement (annoying).

[salcan]

Sounds like some nice picks. That focus is a very nice piece to have in a collection.

btw- what is a hamfest?

[itlnstln]

A HAMfest (at least in my area) is where a bunch of old dudes get together and swap crap in the name of celebrating HAM radios.  People bring all the old **** they have in their garage/shed/outhouse, and hope someone will buy it.  That said, they are a great place to get wiring/cabling parts like soldering irons, banana plugs, etc.  It's great for home theater buffs.  I really  wouldn't make it a habit of going there on a regular basis, though.

[kishy]

Before becoming aware that there was a community of ham radio hobbyists, I assumed it had something to do with ham...you know, the tasty stuff.

[itlnstln]

HAM operators in Texas kinda scare me.  They're sorta like the IT guys for the militia types you see at the gun shows here in TX.

[kishy]

Gun shows, as a concept alone, are scary enough.

Militia types at the gun shows? Oh boy.

[salcan]

Before becoming aware that there was a community of ham radio hobbyists, I assumed it had something to do with ham...you know, the tasty stuff.

exactly.

[itlnstln]

Ham-fest featuring meat would be something I would pay to attend.  HAMfests, though, I try to avoid.

[microsoft windows]

You're gonna want a Varta V60R battery for your keyboard.

[kishy]

That's interesting...the 5001 uses a normal, seemingly separate-circuit CR2032 button cell for the calculator.

V60R appears to be rechargeable...recharges off the keyboard voltage? If so probably has similar issues to Model Ms on certain motherboards that don't supply enough juice.

[microsoft windows]

When rechargeable batteries get old, you never know if they work. The one in  my FK-9000 died too.

[Specter_57]

..

Good find...I want one of those boards too...sighhhhh

...anyway, clickykeyboards has some decent closeup pics of this board...see the link

http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/items.main/parentcat/29410/subcatid/0/id/406362

.........
Spec57

[EverythingIBM]

..

Good find...I want one of those boards too...sighhhhh

...anyway, clickykeyboards has some decent closeup pics of this board...see the link

http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/items.main/parentcat/29410/subcatid/0/id/406362

.........
Spec57

That's one long keyboard... And it places the lights INSIDE of the keys; I hate that.

Strange that it uses a battery. They could at least use something like a few double As.

[microsoft windows]

The battery makes the keyboard remember the macros stored in the RAM.

[Specter_57]

..

I too don't care for the LEDs within the keycaps...if I had this board I'd mod it so that the LEDs were more or less in the normal places...and I'd also mod it to use a pair or three AA cells...*maybe* even have it charge cells when the keyboard was powered up.....or perhaps a super-cap....or solar-cells...the possibilities.....the possibilities....

.....but the calculator doesn't really interest me...however those extra keys *do*...and so the controller project board discussed in the other thread may be of use here as yet another mod possibility....

....would certainly like to see some pics of the innards of this board .....

........
Spec57

[keyb_gr]

FWIW, the FK-3002 that turned up here today uses two LR44 button cells. The ones that came with it were flat (as in 0.0 V), but luckily I had ordered a whole package of these for my digital slide rule at some time.

It seems the batteries are used to supply the calculator when keyboard power is off. Display contrast is a little low then, and you shouldn't type too fast (EDIT: that's regardless of power source), but it's usable. Display segments all work.

Switching the numpad between keyboard and calculator operation is done via KB Lock and CAL Lock. The LED arrangement is noteworthy: Caps Lock, Num Lock (in its usual place), Scroll Lock, Calcu. Lock.

There is a legend for two DIP switches at the back which says they're "under the logo pad". I looked under the flip-out foot next to it, but there only was an opening in the case with no DIP switch underneath.

So this is my first white Alps (or so I think) board. A heavier, clicky version of the blacks I "enjoyed" in the Dell AT102DW, reasonably smooth. Man, these are pretty heavy. After months on Cherry blues, I find it hard to type fluidly on them.

The build is a bit on the cheap and lightweight side, but the case feels pretty solid nonetheless. The keys seem to be doubleshots, at least the lettering has high contrast and shows no signs of wear in spite of some key surfaces being quite smooth.

While I gave the board a good cleaning (which it needed, thankfully mostly dust and the like), it became pretty obvious that black keyboards are quite impractical. You see every bit of dust and dirt on them. There was no way around cleaning the key sides really. That being said, the thing does look pretty good now. Black tends to soften what would otherwise be perceived as rather edgy designs, and that works to the advantage of this board.

What I still forgot to mention: While technically 2KRO, this matrix routing seems to be interesting. This isn't your typical IBM matrix, nor is it related to the "all keys in one row at once" Chicony matrix. It gives better rollover capability in the alphanumeric section, at the expensive of space and modifiers (only Shift always seems to work).

The Alps switches still give me a bit of a hard time though. Think I'll switch to a Model M at least... Ah. Now that's better.

[Specter_57]

..
Found some more info on this "Keyboard Mania" page (of course).

Here is the translated into tortured English link for this board...good group of pics....and some pics of the internals too.

Interesting....

http://www.kbdmania.net/xe/?mid=review&page=3&document_srl=1171685

........
Spec57

[captain]

That's one long keyboard... And it places the lights INSIDE of the keys; I hate that.

Strange that it uses a battery. They could at least use something like a few double As.

You are insane!  The lights in the keys is much more intuitive than a bank of lights way over to the side, and the CR2032 battery never corrodes!  I can't tell you how damn many items have been destroyed by AA/AAA/C/D/etc. batteries!  My FK-5001 came right back to life with a new cr2032 after 10 years lost in storage!  :-D

I see what you mean about the "lock" keys though: not much raison d'etre.

[fohat.digs]

I think that I mostly agree.

My preference, given that the numpad and arrow keys are important to me, is that "NumLock" be permanently on, and the option of it being off does not exist.

I don't use scroll lock so that could go away (even in spreadsheets I can work around), and I have come to enjoy "Caps Lock" remapped to "Delete" so there is no place for it, either.

As far as whether keyboards employ batteries or draw their power from the motherboard, well, I don't know, but I can't remember using a keyboard with batteries. If I did, and assuming that they only needed a minimal trickle draw, a flat, long-term disc would certainly be better than AAAs or such.