Apple Keyboard MO118

[Masterchief79]

Hey guys,
I realized there is not yet an article about the MO118 on the DT wiki yet and found out it's rather rare. Anyone of you know somebody who has one?

The keyboard features salmon ALPS switches and a locking Capslock switch (stays down when you press it). The interesting thing about it is maybe the layout (which also seperates it from the Apple Extended Keyboard I = M0116).
Unfortunately, the Esc broke off during the transport.








Compared to an AEK II:

[Grond]

What's the big button atop?

[Masterchief79]

Power on. Only works on native ADB ports though (= old Macs from before 1997, then it was replaced with the USB standard). The keyboard itself is from 1987 as you can see.

[Findecanor]

The big button is the Power/Reset button. From Wikipedia:

Most of the original ADB Apple Macintosh keyboards, as well as the first USB keyboard, had a key to turn the machine on in lieu of a physical power button on the computer itself. The symbol on it was usually a triangle pointing left (◁). On most keyboards it was located at the extreme upper-right corner, above the function keys and above the right most key, or in the same vertical position and in the center. The power button was replaced with a disc eject button when the Apple Pro Keyboard was introduced, and Apple removed the ability of Macs to be switched on from the keyboard. Pressing the power button when running Mac OS brought up the shutdown dialog box, on keyboards with an eject button the combination Control-Eject is used instead (for most x-Power keyboard combinations, x-Eject is used as the replacement combination).

The AEK and AEKII have their Power buttons on the upper right corner, to the right of the keyboard LEDs.

Is the M0118 like the M0116, only with a slightly different layout?

[Masterchief79]

Hard to compare, because I coudn't find an M0116 with German layout, but well I guess so. Some M0116 have orange and not salmon ALPS (although they should be pretty similar).
Maybe anyone of you has got some more information on the MO118?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

What's the big button atop?

Power on, power dialog (sleep/shutdown/restart/cancel) on later systems, debugger (cmd+power, when you don't have the hardware "Programmer's key"¹), and reset (cmd+ctrl+power). (The power dialog still worked at least as late as Tiger if you connect a keyboard that still has a power key, although Apple have long since scrapped key itself.)

¹ The programmer's "key" is an interrupt button on the base unit of old Macs, that invoked the ROM debugger or any user-installed replacement.

[Muirium]

My Blue & White Power Mac G3 from 1999 powers on from cold when you press that key on an ADB keyboard. It was the last model Apple ever shipped with an ADB port.

If you press it when the computer is on, you get the power dialogue Daniel describes, in both OS 9 and Tiger. Hit enter to shutdown, which is highlighted as the default.

Command + Control + Power is still the way to reset even modern Macs. But the power key is only a key on the laptops, it's a button on the desktops themselves. Don't think it's done by USB.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The M0118 also features the pathetically small ISO/JIS enter that Apple reintroduced with the aluminum series. Despite complaints that ISO enter is too hard to hit, I found myself striking the case from overshooting the key. No idea why Apple had to screw up enter, but they've been screwing up keyboards for years.

@Masterchief79: I assume your PCB also says "ALPS" on it the same as my M0116 (the one on the wiki) ... Well, it's not mine any more, though I've already forgotten who's got it now :-)

[Masterchief79]

Actually, does a M0116 have a locking Capslock key?

[woody]

Actually, does a M0116 have a locking Capslock key?

It does.

[Muirium]

They all did, from the original Mac until at least the AEK II. Instantaneous caps lock was the kind of cheapskate move that I suspect it arrived on the abominable Apple Design Keyboard. Either that or the migration to USB with the iMac.

You can tell Apple was sick in the 1990s. Using "design" as a four letter word!

[Masterchief79]

Okay thanks.

@Daniel: True, on the left side, there is an ALPS logo. There's also an Apple Computer Logo on it as you can see on the pics. But I suppose the PCB is from ALPS, yes.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I think the whole board is Alps-made. (As were many AppleDesign Keyboards ;-) The rest were from NMB.)