Northgate Omnikey

[nourathar]

since I was was busy with them, I thought I'd post some pictures of my two Northgate Omnikey keyboards: an Omnikey Ultra T and an Omnikey 102, essentially the same boards with the same case, the same PCB and the same plate, but with the 102 lacking the top row of function keys.

The dip switches allow various compatibility settings, and some more interesting ones such as rotating the caps lock, left control and alt keys, swapping '/' and '*', or choosing a Dvorak layout. Originally different keycaps were available for all these options, but those are hard to find nowadays.

The orange programming button allows the setting of the combination for the special function keys on the top (choosing which modifier they use shift-Fx, alt-Fx, ctrl-Fx or combinations, same for all SF keys), the setting of the key repeat rate (up to 125 char/sec, very scary !)and some more obscure ones as a comma/period/colon lock. With it you can also choose between QWERTY, Dvorak or left- or right-handed Dvorak.

At the time there was a DOS-utility that allowed for more programming of the keys, but as far as I know that has never been ported to anything more recent.

I don't have a great camera, but at least I hope these picts are informative.

102_top.jpg (849.7 KiB) Viewed 4951 times

ultraT_top.jpg (946.76 KiB) Viewed 4951 times

102_topleft.jpg (485.16 KiB) Viewed 4951 times

ultraT_topleft.jpg (574.3 KiB) Viewed 4951 times

ultraT_topleft_open.jpg (548.56 KiB) Viewed 4951 times

102_top_plate.jpg (826.24 KiB) Viewed 4951 times

ultraT_top_plate.jpg (816.51 KiB) Viewed 4951 times

[nourathar]

and some more picts..

102_controller_plate.jpg (484.38 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

ultraT_print.jpg (920.9 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

ultraT_print_detail1.jpg (858.98 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

ultraT_base.jpg (685.33 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

102_under.jpg (758.18 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

102_sticker.jpg (863.57 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

ultraT_sticker.jpg (445.37 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

ultraT_side.jpg (709.76 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

102_back.jpg (358.01 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

ultraT_switches.jpg (541.73 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

[Daniel Beardsmore]

"SF"? Not sure I've seen that before — it's normally "PF".

Just needs some switch shots, and to go on the wiki. There are no pages at all yet for the OmniKey series, just a note that some or all of them used white complicated Alps on the Alps CM availability page.

Intereresting that one is "Omni Key" (with a space) and the other is "OmniKey" (no space). And no "T" on the logo, just "Ultra". (I don't really know anything about this series.)

[webwit]

Omnikey too.

Spoiler:

[Muirium]

Someone dig up an Om Nikey, I dare you!

[nourathar]

@daniel

I'd be happy to contribute to the wiki and perhaps dig up some more of the history of Northgate models, I've been looking around a bit, but info is hard to find. There are a few geeks here and there that still use them and often have a few of these boards in storage for parts, a bit like the Model M cult but much smaller and without the equivalent of Unicomp. There is a guy who still repairs and sells them, so perhaps I should ask him at least for the chronology of the models. I haven't actually been in touch with him yet at all, but from his site I get the impression he is more a repair man than a keyboard historian. Fair enough.

As far as switch shots go, I'd be happy to give it a try when there is some light again in this part of the world, but I don't think it will contribute much new information: the pictures of exploded switches already on the wiki seems to pretty much cover what is in there. But probably you see more than I do.

Funny you saw that of the logo: I completely missed that. After you said it I noticed it actually says Ultra-N on the PCB, even though it says Ultra-T on the sticker on the back. I assumed it refers to the T-shape of the arrow keys, since the board and the plate have holes for more keys and some other O'Mnikey models have more keys in that area.

@webwit

I know... and I saw pictures of your ergonomic boards collection somewhere..
I seriously want one ! and you even have a NIB ! If you have any leads where to get one I'd be very grateful.

@muirium

some (presumably older) models even have a 'Omni' key, I really wonder what happens if you press it.

plus_with_omnikey.JPG (198.91 KiB) Viewed 4905 times

(picture from eBay of a Plus that was on sale a while back)

[webwit]

I got it from here:
http://www.northgate-keyboard-repair.com/

Bob has been around forever and is the leading Northgate expert on the planet.

[nourathar]

@daniel

In the manual they refer to the SF keys as 'Special Function' keys, and I guess PF stands for 'Programmable Function' keys. It is probably an euphemism for the fact that they are not really programmable individually ?

@webwit

yes, that's the site I was talking about, but it seems he has run out of Evolutions. I'll ask him, perhaps he knows somebody who wants to sell one and perhaps he can answer some of my silly questions for the wiki..

[Daniel Beardsmore]

As far as switch shots go, I'd be happy to give it a try when there is some light again in this part of the world, but I don't think it will contribute much new information: the pictures of exploded switches already on the wiki seems to pretty much cover what is in there. But probably you see more than I do.

I just meant, pictures that confirm which switch(es) is/are used (Focus FK-8000 and other Focuses may use three!)

Basically a photo with a keycap pulled, plus a close-up showing the switch with (in the case of Alps and clones) enough light to make out clearly what the switch is, including the markings in the case of a clone — you have the latter already for one of them.

[nourathar]

I did all the keycaps from the Utra-T during cleaning just after I got it (and most of them yesterday again to replace the switch stems), and they were all the same white complicated Alps. I assumed that on the 102 it would be the same, but that board is a few years older so perhaps I am assuming too much.
Will check !

and I wrote to Bob, I think what is missing for the wiki is a good list of all the models and their years of production and I really hope he can help. His site already has a pretty complete looking list; perhaps it only needs the dates if these are known... I noticed only today on his site that the older version of the 102 board apparently had blue switches; now that would be interesting to try out..

J.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

How are the keycaps printed?

[nourathar]

doubleshots, almost indistinguishable from the keycaps of a focus 2001 if you've seen those. (I believe it was that model; somebody gave me a set of keycaps from a focus and I used a few to replace damaged caps: impossible to see the difference if you don't know).

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I suspected they'd be doubleshots — another thing to photograph is an upside-down keycap sat next to the keyboard, to demonstrate this. It's nice to have such verification shots as proof to back up written claims.

(Uncoated pad printing, and dye sublimation, on the other hand are quite hard to photograph conclusively without a really good camera.)

[nourathar]

hey, I noticed Kurk made a stub Northgate brand page on the wiki yesterday, but how would I go about adding keyboard pages ?
Editing pages seems rather self-explanatory, but I don't see how I can add pages, and perhaps you need more priviliges to do that ?)

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I've just finished off the help page on this: http://deskthority.net/wiki/Help:Creating_pages

There are different ways to do it, and I use all of them, though usually the first two (I have "dw" in my browser expand out to the full wiki stem URL).

In your instance, if you search for "omnikey" you'll find that there already is a redlink to "Northgate OmniKey" under [wiki]Alps CM availability[/wiki], which would be a good place to put an overview page.

[rzwv]

Omnikey Logo

Omnikeyロゴ.jpg (55.17 KiB) Viewed 4819 times

[Kurk]

I took pictures of two of the Alps switches in my Omnikey 101. Could someone (cough... Daniel) have a look at them and tell me what kind of Alps they are? I suspect complicated whites.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Yep, white complicated.

[Kurk]

Wiki page created for the 101.
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Northgate_OmniKey_101

[nourathar]

hehe, the Northgates crawl out of their hiding places.. and great to have a first page on the wiki.. That is a very clean 101 you have there !
I'll see if i can make a page about the 102 and the Ultra-T soon (and perhaps about the Evolution as soon as it arrives )

and I found this logo:

olderpluslogo.JPG (33.86 KiB) Viewed 4750 times

as far as I understand it (but I might be wrong, I'm really not sure actually), the logo's on the trapdoors are more recent, because the older models have their DIP-switches on the back ?
I'm pretty sure from Bob Tibbets' site that at least for the 102 the gold logo is first, then the label without logo, then the trapdoor variant. And mine is of the last variety and it is from 1991, so I wonder when the first were made...
Bob Tibbets gave me a contact to see if I can find out more about the models and their chronology.

J.