Aruz switch *UPDATED PICS*

[486]

I'll start with the basics. Have you switched the switch on the back to A? Have you tried it on another machine? Are you using a suitable AT to PS/2 and if you have one a PS?2 to USB adaptor?

[discord]

I picked up a PS/2 to USB adapter and the keyboard works fine. The problem lies in software drivers, as it also controls my BIOS just fine....

[bhtooefr]

Could it be some bastardized Set 3-based variant?

That would prevent the board from working on Linux and XP, but not the BIOS, IIRC. (But, usually, a generic PS/2 to USB converter will fail in that case too...)

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Aruz is confirmed as Taiwain Tai-Hao. I've had a reply back from Felly Du at Taiwan Tai-Hao who confirms that Aruz was a former brand of theirs. The unbranded version *might* be theirs (I'll check later) but the JL switch will be a clone as they never made anything under that name.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Does the contact mechanism resemble the two OE1 types at the bottom of this page?

http://kbtalking.cool3c.com/article/8366

(Start from the bottom and scroll up.)

For some reason I thought this switch had KPT-style internals (based on the SMK/NEC/Maxi switch), but the OE1 switches clearly have the same style contact mechanism as APC switches, which stands to reason.

[terrpn]

i am under the assumption this is not a very common board. DT is the only other place i have seen it, so i guess there is a "little" rarity there?
the one i have looks like iso vs ansi, so now we have a picture of both ansi and iso.
here are some things obvious and noted on mine.......

Fame Mechanical Keyboard
Made in Taiwan
Model-GOG3YLTH-5539
PCB- Fame-05

Type definitely feels more like MX Blue than Monterey Blue
Alps keycap compatible
DS
ISO vs ANSI
DS Caps still have good texture, but are yellowed.
Case is scalloped at te space bar and F4-F9

so the 1986-1987 range is still considered when these were produced?

[terrpn]

sorry, meant to add this link to the fame ansi keyboard that is here to compare

http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/new ... t3900.html

[Daniel Beardsmore]

This is all we know to date:

[wiki]Fame GOG3YLTH-5539[/wiki]
[wiki]Aruz switch[/wiki]

Feel free to update and improve. There's a photo from alps.tw of an unbranded switch that's very similar, and Tai-Hao confirmed that made some unbranded ones, but having never clearly seen the insides of the switch, I can't be sure whether it's the same or not.

It's a pretty rare switch, as are so many others.

[Broadmonkey]

You have to post a picture of the underside of those keycaps! They look a helluva lot like Cherry made double shot!

[Daniel Beardsmore]

They remind me a lot of the keycaps on my [wiki]Tulip ATK 030244[/wiki] which is a Monterey product — not just the shape, but that surface texture of the plastic too; mine are mostly doubleshot. The typography however is totally different.

I don't know how many keycap companies there are out there. A lot of keyboards have keycaps with identical or very similar typography and graphics to the recent Tai-Hao group buy keycaps, and Tai-Hao have confirmed that their tooling has indeed been around a long time.

I don't know to what extent typography and graphics functions as a marker, especially in terms of the idea of one company setting up their own doubleshot tooling to create identical keycaps to another company, and whether that would happen/ever did happen.

[kint]

You have to post a picture of the underside of those keycaps! They look a helluva lot like Cherry made double shot!

Would love to see an underside shot too, but I doubt it. The font is pretty close if not exact but:
- feel bar (aaand sculpured caps ) on F and J
- I have yet to see a Cherry H*** board with sole "Enter" on the Return key (Enter + arrow, yes)
- Have never seen a crossed zero on Cherry boards before (Numpad + Alpha)
- Cherry tends to write out "control" instead of abbreviating it
- Sysrequest on the front face is most of the time green coloured.

It's propably as close as it ever gets to Cherry but I say it ain't original.

[terrpn]

ok...........will take a shot and post

[terrpn]

is this what u r looking for?

[kint]

Thanks for the shot! Actually I've managed to forget inbetween two posts that these are Alps mount blame the time posting I guess. However, nice thick caps, not that common with Alps, congratulations on the find. And having a corresponding typeface to the cherry boards one uses could be a plus too..

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Yeah I was wondering why you thought Cherry would make keycaps for another company's keycap mount :-)

terrpn: How about the internals? Can that switch be opened without being desoldered?

[terrpn]

unfortunately no.........

yeah...........you are right and i really did not pay any mind to it, but "thick ds" on an alps board- never seen before?

when warmer weather returns, sun sits a little higher i will de-yellow the caps

[IvanIvanovich]

They do look an awful lot like Cherry keycap... 99% identical I would say even down to how the undersides look, and there was at some point MX made with Alps mount.
I have had set of Cherry with slash zero both made sometime between 84 and 87, and have chosen that for groupbuy with GMK
GMK have both text only Enter and Return... I chose return for a groupbuy pack
I have some sets that have Ctrl instead of Control
I have had Sys Rq keys with several different color pad print on side, black, blue, green and orange.

Not to say for sure these were made by Cherry at all though, but it could be possible. But I have also seen some board with keycap that look exactly like Cherry with MX clones. So it's probably more likely there was an Asia source in the 80's that duplicated the Cherry tooling. In any case, these would for sure be something I would really really want if I ever went to Alps board. For sure some of best Alps mount keycaps I have seen, and not only because of the legends, but because of the profile. Alps caps are usually OEM profile which I don't care for at all. One of myriad reasons I have stayed away from Alps stuff. This is a pretty nice find, and it even has a sane layout instead of more typical bad bigass enter, small backspace crap that is more typical.

[terrpn]

i can give a more close up of a lettered key if it helps to identify what you r looking for?

[IvanIvanovich]

I don't think there will really be any way to prove where they came from from short of a manufacturer confirm... but I think it's interesting that even common 'error' on the legends like the slight drop on the s in Esc is even there just like on many Cherry Esc.

[terrpn]

here u go...........side by side

cherry on left, aruz on right