Xerox X998

HaaTa · 11 Dec 2015, 23:19

Totally forgot I had this one. Really early touchpad on this keyboard (you can even see the cap sense pads on the back of the pcb).

Uses ITW Magnetic Valve switches. Interestingly with different weights, I'll need to measure them but the yellow stem is well over 120 g (not quite the 320 g of some Honeywell Hall Effect switches). Along with the Shift release CapsLock.

As usual Xerox puts a massive cast metal connector on the cable.
What's pretty interesting is that the case end-caps are made of some sort of fiberglass rather than wood, metal or plastic. The case itself seems to be steel.

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Flickr Album

XMIT · 11 Dec 2015, 23:38

WeirdStuff had one of these when I was in town last month. I couldn't fit it my carry on bag (it's huge) so it might still be there.

REVENGE · 12 Dec 2015, 00:13

That is a really nice looking piece right there, hope you can get it working eventually!

losing_ctrl · 12 Dec 2015, 04:10

That is an amazing keyboard, truly a piece of history. Thanks for taking the time to post those pics.

terrycherry · 13 Dec 2015, 03:12

Thanks for the high quality photos although I don't know about the Magnetic Valve switch very much.
How lucky that you found many keyboard with this switch.

Findecanor · 13 Dec 2015, 11:18

Interesting. I added the fun cluster layout to the Wiki. But what computer was it used for?

HaaTa · 13 Dec 2015, 18:58

This one? http://www.old-computers.com/museum/com ... c=488&st=1 Xerox 860