Gridcase 1520 - Honeywell key switches

[snuci]

Sorry for the dust in the pics but I thought I'd post some pics of a new find because it is pretty exciting for a Wednesday.

I recently acquired a Gridcase 1520 laptop computer that originally launched in 1986. More info here. This one looks to be from 1989. This is a 80286 system with a magnesium case and was originally used in the military and was the original ruggedized laptop computer. Sadly, my screen broke in transit

The keyboard is fully mechanical and clicky. The switches are Honeywell as well as the entire keyboard assembly and most of the key caps are triple shot moulded. Lenovo has nothing on this keyboard!

Here are some pics:

Gridcase 1520 - Keyboard front

Gridcase 1520 - Keyboard front.jpg (437.98 KiB) Viewed 3224 times

Gridcase 1520 - Keyboard back

Gridcase 1520 - Keyboard back.jpg (335.27 KiB) Viewed 3224 times

Gridcase 1520 - Key switch and cap

Gridcase 1520 - Key switch and cap.jpg (481.42 KiB) Viewed 3224 times

Gridcase 1520 - Keyboard identification

Gridcase 1520 - Keyboard identification.jpg (224.04 KiB) Viewed 3224 times

[ohaimark]

Those are some attractive tripleshots. Nice find!

[HaaTa]

Clicky? That's interesting, most of the honeywell domes I find like that are just typical tactile domes.

[Engicoder]

These are probably the same variant of the ST switch as in the ITT 1700 Courier

[Ratfink]

Must not have been very ruggedized if it couldn't handle the post office.

Very cool board, but in terms of actually using it I fear that backspace would be annoyingly far away. Any pictures of the whole laptop?

[snuci]

Must not have been very ruggedized if it couldn't handle the post office.

This is a sad...

Spoiler:

gridcase.jpg (136.35 KiB) Viewed 3156 times

[Redmaus]

I love the vivid tripleshot legends. That yellow is underrated.

[Muirium]

Ouch! Welcome to (Her Majesty's) Parcelforce special delivery.

Looking at the link, I see it was an intriguing computer,

Some of these systems were made for military use and included a built-in hard drive. A big thick X was pressed into the case over the hard drive. The purpose of this was to show the user where to shoot in case the computer was in danger of falling into enemy hands.

You know, or put it in the mail! It's toast either way.

As for the keyboard:

The keyboard was the same as the IBM PCjr, not very convenient but with a good tactile feedback provided by a key click similar to that on the IBM PC.

[ReleaseCandidate]

Now, _that's_ a braindead layout!

[terrycherry]

That's was a nice found the mechanical variant of this switch. I'm glad you can id this keyboard from which computer model.(mine did not identify for which computer)