New old stock Focus FK-2001 with Chinese lettering

[chiptea]

First post here finally after getting a decent camera.
I found this Focus board nearly two years ago right at the beginning of my foray into mechanical keyboards. It was posted on craigslist for an incredibly reasonable price, and I decided to jump on it. I haven't ever seen a fk-2001 -or any board for that matter- with such pretty alps doubleshot/pad printed caps.

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It came in it's own box, which was in pretty good condition apart from some tape damage here and there.

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Ahh, smells like new old stock. Apparently, this sat in someone's basement for quite some time. It was never used, apart from me testing it for a few hours.

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The keycaps are really beautiful and colourful, but unfortunately, the Chinese legends are pad printed. The main reason for me not using this board is the fact that I don't want to ruin the caps.

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NIB White ALPS feel great. They feel much lighter than all other white alps switches I've tried, and are of course way smoother.

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Doubleshot ABS. Absolutely no shine or signs of wear. They are, however, rather thin. I've heard people prefer thinner caps on ALPS, however, since it makes the switches sound better.

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Has the original manual as well. The only thing it's missing is the dust/ramen cover. I'll eventually have to track one down.

[emdude]

Wow, fantastic! Those new white Alps must be a treat indeed! What is the serial number of your board? Is it also possible to determine when it was made, perhaps from the PCB?

I also really like the typeset used for the cover of the manual, reminds me a little bit of Galaxy.

[chiptea]

I can't pull apart the board right now, but I do have a picture of the rear label if that helps.

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I do like the typeset on the manual and box myself. Usually fk-2001 boxes look different (larger keyboard graphic and blue lettering), so I don't know what exactly is going on with that.

[emdude]

Ah, thanks. Looking closer at the photo of the switches, I cannot see any slits so it looks like your Focus has the younger bamboo SKCM Whites.

[chiptea]

That might explain the different feeling. I'll try and find the time in the near future to take the thing apart and figure out the age of the keyboard. Still, guessing these are bamboo whites, this should be around the early 90s, correct? Pretty good deal for $30 cad

[emdude]

According to what the wiki has to say, around 1993-1996. Yeah, for 30 CAD, a very good deal regardless.

[chiptea]

OK! After poking around a bit, I managed to open up the case to take a look at the pcb. Those little plastic lips are pretty nervewracking to take apart: it seems like they'd snap at any moment.

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Found the date! December 10, 1992? Apologies for the bad crop, the file size was too big.

[emdude]

Ah, I see, well the date certainly seems like it would fit the timeline for bamboo SKCM Whites!

[terrycherry]

Maybe it was late to share but still GREAT FOUND brand new keyboard.
It's Taiwan layout keyboard.

[Chyros]

Beautiful! A really nice edition of an already gorgeous keyboard . And brand-new! Alps feel SO MUCH BETTER when they're new .

In terms of age, yours is a kind of medium model. It's winkeyless and with the Northgate layout. It still has the big plug, but they put in a PS/2 adapter, I see. I still has genuine complicated Alps, but the later bamboo model of whites. It also didn't come with a dust cover at this time anymore, I see. Most interesting .

[seebart]

Sweet, and those keycaps WOW. Overall the prettiest Alps keyboard I've seen in a while.

[chiptea]

Beautiful! A really nice edition of an already gorgeous keyboard . And brand-new! Alps feel SO MUCH BETTER when they're new .

In terms of age, yours is a kind of medium model. It's winkeyless and with the Northgate layout. It still has the big plug, but they put in a PS/2 adapter, I see. I still has genuine complicated Alps, but the later bamboo model of whites. It also didn't come with a dust cover at this time anymore, I see. Most interesting .

I never knew they stopped with the dust covers at a certain point. My guess was that someone took it from this board to put on another since they're so hard to find in good condition. It still has the spots on the corners where you mount the cover onto. Still, thanks for the kind words and info Chyros!

Sweet, and those keycaps WOW. Overall the prettiest Alps keyboard I've seen in a while.

Thanks! Huge pity the caps are pad printed, but I can't complain. Prettiest alps board in a while? What an HONOUR

[seebart]

Well there are quite a few FK-2001's out there, and we've seen plenty here at DT but never with Chinese legends and rarely in this good condition. I love that color scheme on the keycap printing. Quite a find.

[chiptea]

Well there are quite a few FK-2001's out there, and we've seen plenty here at DT but never with Chinese legends and rarely in this good condition. I love that color scheme on the keycap printing. Quite a find.

The colour combo is quite nice, isn't it. What's funny is I got this when I knew nearly nothing about mechs, and 0 about alps keyboards. Over time, I started learning about them and began realizing what I found. One of the perks of living in Vancouver is all the Asian culture, and, it seems, the unique keycaps

I guess they were custom ordered straight from Focus, but I could be wrong.

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Now we need to find the other 10 cap sets. Arabic, Hebrew, and Russian should look nice.

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This is on the bottom of the box. Import company? I couldn't get any info on them online.

[ohaimark]

It's the company that manufactured the box.

[chiptea]

It's the company that manufactured the box.

You would have though I'd have gotten it from "this box according to"

[Wingpad]

I love the way those caps look and it all comes together so nicely. Great find!