I'm still around, and still gathering keyboards
Sadly life has made it more difficult to actually photograph and measure force curves...
Anyways, I have something special that just arrived from Japan.
An NEC DT-KCD2000C Type A keyboard. I'm not entirely sure what system it was used on.
DSC01015Quite a bit of yellowing...
Fortunately the keyboard came surprisingly clean, so it lived in a pretty nice environment (though I did end up finding a small bit of rust on the springs so probably a humid environment too...).
DSC01023All the keycaps are engraved then infilled. Normally keycaps like this are super gross when I get them, but with this board all I had to do was give them a quick wipe to get small bit of dust off.
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DSC01030Mysterious red line.
DSC01051That's a release button for the connector.
DSC01054The latch from the release button.
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DSC01073July 1975. If I'm reading that correctly, the serial number is 15!?
DSC01084Are those Alps Magnetic Reed Switches!? (wiki/Alps_Magnetic_Reed)
Only the rarest switch I know of (besides mercury filled tube switches of course, because those all had to be disposed of due to fear of mercury poisoning leaking out of the rubber tubes...
).
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DSC01077 by Interesting, the keycap mounting has an additional metal piece to hold the keycap in place (the caps are hard to pull off...). For reference https://flic.kr/p/fSWYGb
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2jWusqV]
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DSC01104Inside sticker (same serial number and date code).
DSC01108I believe (not confirmed yet) that the top right section is a resistor matrix that defines how each of the keys are mapped.
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DSC01186Interesting looking diodes and resistors.
DSC01201Alps sticker (interestingly enough, the pcbs were done by NEC which is unusual for Alps keyboards of this era).
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DSC01205Each row is numbered (not your standard switch plate).
DSC01218Wait just one second! That's a magnetic reed switch...but it's not the same one?!
So now there are two unicorn Alps Magnetic Reed switches...and I have both of them
DSC01232The reed seems to be attached to a mini pcb of sorts.
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DSC01265This mini pcb does make the pins quite a bit easier to solder/desolder.
DSC01256This new variant of the Alps Magnetic Reed Switch also doesn't have an integrated diode (reference https://flic.kr/p/fSXWM7). And also doesn't have an option for a 2nd magnetic reed (instead of the diode).
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DSC01278The spacebar switch is heavier than all the other switches. Unfortunately I wasn't able to safely open the switch as the top housing is an extremely tight fit (might as well be a plastic weld). The first switch came apart by accident when I was pulling off a keycap at an angle.
DSC01301These switches can be opened without desoldered, but I don't really see the point unless you're trying to clean out the switch or swap out the spring. From my experience with reed switches, is that the reeds are the most fragile part of the switch and they are soldered in... (and tbh, I haven't seen that many failed reed switches).
Full album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmRzhC6r
(the previous one I found in 2012).
