Olivetti Keyboard 2 Rubberdome

[Daniel]

Wanted to share some pictures of my Olivetti Keyboard 2 Rubberdome Keyboard.
The keycaps are doubleshots, even the blank ones.
Each switch can be detached from the board by pressing the two small flips together.
The switches click, but very quiet.

The PCB is mounted on a metal plate, thus the keyboard is quiet heavy.

There's a connector for mouse on the backside.

I got some paper with the keyboard as well. They can be labeled and layed above the function row.

[Daniel]

more pictures.

[Grond]

Nice doubleshots there. How does it feel to type on?

[7bit]

Does not look like rubberdome to me:



Please write a wiki-article and add all those photos!

[Findecanor]

Spring on top of rubber dome. Reminds me of the Fujitsu Peerless mechanism ...

[Icarium]

Looks like decent quality. Must be a pretty high-end rubber-dome.

[002]

Looks great! Olivetti's habit of leaving oodles of space above the number row is something I really dig. The SoWaRe-esque caps look fantastic too. I'd really love to try one

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Does not look like rubberdome to me …

You can have rubber dome without a membrane (Topre, [wiki]Alps integrated dome[/wiki] for example), and membrane without a rubber dome. Even the number of membrane sheets varies: three for pressure domes, one for conductive domes, though in this case it's a rigid PCB. Funny thing is, membrane keyboards still require a sheet steel plate. The [wiki]AppleDesign Keyboard[/wiki] has a whopping 39 (!) screws that hold the metal backplate against the pressure membrane sheets, and I managed not to lose a single one. (When you open up either version, NMB or Alps, you can see how much better they're made than Acers. Both variants have a pressure pad to hold the membrane against the PCB's edge traces, but Acer boards just glued the membrane to the PCB! That doesn't go back on again ...)

Discrete switch components involving domes are a lot more rare than those involving membranes, it seems.

[aanon]

Wanted to share some pictures of my Olivetti Keyboard 2 Rubberdome Keyboard.
The keycaps are doubleshots, even the blank ones.
Each switch can be detached from the board by pressing the two small flips together.
The switches click, but very quiet.

The PCB is mounted on a metal plate, thus the keyboard is quiet heavy.

There's a connector for mouse on the backside.

I got some paper with the keyboard as well. They can be labeled and layed above the function row.

Hi Daniel,

I just picked up one of these ANK 2462 boards. Mine has a different plug attached, adjacent to F16 and F17 roughly.

I was just wondering: do you know whether it is possible to use these keyboards with a modern PC at all? I really love the light, clicky feel of these keys and it would be great to be able to use the keyboard...

Would appreciate greatly if you are able to point me in the right direction.

All the best,

aanon

[Daniel]

I think the only way is to teensyfy it. Have a look a the workshop section here Especially the sticky thread from Matteo: http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/work ... t7192.html

[aanon]

Thanks Daniel for the response. It's such a great feeling and looking keyboard...I'm going to have to follow up the link you gave and I'm sure there will be a lot of learning ahead.

All the best,

aanon