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Hall effect?
Posted: 24 Mar 2016, 20:09
by elecplus
- 20160324_140408~2.jpg (621.95 KiB) Viewed 1857 times
Very old Digital keyboard
- 20160324_140418~2.jpg (713.63 KiB) Viewed 1857 times
Posted: 24 Mar 2016, 20:10
by Redmaus
Not hall effect unfortunately. Looks like NMB switches of some kind.
Posted: 24 Mar 2016, 20:36
by elecplus
There is a page in the wiki for the VT-100 keyboard but it does not say what the switches are.
Posted: 24 Mar 2016, 20:45
by Chyros
They're Hi-Tek linears. Electromechanical, not Hall effect. Very stiff.
Posted: 24 Mar 2016, 20:52
by XMIT
elecplus, these are either Stackpole or Hi-Tek linear switches as Chyros mentioned. I remember that you had a bunch of these in Kerrville. You can see the "praying hands" electrical contacts. You won't see these contacts on a Hall effect board since there are no contacts in those switches. Yes, they are heavy linears.
Yes, these are VT-100 terminal boards. They're not too popular here (or are they? does anyone beside snuci have or want one?) but sometimes vintage computer folks will pick them up.
Posted: 24 Mar 2016, 21:17
by Chyros
XMIT wrote: elecplus, these are either Stackpole or Hi-Tek linear switches as Chyros mentioned. I remember that you had a bunch of these in Kerrville. You can see the "praying hands" electrical contacts. You won't see these contacts on a Hall effect board since there are no contacts in those switches. Yes, they are heavy linears.
They're Hi-Teks. Stackpole have small "fingers" on both sides; Hi-Teks only have them on one side.
Posted: 24 Mar 2016, 21:46
by seebart
Interesting keyboard, too bad it's missing a few keycaps.
Posted: 24 Mar 2016, 22:51
by Invisius
Cool caps, they do look very similar to the Microswitch/early Honeywell boards. I've seen these switches on a Zenith Z-19 terminal before; like Chyros said they're 'bout as stiff as British parliament.
Posted: 25 Mar 2016, 02:28
by snuci
Classic keyboard! I do have a VT-100 keyboard along with the matching DEC terminal. I didn't post any pics because the Wiki has great pics already but might have the Hi-Tek fact missing. The PCB is made by DEC so there's no Hi-Tek label to absolutely identify the key switches.
It's a classic terminal so someone on the "cctalk" mailing list will likely buy it if they need parts.
Posted: 25 Mar 2016, 09:12
by Chyros
Tbh the Stackpole design is virtually identical to the Hi-Tek one. Hi-Tek even sued Stackpole over it, apparently. Hi-Tek did keep the "fingers on one hand only" design for the Space Invaders switches, though.