Decision Data mystery board unveiled!

Dra · 23 May 2016, 19:31

So this board sparked a little bit of my interest as well as other peoples interest as in What the hell is it and which switch does it use??

So today I finally got to unpack it and it was a surprise - all of the predictions and suggestions were wrong.

First impression: Ugh. It's dirty. very dirty.

What's strange is that, unlike the IBM 5251 Beamspring, which this keyboard is a copy of (at least layout wise), it features a male plug, rather than the 5251 female one.

As for switches, it's more of a disappointment. Keytronic Foam and Foil, with the Keytronic Spokane Branding. they're not terrible but probably in need of new pads and I'm too lazy for that.

The underside is very plain, there's absolutely nothing apart from a little volume knob and the speaker holes

Opening up, we see the PCB and the speaker + volume knob

I'd imagine the speaker sounds absolutely awful given the age and it being a keyboard speaker, my money is on it acting as a solenoid replacement, I doubt it's a very good one though

the front side of the PCB doesn't have anything special, I have no idea what the pins on the far top left are though

I'm assuming this is just standard PCB labeling

All in all a pretty interesting board, can't say I'm too happy with it turning out to be Foam and Foil, but eh, what can you do.

seebart · 23 May 2016, 19:44

Nice, stop putting down the Key Tronic FF, of course it's not the greatest switch in the world! So what, still interesting. BTW I got a Decision Data mystery board recently also...guess what switch...

Spoiler:

Dra · 23 May 2016, 20:12

I thought it was the ITW Magnetic Valve version with a buckling rubber sleeve?

The whole thing was interesting indeed, but the lazy person I am can't be bothered finding/making replacement F&F pads and cleaning this thing just for display purposes

The 5251 was a pleasant surprise though, all caps still have their texture with only the numpad having a little wear and an intact contamination shield, I need to take a closer look at the top row though, some keys seem to get stuck there

seebart · 23 May 2016, 20:28

Dra wrote: I thought it was the ITW Magnetic Valve version with a buckling rubber sleeve?

Not unless this is it.

: IMG_20160516_163613.jpg (892.85 KiB) Viewed 2158 times

Dra · 23 May 2016, 23:12

that's one of the bigger domes i've seen

Seems like we both had our expectations too high

Chyros · 24 May 2016, 01:39

Key Tronic foam and foil. I think i can see the capacitive pads through the PCB. Also, FT.