deskthority

In this delightful handshake of keyboards and companies, we have spherical hipro dyesub PBT key caps from a C.Itoh terminal keyboard paired with a Xerox 6085 Keyboard with Alps SKCM Green!



The lovely donor. This is a CIE Terminals keyboard, but I've noticed there have been others simply branded "C.Itoh" and missing the black strip on top. That is also part of a liftable window which provides access to the LEDs... I guess?

The CIE Terminals boards are actually quite elegant (if not huge). It's a shame that they have a weird switch type and probably don't function with anything modern.

I've also noticed a variation in the "Do" key's manner of stabilization. XMIT helped me out with some keys before I purchased these (plan on sculpting mods for these caps to work with ANSI), and his "Do" key had traditional Alps stabilizers, while the ones on this one have wells that ride along stabilizer pegs.

Anyway:







The dyesubbing on these caps are some of the best I've ever seen. Very sharp while not being too thin or too thick. I was impressed. The spherical scooping is not mega deep like on the IBM Multistation, but, in my opinion, just right. It also has deep dish scooping on the homing keys.

I bought two of these from Russia (with love) and they both seem to barely have any shine, which is nice! Most of the others I've seen have been well-used. Even the ABS space bars have no sign of shine!

I had a feeling these would go best on Alps SKCM Brown and Alps SKCM Green, and I think I was right!

The spherical shape and the feeling of PBT really combine to just feel wonderful on these and, well, probably other tactile SKCM switches too.

It's like the spherical tops direct a lot of the feel right onto your fingertips.

In my opinion, tactiles feel best with any kind of PBT caps. Linears and clickies are not so fussy, but this is all subjective (cap thickness is also a factor sometimes). I usually prefer ABS on linears, but PBT doesn't feel bad, and clickies are directly split down the middle and feel great with both.

ABS has this warm, grippy yet airy feel compared to PBT, which has this dry, more direct and dense feel.

Let me stop romanticizing though.

Quite the combination to say the least. I see you got the right mouse too.

seebart wrote: Quite the combination to say the least. I see you got the right mouse too.

Yes! When I bought the DocuTechs, there was also an extra mouse, and so that one went to the last 6085 I bought.

The NIB model won't have one but that's a little different.

For now, these are just collector's items and display pieces for me (others would tear them apart ), but I'm trying to work with a friend to have these converted and made functional again.

I'd definitely use one on rotation if we can manage to get them to work.

With or without the mouse the DocuTechs are amazing, but for the display it's very nice to have of course. From my personal experience Alps SKCM / SKCL is one switch that varies in feel and sound with different keycaps. I have never tried other keycaps on my Zenith ZKB-2, the only green Alps board that I own. I have some nice thick Alps ABS doubleshots from a Toshiba T1200 I'll try some time, nowhere as nice as your C.Itoh caps though.

E3E I don't know where you found another one of these CIE / C. Itoh terminals but you are lucky indeed. These are just about the nicest caps I've ever tried, on any keyboard.

If I ever take XMIT Keyboards to the next level I'd love to offer a stock spherical key cap option. With unlimited funds, a Cherry MX version of these, fully sculpted with all the mods, would be my choice. I wonder how expensive it will be to get a set of molds made, or if I want to jump that far into the deep end...

Nice classic XEROX logo on that keyboard (sort of reminds me of lexmark branded keyboards, despite the fact both made printers). Definitely would be shameful to see those gutted; at the very least it could be modded to a more modern layout if someone was that persistent about it.

Love the Xerox even without these nice PBT SA caps.

Why do you present the donor board covered in bubble wrap?
It kind of looks like this...

XMIT wrote: E3E I don't know where you found another one of these CIE / C. Itoh terminals but you are lucky indeed. These are just about the nicest caps I've ever tried, on any keyboard.

If I ever take XMIT Keyboards to the next level I'd love to offer a stock spherical key cap option. With unlimited funds, a Cherry MX version of these, fully sculpted with all the mods, would be my choice. I wonder how expensive it will be to get a set of molds made, or if I want to jump that far into the deep end...

They really are that amazing. When I first saw them, I figured they were a uniform profile. Spherical caps are painfully deceptive in pictures. It's hard to tell how deeply scooped they are or if they have row profiles or not unless you see a good picture from the side. When you posted yours, I was like "hot damn, now I know I need these."

I didn't think I'd find them. You were right about them being very hard to find. I had to proxy these from Russia. I found them by chance and getting everything together was stressful. It got very discouraging at times.

They're definitely my favorite spherical caps and possibly my favorite caps overall too!

micrex22 wrote: Nice classic XEROX logo on that keyboard (sort of reminds me of lexmark branded keyboards, despite the fact both made printers). Definitely would be shameful to see those gutted; at the very least it could be modded to a more modern layout if someone was that persistent about it.

Yeah, I just can't do it. They're really too unique to deserve that kind of treatment unless the housing was in bad shape. They are elegant.

seebart wrote: With or without the mouse the DocuTechs are amazing, but for the display it's very nice to have of course. From my personal experience Alps SKCM / SKCL is one switch that varies in feel and sound with different keycaps. I have never tried other keycaps on my Zenith ZKB-2, the only green Alps board that I own. I have some nice thick Alps ABS doubleshots from a Toshiba T1200 I'll try some time, nowhere as nice as your C.Itoh caps though.

It's fun to experiment with key caps. Just imagining that some of these key cap sets weren't really designed for certain switches yet seeing how well they go with them is just pretty interesting. These came on a board with Alps spring over memberane, but they go excellently with the SKCM series and SKCL as well. The switch in the C.Itoh boards reminds me of a linear version of Alps plate spring, but not nearly as smooth.

That said, Alps plate spring is probably the most unaffected switch ever when it comes to cap selection. No need to put rare or thick key caps on them. Their feel barely changes at all. Sound either.

My favorite Alps caps so far are probably the Tai Hao thick Cherry-mimic doubleshots and the PBT C.Itoh caps if I had to really just pick a few.

The uniform profile cylindrical PBT caps with Chinese legends are also a big favorite of mine, especially on steep keyboards.

Menuhin wrote: Love the Xerox even without these nice PBT SA caps.

Why do you present the donor board covered in bubble wrap?
It kind of looks like this...

Spoiler:

Well you know how the organ harvesting market goes...

I plan on cleaning up the actual boards at some point, but it's a low priority since they aren't something that are functional or particularly pleasant to just try the type feel of (unlike the Xerox). Because of this reason, I chose not to modify the long right and left arrows to fit in a standard arrow cluster. I'm thinking I'll work with my caster to get keys in that profile casted. I don't mind if they're blank.

I have too much care for things like this, especially if they're hard to find. There's not much reason to keep them as they are but I would feel bad modifying them.

Thank you! I always like knowing people can appreciate the Xerox boards.

E3E wrote: My favorite Alps caps so far are probably the Tai Hao thick Cherry-mimic doubleshots and the PBT C.Itoh caps if I had to really just pick a few.

The uniform profile cylindrical PBT caps with Chinese legends are also a big favorite of mine, especially on steep keyboards.

Agreed, I love the Tai Hao doubleshots on my Focus FK-2002 but Mattr567's Canon HiPros impressed me!

seebart wrote:

E3E wrote: My favorite Alps caps so far are probably the Tai Hao thick Cherry-mimic doubleshots and the PBT C.Itoh caps if I had to really just pick a few.

The uniform profile cylindrical PBT caps with Chinese legends are also a big favorite of mine, especially on steep keyboards.

Agreed, I love the Tai Hao doubleshots on my Focus FK-2002 but Mattr567's Canon HiPros impressed me!

Oh do you mean the standard Tai Hao OEM-like key caps or do you mean the Cherry profile ones? I think I remember you having a FAME TH-5539 but that you sold it shortly after discovering it wasn't Aruz, or was that Dra?

Yes, all of Alps' hi pro caps are seriously nice. The only ones I really need now are the Canon ones themselves! It's hard to pick a favorite out of the hi pros, but because they're so different, I think the C.Itoh caps are my tops there. It's interesting how they are the only PBT variety that's yet known.

I wonder if there are others. I just can't get over how high quality the printing is on them. Some Alps caps have fuzzy printing, some have very bold printing like the 5576-002 and P70 caps, but these are like, just right and sharp.

I'm also curious about the Yamaha MSX caps. The ICL One Per Desk are hi pro but pretty flat in terms of scoop. In some pictures, the MSX caps seem flattish, but overall, they're a mystery to me.

They're also have a few legend language variants like Arabic and Cyrillic.

It is just perfect. ANSI with ISO Enter, just wonderful!

E3E wrote: Oh do you mean the standard Tai Hao OEM-like key caps or do you mean the Cherry profile ones? I think I remember you having a FAME TH-5539 but that you sold it shortly after discovering it wasn't Aruz, or was that Dra?

I mean these;

wiki/Focus_FK-2002

Yes both me and Dra got a FAME and the keycaps were indeed very nice, yes I did re-sell it.

E3E wrote: I wonder if there are others.

Considering it's Alps...nothing would suprise me. These were also some of the nicest I've seen:

photos-f62/new-old-stock-focus-fk-2001- ... 14258.html

seebart wrote:

E3E wrote: Oh do you mean the standard Tai Hao OEM-like key caps or do you mean the Cherry profile ones? I think I remember you having a FAME TH-5539 but that you sold it shortly after discovering it wasn't Aruz, or was that Dra?

I mean these;

wiki/Focus_FK-2002

Yes both me and Dra got a FAME and the keycaps were indeed very nice, yes I did re-sell it.

E3E wrote: I wonder if there are others.

Considering it's Alps...nothing would suprise me. These were also some of the nicest I've seen:

photos-f62/new-old-stock-focus-fk-2001- ... 14258.html

Chiptea does have a fantastic example of a NIB FK-2001 and it has beautiful caps.

That's what I like about Alps! There's always something new and you can never simply deny the possibility of something existing. If more PBT sphericals exist in the vintage Alps world, then it'll provide me with more things to hunt down!

I also still want to explore the world of Yamaha MSXes just to see the caps they have. I know there are SEVERAL models there and they all look like sphericals of some sort. They all seem like doubleshot ABS though.

Yes, I'm back to typing on my NCR that is using those keycaps! With SKCL Browns, it is quite nice. They feel great on linears and since this was built on a vintage ACER 6011 plate, it feels very right. Nothing too stiff or too flexible.



This fun little Chery-look alike here.

But yes! The standard Tai Hao caps are quite nice too! Especially on clicky blue Alps. I like that many companies used Tai Hao caps. The Cherry-style is also found on various models too. Like that one trackball board that people paid crazy amounts for on ebay a while back. Not the keycat, I believe.

ideus wrote: It is just perfect. ANSI with ISO Enter, just wonderful!

Thank you! I'm glad you like it. I think these Xerox boards would be very nice to use.