deskthority

No full pictures yet, sorry, maybe over the weekend. Something about developing some forum and work eating up all my time..

The Sega HTR-2106 came with the Sega Teradrive, a "16-bit PC with an integrated Mega Drive, manufactured by IBM for Sega (...) only released in Japan."

The keyboard is also made by IBM for Sega, and has a unique Alps switch. More about that later. This is no ordinary Alps switch!

Unfortunately the LED area arrived with a hole in it. I think the seller ripped me off, because it would be hard to get that kind of damage during shipping through an otherwise undamaged box and undamaged foam. It's only the LED sticker, but it would be hard to fix, IBM LED stickers are bigger and slightly differently colored.
I took these for my shopping service, and they returned that they couldn't see anything wrong, if I would be so kind to encircle or point to the exact problem. So I did.

Such an awesome keyboard. I love the color scheme. The damage is a damn shame, maybe Chuck can print you a replacement label.... yeah right.

It's easy to get a replacement label. If I want a 1000 of them.

Any pics of the switches?

I wanted to do this last week, but the light was very bad whenever I had the opportunity. Now I get the glare from the flash of my cheap camera as seen above. I want to shoot a good series, also of the inside. Soon.. I hope.

webwit wrote:I wanted to do this last week, but the light was very bad whenever I had the opportunity. Now I get the glare from the flash of my cheap camera as seen above. I want to shoot a good series, also of the inside. Soon.. I hope.

Get some of those lamps I got from Amazon. Best investment ever.

I broke one of the $30 lightbulbs on the first day, so all my pics have a shadow now due to only having one of them left, but oh well. Still good.

Yeah I need to get some lamps at some point. Not from amazon though. They are fascists. I tried my local camera shop once, but they looked funny at me for not wanting their cheapest 500 EUR lamp.

webwit wrote:It's easy to get a replacement label. If I want a 1000 of them.

Come on, someone who has spent a gazillion bucks (rough estimate) on keyboards can stomach that

"gazillion" is an awesome word. I wish my paycheck said "1 gazillion dollars"

keyboardlover wrote:"gazillion" is an awesome word. I wish my paycheck said "1 gazillion dollars"

Then you will come to the harsh reality that a "gazillion" doesn't exist when you go deposit that check. So will your landlord and creditors soon enough.

keyboardlover wrote:"gazillion" is an awesome word. I wish my paycheck said "1 gazillion dollars"

You should demand your paychecks in Zimbabwean dollars.

Or German Reichsmark!



Kept hearing this story from my grandma how she carried a whole hamper full of these 50 million mark bills to buy a loaf of bread.

If I'm not mistaken, "gazillion" = several (unknown number) bags filled to the brim with cash.

*bump*

Any pics?

Hmm, I really need to buy a proper flash camera and/or lamps or move to a more tropical region.
Actually it's one my desk right now.. it's begging for my attention.

I'd like to know more about these switches. Where's the update??

These are very, very nice Alps. Bit strange though, the throw seems a bit shorter than for example a buckling spring, you have to like that. The click is very sharp and smooth as butter at the same time, with a nice click. Cherry Blues can't touch this. The design seems rather open, I wonder how good these switches can cope with dust.

Looks awesome! I'm voting for SEGA replica Cherry MX set next!

webwit wrote:

Now, why does that look so familiar...



I see what you did there, Alps.

Btw Webwit - how stiff are these things?

They are not, I estimate 50g for activation.

Wow, that would make it the lightest buckling spring implementation if that were the case. That said, I think it may be fair to say that below a certain point, a tradeoff between stiffness and tactility has to be made.

But here seems to be the secret sauce of the Alps BS -



There's a follower behind the spring that pushes it along as it buckles.

Ah so that's what the slider to the right of the spring is doing.

From the patent -

"Moreover, since the spring is forcibly inverted, the overall length of the spring can be shortened to provide a compactness of apparatus"

Interesting patent. I intend on reading when I'm not half asleep as I am currently.

This might explain the shorter throw. It's not dramatic (like laptop keys) but it's there.

Sounds like the old cherry mx. Much shorter travel, but not too short.

Here is a nice replacement for your LED label:

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=16142

What a steal!

If you look at the photos in the auction, you can see that the keyboard's casing has a pretty nasty crack in it.

The Wiki now has an Alps buckling spring description in it.

At least it shows the damage. Mine had no LED damage in the small auction photos.

I think the last complete system I saw auctioned went for $350 or something like that (it was the least powerful system), and I think the buyer later auctioned the keyboard to win something back.