Apple Design keyboard - made by ALPS, and others

[kint]

I once bought a box of old keyboards for an Escom branded FK-2002 lying on top of the stack which I was interested in.
The other 16 keyboards were supposed to be "just old beige ones".
Turned out to be a pretty good shot as there was an AEK II and a G80-1000 in it, but also 5 pieces of an http://deskthority.net/wiki/AppleDesign_Keyboard.
Now, I tend to pull the caps from every board I receive, and in this case it turned into another win.

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Please excuse the poor picture quality upcoming, I don't own any digital equipment apart from my cellphone.

Left in this picture are AEK II caps, to the right are the ADK caps. bottom left SPs thin doubleshot, bottom right thick Cherry PBT.
Now, these caps are dyesubbed PBT, and they don't have the annoying 90° twisted F row mount the AEK II has, and they have a regular ISO Return. So they will fit some other ALPS boards.

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Since I had 5 of them I checked for differences and I'll try to document them here. Btw, I later went out and bought another one according to my findings and it turned out to be ALPS copmpatible too. Here's a TL,DR table screenshot:

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and this is what you should look for if you're on the hunt for one:

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1. You can't distinguish them from the front face. They all have the same layout and some have a NUM label with icons, others have text.
2. From top to bottom, made in: Czech Republic, Thailand, Thailand, Thailand, China. The top one, made in Czech Republic is the one we're interested in. It has 3 screws in a row, where the others have either 4 in a row (Thailand) or 4 in a row plus another 2 beneath them (china). Also, note that the middle three have long, Cherry style feet at the back, also 3 rubber foot at the front. China has 2 small foot at the back and rubber at the front, whereas the czech one has 2 short and wide foot at the back and 2 square rubber foot at the front.
3. All of them have a fixed cable. The Thailand ones are marked "made in Thailand" on the ID plate of the case, have the FCC ID BCGM2980, the made in China one is marked on the barcode sticker, not on the case ID plate and also bears no FCC ID. The Czech (good) one, also has it's country of origin on the barcode sticker, but also an FCC ID.

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here's a slightly better shot of the backsides, without the czech one that is. 1-3 are made in Thailand, 4 is made in China.

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Interestingly enought the Thailand ones are unmarked on the Controller PCb, where the made in China one has a PCB marked by ALPS (but no ALPS compatible caps).

NMB plunger in the Thailand ones, and integrated plunger on the China mady by ALPS one. Also notice the difference in the staggering, the Thailand ones have a flat backplate, the China one has a curved one:

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Now, for the czech, the ALPS compatible one,
Case is marked "ALPS" on the inside. Oddly enough also marked with the dates 11/1994 in the bottom part, but 7/1997 in the top case part. On both specimen I own(ed). The © by Apple on the back of the case however still says 1994. On the Chinese one, it says © 1996 which corresponds with the date marks in that case (11/1997).
So I rather that the marking in the Czech ALPS made case was set wrong, making those 11/1994 cases. Not impossible, since 1994 and 1997 are direct opposites in the production stamp.

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The assembly are round plungers in a barrel plate atop a rubber mat, usual membrane sheets, then steel plate.

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Thanks ALPS :

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Controller, rubber mat on the second one:

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Conclusion and speculation:
It appears there were at least two producers of ADK keyboards, one producing in Thailand, NMB style sliders over rubber. Seems to be producing at least from 7/1994. Not compatible ABS caps as for their yellowing. 4 screws in the back, production location in the case ID.

And ALPS, making those keyboards in the Czech republic first, with a rubber mat made in IRL. ALPS compatible keycaps with a round plunger over rubber. Different case design to the Thailand ones, (broader base, just 3 screws). No production location in the case ID but on the barcode label instead. Then they cheapened the production somewhat between 1996 and 1997, went to China instead, went with a slightly different case bottom (4+2 screws) and integrated sliders in the caps. Also they dropped the FCC ID.

I will upload pictures of the caps tomorrow when there is better light, also I'm at the max of the pics I can upload. Thanks if you made it that far.

[Findecanor]

Awesome post! Thanks for the research on this non-mechanical keyboard. It is often encountered when looking for AEK and AEKII, and it is really good to know how to recognize which version has the Alps-compatible keycaps.

I like that the Alps barrel plate says "KEYCAP MATL.: PBT"

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Ah! Tammy Hanson from Apple Rescue of Denver mentioned that she had seen at least one other type of AppleDesign Keyboard in addition to my two that I put on the wiki.

The two on the wiki are:

Alps, 1997

Rear imprint: China, ©1996
Backplate timestamp: 1997-12-26
Upper case timestamp: 1998-01
Lower case timestamp: 1998-01

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NMB, 1998

Rear imprint: Thailand, ©1996
Lower case timestamp: 1998-05 or 1998-06 (unclear due to mould defects)
Upper case timestamp: 1998-05

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The NMB version is better-built. Held together solely with screws (no snaps) and it comes apart really easily. Softer, less mushy keys, too.

On the other hand, it's the NMB one that got the legend messed up, giving me a second \ (where a PC has it) instead of ` which is mightily confusing when switching between a Mac and a PC. I hit "\" and get "`". I look down at the keyboard. I see a "\". Pressing "\" gives "`". Then I spot the other "\" key ...

You can see here where I scratched out half of the \ :

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[Daniel Beardsmore]

OK, NMB actually made at least two versions:

http://www.applerescueofdenver.com/prod ... -key-caps/

[kint]

Interesting. It seems the Mexico one is identical to the Czech one here.
I'm doing a far stretch and say Alps had a factory in Mexico and Irland from the time they did the AEK II, and in the Czech Republic.
With the AEK II they produced whole keyboards in IRL, then went to the Czech Republic with only parts of the ADK being produced in IRL, and later to China alltogether. But kept the Mexico plant for the US boards.
Sorry I didn't take pics of the caps today. Will do asap.

[Nialls]

In 1990 ALPS had two main manufacturing sites assembling Computer Peripherals outside Japan - one in Millstreet Co.Cork Ireland and the other in Garden Grove Los Angeles, USA

When the Apple Design Keyboard was being developed the USA site set up a manufacturing plant in Mexico and the Ireland site set up a manufacturing operation in the Czech Republic near Brno. The Keyboard designs were approved by Apple but owned and managed by ALPs. (NMB were a competitor)

With the exception of some test keyboards all the ALPS Apple Design Keyboards were manufacturing in either Mexico or the Czech Republic. There were some minor design differences between the keyboards manufactured at the different sites and the components were sourced from different manufacturers. The Czech Keyboard had pressure actuator switch - three layer membrane while I think the Mexico Keyboard had a conductive actuator switch - single membrane

The reference to Irl on the membrane rubber mat was because the design was developed in Ireland- it was actually made in Italy.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Interesting, I've never seen one with a single membrane sheet.

[XMIT]

I have an Apple Design Keyboard here that was Made in Mexico. It uses Alps mount caps and Alps sliders. But, the key material is ABS and the legends are pad printed. The pad printing is well done: many of the keys are very shiny but the legends are still in place.