Micro Switch RW Series
Contents
Overview
RW Series is a series of reed switch keyboards from Micro Switch, which use Series KB switches. These keyboards are so far known only from 1970, although customer-produced keyboards using Series KB switches date back to around 1966–1968. It appears that the use of these switches in keyboards was fairly short-lived, with Micro Switch instead pushing SW Series solid state keyboards that were introduced in 1968.
Series KB switches could be soldered to printed circuit board, hand-wired onto notched terminals, or connected via spade connectors. Third-party keyboards tended to use spade connectors and hand-wiring, while Micro Switch RW keyboards appear to all use PCB assembly. As with all Series KB–based keyboards, the switches are attached to mounting rails.
RW Series keyboards so far have been found to use 2SW Series keycaps (or a derivative thereof), with extra notches added to accept special wide keystem adapters.
Electronic Engineer magazine’s this is your keyboard reference from 1971—jointly a Micro Switch advertisement—depicts reed and solid state keyboards together, but does not name the series of either.
Keyboards
Keyboard | Switches | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
K50164-57RW | ? | 7014 | Completely non-standard catalogue listing number |
57RW1-2 chassis | 7A1MS | 7035 | |
Potter Instrument KDR/KB 3100A Model 12 (51RW1-2) | 7A1MT | 7005 |
See also
- Micro Switch magnetic reed page on the Deskthority wiki