KBK updates

KBK updates for 30th July 2023

Sun, 30 Jul 2023 23:59:00 GMT

Swede Peter Lothberg contacted me to answer a question posted to my site on the wishlist page: ‘What does “WEAB” stand for in Mechanical Enterprises switches?’ The answer is “Wermlands Elektronik AB” and there is now a brief page on WEAB with what is known so far. Peter worked for a different deparment at WEAB but has been able to provide a little bit of information. This is something that Findecanor would be best suited to investigate further.

KBK updates for 24th July 2022

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 23:59:00 GMT

I just learned late last night of the unfortunate and untimely death of Michael Schmid, Cherry’s head of MX marketing. According to the article, Michael died in May; I only found by chance. I copied Michael in on an e-mail to Cherry on Thursday and immediately received a bounce for his address. LinkedIn showed that he still worked for Cherry, as did Cherry’s own website, but something seemed amiss, so after not hearing back from anyone at Cherry on Friday, I had a look last night to see if there was any other clue as to Michael’s whereabouts, and found that he had died.

I have Michael to thank for some of the Cherry source material on this site, including an old MX datasheet, and the M8 part number schema. Michael seemed passionate about Cherry; it’s tragic that he was taken from the world too soon.

KBK updates for 19th July 2022

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 23:59:00 GMT

Another Micro Switch mystery is finally solved. Thanks to discoveries by “fricked” and Deepak Kandepet, we finally know how timed repeat works. Ever since discovering the existence of timed repeat switches (in SD Series, and now in the original SW Series), we have been faced with the question of how a (presumably) simple four-terminal switch could accommodate auto-repeat timing. Such keyboard are fairly unusual, and it has taken until now for someone to trace the circuit. Timed repeat switches are much simpler than expected: they are modified sink pulse switches where one output terminal sits at an intermediate voltage while the key is held, invisible to the encoder but able to be detected by a custom signal generator IC.

Details are given on the SW Series page under timed repeat.

KBK updates for 3rd July 2022

Sun, 03 Jul 2022 23:59:00 GMT

“fricked” has found the first example of a wired inductive Licon keyboard, part number 55-000084, listed for sale on eBay for a paltry $599.99. This example is the type described in US patent 3714611A and, from the part number, will be a low-profile Series 550 keyboard, and the first Series 550 keyboard ever seen. Strangely, despite the use of encoding switches, the logic board is the same size as the keyboard itself, with a total of 49 logic chips! Unfortunately eBay photos are too small to allow anyone to read off the chip codes. (See the ITW page for a link to the eBay listing, since at some point it will die and–as whoever is buying all these rare items squanders them and they vanish without a trace—the link will have to be replaced with one pointing to my archived photos as the only thing keep alive the item’s existence.)

The model I forgot to archive the photos from (55-100007, which the new owner has predictably kept hidden from the world) was probably an original Super Switch keyboard, considering that the switches were soldered to a PCB instead of threaded. Conceivably these PCB-mounted models were created to allow matrix wiring and thus N-key rollover, and may have been classified as Series 551.

The switches in 55-000084 are a lot like the “Style A” switches from Series 555, which implies that the patents filed in 1973 for tactile feel and alternate action were more likely intended for either Series 550 low profile or Super Switch. (The patents, uncharacteristically, omit the details of the switch itself.)

KBK updates for 13th June 2022

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 23:59:00 GMT

A new Olympia page briefly summarises the majority of the discovered switch usage to date, now that I have finally got around to adding some of Steve Kuterescz’s electronic typewriter photos that he’s sent over the last couple of years. At present, there is no detailed breakdown of chronological information, as so little such data is available at present.

This page is similar in function to the recently-added and less comprehensive Olivetti page.