Jump to page content

Certification codes

Standards and regulatory compliance certification has led to keyboards and other products being labelled with a variety of codes that help identify the manufacturer of the product. See certification marks on the Deskthority wiki for a recognition guide to the various certification marks. This page provides a quick reference for the various manufacturer-specific codes found on keyboards.

Contents

FCC IDs

Older equipment was frequently marked with an FCC ID, specific to the product. The first three or five letters are the grantee code, which indicates the organisation that registered the product with the Federal Communications Commission. In most cases, the FCC grantee will be the OEM, but this is not always the case. For example, the Compaq Enhanced Keyboard was registered with the FCC by Compaq themselves, resulting in both the Key Tronic and Advanced Input Devices versions having a Compaq FCC ID (with grantee code “CNT”). Likewise, Alps keyboards have FCC IDs with grantee “BCG” for Apple, regardless of OEM. The UL file number or CSA file number may however still indicate the OEM, as is the case with the Compaq Enhanced Keyboard.

The FCC provides an FCC ID search service, but for quick reference, common keyboard manufacturer FCC grantee codes are listed below.

Note that company name changes and acquisitions confuse matters. For example, the aforementioned grantee code “CNT” belonged to Compaq, but is now assigned to HP following their acquisition of Compaq. Where multiple business names are known to share an FCC ID, each known name is listed in the table below, oldest first.

Grantee code Brand
ACJ Panasonic Corporation of North America
AHG RCA Corporation
ANO IBM (USA)
AQ6 NMB Technologies Corporation
ATO Zenith Data Systems
AWQ Epson, now Kyocera
B3Q Brother Industries
B4Y Wang
B7Z NEC
BCG Apple, Inc.
BNX Video Technology Computers Ltd (VTCL)
BR8 Advanced Datum Information Corp (ADI)
C9S Fujitsu Ltd.
CIG Key Tronic
CMY Mitsumi
CNT Compaq
HP Inc.
CWT Alps Electric Co., Ltd.(Japan)
Alps Alpine Co., Ltd. (Japan)
D7J Maxi Switch Inc.
D7P Oak Switch Systems
DE6 Cherry Electrical Products Corp. (USA)
DKW Dah Yang Industry Co., Ltd.
DSI Hewlett Packard Singapore Pte Ltd
DYD Wyse Technology
E2X Samsung
E5X Behavior Tech Computer Corp. (BTC)
E8H Chicony
E98 Datadesk International Inc., United States
EFX Genest
EW4 Mitsumi
F2Q Qtronix
iOne
F4Z Forward Electronics Co., Ltd.
FBX Datacomp Electronics Co Ltd
FKD Monterey International Corp.
FMA Nan Tan Computer Co.
Clevo
FSQ Focus Electronic Co., Ltd.
FY4 Qtronix
Deyi Technology Co., Ltd.
GDD Cherry (Germany)
GJJ Sejin Electron
GJK Honeywell
GL2 Micronorth
GM8 Ortek Technology Inc
GMB Commtron Corporation (related to Ortek and not a typo for GM8)
GOG Taiwan Tai-Hao Enterprise Co., Ltd.
GQ8 Acer
GRH Gold Star Alps Electronics Co., Ltd.
GS2 Costar
GYI Alps Electric (USA) Inc.
GYU Silitek
H77 Dih Shin Industries Co., Ltd.
HQK Key Mouse Enterprise (KME)
Dih Shin Industries Co., Ltd.
IFS Laser
IYL Lexmark
IYN Keypot Technology Co., Ltd. (KPT)
IYZ Marquardt
JVP Acer
BenQ
KJX Wentek Technology Inc.
KM9 Strong Man Enterprises Co., Ltd.
L2B Solid Year Co., Ltd.
LAK BTC Korea Co., Ltd.
LIA Unikey Electronics Co., Ltd.
MCA PCD Maltron Ltd.

The table above was initially compiled from the Deskthority wiki FCC ID quick reference and the Keycombo FCC grantee code reference.

UL file numbers

UL file numbers are not product-specific. A single company may have more than one UL file number, but multiple products from the same organisation will share the same UL file number.

Although numerous FCC IDs found on keyboards are not present on the FCC website (either due to data loss on the part of the FCC or fabrication by the manufacturers) in general the FCC records appear to be maintained in perpetuity. Conversely, UL file numbers are not maintained and it is common for the UL file numbers on keyboards to not exist. E140034 appears to belong to Mitsumi, but is no longer on record. E82144 belonged to Advanced Input Devices and is no longer on record either. Some codes can be found via the Search Product iQ page.

File number Company
E57888 Brother?
E66484 Panasonic Corporation of North America
E75282 Cherry
E78722 Key Tronic
E82144 Advanced Input Devices
E134780 Primax Electronics
E139948 Key Tronic
E140034 Mitsumi? (per the KPQ-EA4EA catalogue entry)
E141395 Sunrex Technology
E145614 Lite-On
E164844 Chicony
E198681 Huizhou China Eagle Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (PCB manufacturer)
E206453 Darfon Electronics

CSA file numbers

CSA file numbers appear to be even more elusive than UL file numbers, only able to be deduced from comparing keyboards.

File number Company
LR53866 Brother?
LR53966 Advanced Input Devices
LR65976 Key Tronic
LR65976-1
LR68219 Panasonic
LR80880 Maxi-Switch?
LR89274 Maxi-Switch?
LR94080 Brother?
LR99675 Maxi-Switch?