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? |