[rescue] What would you pay for a Type 5 keyboard?

[Mike Loewen]

On Fri, 4 Jun 2021, Dave McGuire wrote:

> On 6/4/21 3:20 PM, Mouse wrote:
>>> [...] the end result would still be a twenty-year-old keyboard.  Type
>>> 4s are dropping like flies now, and Type 5s won't be far behind.
>>
>> As in, existing ones are breaking?
>
> ...
>
>  A bit, yes.  The Type 4 is a capacitive keyboard that uses the little
> mylar-ish disk glued to a foam pad.  They can be rebuilt, but it's very
> time-consuming if you have more than one.  I'm overly sensitive to that
> aspect of things because we have probably 150 keyboards at the museum
> that need that repair. (for various systems and terminals)

    Sadly, I've used a couple of Type 4 keyboards as donors for the 
foam-and-foil pads for even older systems: Northstar Advantage and SOL 20. The 
replacement pads from TexElec did not work on those two machines. The Sun pads 
have held up much better than most.


Mike Loewen				mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology				http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/