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

[Peter Stokes]

Hi

I have never spent any time with the 7 version keyboard, but use the mouse on
my iMac which I prefer to the wireless Apple one, less features, but no
annoying batteries to change. One issue with the type 7 keyboard was using on
older USB Sun kit as it has an internal USB hub and they did not recognise
it.

On the other keyboards, I lost count of the number of type 4 ones I stripped
and cleaned. I did not have issues with the foam, this was well over 10 years
ago, so probably a later issue. The main issue was crud falling between the
keys and then getting onto the landing pads for silvered part attached to the
foam. Pretty much all the used ones had one or more keys with issues, so we
just stripped them, cleaned the board and they pretty much all worked ok after
that. The type 5 and 6 did not have that problem and were pretty good, either
worked or not. The big problem we saw on the type 5 was the small rubber
corner supports which like the 1/4 cartridge drives drive capstan, just turned
to goo and made a right mess.

Peter

Sent from my iPad

> On 7 Jun 2021, at 16:23, Stephen Conley <cheetah at tanabi.org> wrote:
>
> o;?Yeah, the type 7 is awful.  To me, the keys are on it are literally
painful
> to use ... and I think they made it smaller too, and frankly the size is a
> good 75% of why I like the Type 5.  It's sized exactly right and the key
> 'geometry' is just perfect for my beat up old hands.  I think I used mine
> for like two hours, then popped some ibriprofin and found a Sun-to-USB for
> my Type 5 :)  Fortunately I got my 7 "for free" as part of a machine
> purchase back in the day.
>
>> On Mon, Jun 7, 2021 at 7:39 AM <sawbona at gmx.net> wrote:
>>
>>> On 6 Jun 2021 at 16:19, Jonathan Patschke wrote:
>>>
>>> ... before they were cost-optimized ...
>> Cost optimised?
>> OK, that's *one* way of putting it.  8^D
>>
>> Some time after I landed my Ultra 24, I came across a pair of Type 7 kbds.
>> which, based on
>> what I had seen with previous Sun kit, I purchased in a heartbeat.
>>
>> They were used but in excellent shape and very clean so I did not question
>> the
>> price I was
>> paying for them, which turned out to be far too much.
>>
>> I did not expect to see this flimsiness and fragility in a modern Sun
>> keyboard.
>>
>> The layout was the only thing it had going for it.
>> Unfortunately, the rest of the type 7 is a real POS.
>>
>> Best,
>> _______________________________________________
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