Vintage aviation keyboard u/Loitering_Potato posted his find and commenters tried to figure out what this is.
KBD.news Published July 17, 2022
Creators! Feel free to
tip me off about your keyboard related projects to bring them to 100K readers.
I found this at work today. Anyone know exactly what it is? – Loitering_Potato .
As Keagan458 points out, the switches look ITW magnetic valve ones (sound test ).
According to paladinado , who works as an avionics tech on old French fighters, the board seems like an aerospace/aviation test equipment keyboard or other military/defense application. It has a mil-spec connector/cannon plug at the end.
As it turns out, the OP is in the Air Force so it absolutely makes sense if the keyboard is part of the "Test Cell or something". (It was in a storage area and could have had other uses as well.)
Btw, the marking on the connector reads: Bendix 9417 PTO6M-12-88 .
Another fellow Redditor from the same industry, preludeoflight , seems to agree:
Yeah we put those sort of amphenol connectors on just about any of our projects that is designed to go in an aircraft. For when you need that guarantee of “it’s not gonna disconnect mid-flight!” Published on Sun 17th Jul 2022. Featured in KBD #87 (source ).
Related A nice-looking IBM Model F AT posted by
WillytheWarden .
This gorgeous
Dynalogic Hyperion , a Canadian luggable from the early '80s, was posted by
u/snuci .
Rossenheimer thought folks will appreciate the unidentified luggable computer his boss brought to the office.
Wyvyrn reflects on keyboards in movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
Memorex Telex keyboard restored by
lrussell887 .
A Tandy Color Computer 3 spotted by
TTVmetalbassist1 .
About KBD.news is a blog and weekly newsletter on DIY mechanical keyboards. A hand-picked selection of features from a keyboard enthusiast's perspective (more + contact ).
Contribute , tip-offs, contact
Support this project
MK Advent Calendar 2022
Meetups in your area
Discount codes for ya
Manufacturers
Subscribe now!
Join the 3,000+ readers who get news and useful links delivered to their inboxes once a week.
Check the latest newsletters→
Latest issue
Check the archive→
Supporters splitkb.com , MoErgo Glove80 , u/chad3814 , MKUltra , Aiksplace , @keebio , Upgrade Keyboards , Cyboard , Sean Grady , @kaleid1990 , Jacob Mikesell , Jason Hazel , KEEBD , cdc , kiyejoco , littlemer-the-second , ghsear.ch , u/motfalcon , Christian Lo , Bob Cotton , FFKeebs , Richard Sutherland , Joel Simpson , DROP, @therick0996 , Christian Mladenov , Lev Popov , Daniel Nikolov , u/eighty58five , Schnoor Typography , Caleb Rand , Spencer Blackwood , Skyler Thuss , Yuan Liu , Mats Faugli , James McCleese , Benjamin Bell , TurtleKeebs , Matthias Goffette , Ergohaven , Davidjohn Gerena , Hating TheFruit , zzeneg , anonymous , Anatolii Smolianinov , Spencer Dabell , Penk Chen
Toolkit
Keyboard Layout Editor , Plate Builder / Plate Generator , QMK / kbfirmware.com (to QMK ), Pro Micro pinout & upgrade
Community
r/mk , ErgoMech , r/mechmarket , geekhack.org , deskthority.net , keebtalk.com/ , lemmy/mk/ , lemmy/ergomech/ , kbin/mk/
Production
PCB design guide , another one , PCB price comparison , lasergist , laserboost , hubs.com