SIIG MiniTouch / Monterey K110 keyboard review (SMK 2nd gen "Monterey"

Chyros · 28 Oct 2017, 14:29

Part of a semi-series of space-saving keyboards I'll be running for the next few weeks (well except for next week), I present you the Monterey K110. Hope you enjoy the video!

Daniel Beardsmore · 28 Oct 2017, 14:52

The modular jack is for the KP110 external numeric keypad:

JP! · 28 Oct 2017, 15:07

Oh so the numeric keyboard attaches to the keyboard. Neat.

Daniel Beardsmore · 28 Oct 2017, 15:17

Ortek's equivalent product range, the so-called "[wiki]Ortek compact series[/wiki]" is designed the same way. The socket on the keyboard is connected directly to the matrix in both cases, I think (certainly true with Ortek as someone traced the wires). The mini-DIN connector mentioned in the 1992 catalogue above may be a version that functions as an independent keypad, but the KP110 is extremely rare.

The jack was removed at some point it seems, but my K110 had the jack fitted but not wired up. I never thought to photograph the surrounding portion of the PCB to show whether it could have been wired in; I think the empty jack was just filling a hole in the case until the case mould was changed.

seebart · 28 Oct 2017, 15:41

: 1yejlh.jpg (72.6 KiB) Viewed 3215 times

Chyros · 28 Oct 2017, 16:17

Kinda weird that the keypad uses a terminal jack. So you can't use it separately with a computer then?

seebart · 28 Oct 2017, 16:33

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: The jack was removed at some point it seems, but my K110 had the jack fitted but not wired up. I never thought to photograph the surrounding portion of the PCB to show whether it could have been wired in; I think the empty jack was just filling a hole in the case until the case mould was changed.

Mine has the jack fitted and wired up. I'll take some pics of it...eventually.

Chyros wrote: Kinda weird that the keypad uses a terminal jack. So you can't use it separately with a computer then?

Right, guess it had to be that specific connector for no apparent reason...or at least we don't know the reason.

Daniel Beardsmore · 28 Oct 2017, 18:34

Ortek used a DA-15 D-subminiature connector like you'd find on a PC joystick at the time.

Monterey's 6P6C means that you could only have a very small matrix (3×3) which would make a direct matrix connection an impossibility.

So indeed it may be a fully standalone keypad with an odd choice of connector.

Sangdrax · 01 Nov 2017, 20:33

Mine had the jack wired up, looked like parallel to the DIN connector. I didn't see any separate control stuff. But I'd have to open it again to be sure.

Calling it flimsy made me wonder too. Mine had a steel plate mount that made it seem pretty solid to me compared to PCB/plastic contemporaries like the BTC-5100 and such which are super light. The case plastic and the caps were pretty thin but the internals seemed beefy. Maybe it's just my unfamiliarity with other Alps boards.

seebart · 01 Nov 2017, 20:38

Sangdrax wrote: Calling it flimsy made me wonder too. Mine had a steel plate mount that made it seem pretty solid to me compared to PCB/plastic contemporaries like the BTC-5100 and such which are super light. The case plastic and the caps were pretty thin but the internals seemed beefy. Maybe it's just my unfamiliarity with other Alps boards.

Right, I guess it really depends on what you would call "beefy"! Just to give you some relation although it's a far stretch from most Alps based keyboards:

Spoiler:

keyboards-f2/key-tronic-corp-serial-no- ... y%20tronic

Chyros · 01 Nov 2017, 20:51

Sangdrax wrote: Mine had the jack wired up, looked like parallel to the DIN connector. I didn't see any separate control stuff. But I'd have to open it again to be sure.

Calling it flimsy made me wonder too. Mine had a steel plate mount that made it seem pretty solid to me compared to PCB/plastic contemporaries like the BTC-5100 and such which are super light. The case plastic and the caps were pretty thin but the internals seemed beefy. Maybe it's just my unfamiliarity with other Alps boards.

Thankfully, the quality of the moulds seem pretty good, as the plastic looks pretty seamless, hence why I said I think it doesn't LOOK cheap. But basically I wouldn't want to drop it. It also flexes fairly ridiculously, I mean for such a tiny board it should be rigid as fuck but it flexes more than a Model M which is twice as big Oo .

I mean it's not a G80-3000 or anything, and it's DEFINITELY a lot better than the (also Monterey) 5981 but for a 90s board especially it's not what I'd call tough.

seebart · 01 Nov 2017, 21:00

Chyros wrote:
Sangdrax wrote: Mine had the jack wired up, looked like parallel to the DIN connector. I didn't see any separate control stuff. But I'd have to open it again to be sure.

Calling it flimsy made me wonder too. Mine had a steel plate mount that made it seem pretty solid to me compared to PCB/plastic contemporaries like the BTC-5100 and such which are super light. The case plastic and the caps were pretty thin but the internals seemed beefy. Maybe it's just my unfamiliarity with other Alps boards.
Thankfully, the quality of the moulds seem pretty good, as the plastic looks pretty seamless, hence why I said I think it doesn't LOOK cheap. But basically I wouldn't want to drop it. It also flexes fairly ridiculously, I mean for such a tiny board it should be rigid as fuck but it flexes more than a Model M which is twice as big Oo .

I mean it's not a G80-3000 or anything, and it's DEFINITELY a lot better than the (also Monterey) 5981 but for a 90s board especially it's not what I'd call tough.

Right, and you definitly won't want to drop the Chyron 4044 on this.

Although my old Key Tronic would destroy it also.