Prehistoric Hitachi Micro Switch Keyboard

JP! · 02 Apr 2020, 18:19

I recently won this from Yahoo! Auctions Japan. It sold at a reasonable price but unfortunately the shipping was way more than the board which I guess isn't surprising due to the weight of this unit. They definitely don't make them like this anymore.

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snacksthecat · 02 Apr 2020, 18:43

Dude those colors are something else!

Invisius · 03 Apr 2020, 08:33

This is a real interesting one. It has the classic Micro-Switch hand-traced PCB from early 70s, but a very different layout and chips from any board I've seen during that era. The 1SW11 switches are the same dual-magnetic series from the Decision-Data punch keyboards, but the caps are a completely different profile and engraved vs doubleshot. I wonder who made them? That Yamatake partnership must've been pretty big for them to include their name on the main logo.

JP! · 03 Apr 2020, 15:07

Invisius wrote: 03 Apr 2020, 08:33 That Yamatake partnership must've been pretty big for them to include their name on the main logo.

I thought it was pretty interesting.

Also a bit of company history:

1952 Technical license agreement is signed with Honeywell Inc. (presently Honeywell International Inc.) of the U.S.
1953 Yamatake (presently Azbil Corporation) forms an equity-based alliance with Honeywell (presently Honeywell International Inc.) of the U.S. (50% share)

https://www.azbil.com/corporate/company/history.html

Wazazaby · 09 Apr 2020, 21:02

These keycaps are great !