Old AT keyboards and serial mice anyone?

[Malvineous]

Hi all,

Found an old box in the corner of my office and was about to chuck it, but I thought I'd just post here first on the off chance anyone wants anything. There are five AT keyboards (IIRC used on 80286 and later, large 5-pin DIN plug, 101-key, no Windows keys) and four nine-pin serial mice (2x two-button Microsoft mice, 2x generic unbranded three-button mice.)

Everything's dirty and the keyboard plastic is verging on bright yellow, so I'd be very surprised if anyone is interested, but I'm not sure how rare AT keyboards are these days.

Pick up for free from Brisbane, Australia or if you're really keen I'm happy to post anywhere at your expense. Happy to put up some photos if anyone is interested. If I don't hear back from anyone by the start of next week it'll all be sent off to the recyclers!

 

[kishy]

Anything particularly interesting keyboard-wise? Mechanical switch or rubber dome or what?

 

[Raven]

Need photos to determine what to even ask questions about - it's very well possible that some of us would be interested, however.

It really all depends on what you've got - i.e, a Model M for example is guaranteed to find someone interested, while a Dell QuietKey is not.

 

[leeb]

See PM regarding Mirco-mice! :D

 

[Malvineous]

I'm not sure what they are mechanically but they feel like rubber dome keys - certainly no hard click when you press them. They're not anything "noble" like an IBM keyboard (I would've recognised at least that!) they're just generic AT keyboards. One is a Mitsumi KPQ-E99ZC-12 and the other four are Chicony KB-5311.

I'm only really posting them as I'm not sure whether there's a shortage of AT keyboards, and I'd hate to chuck them if there was!

Here are some photos I have just taken: (click for large high-res versions)

 

[mikerm]

Yikes! Retro-brite those STAT! :D

 

[kishy]

Cool, thanks for the pics. Yeah nothing particularly special for keyboards but the Microsoft mouse is nice (I have a couple variations).

Mitsumi might be AT/XT switchable...model number looks familiar. If it is the switch is extra tiny and could easily be overlooked at a quick glance (photo doesn't look like the AT/XT ones but model number is ringing a bell).

 

[Raven]

What one is the Mitsumi - the one on the far right I assume? I have a board that looks like that I guess I'll have to inspect..

For keyboard connoisseurs, note the Mac-like font on the far right board. If you don't have one like this, you might want it.

The other three boards have interesting indicator light areas, and unimaginably random yellowing, heh. Nothing that draws my interest enough to ship all the way from Australia, but if I were close I'd pick them up or have them shipped just to have yet more boards.

I also should point out that serial mice with more than two buttons are somewhat rare - not as rare as those with scrollwheels, but certainly less common than two-button ones.

 

[Malvineous]

Yes the Mitsumi one is the far right (all the others are the same...apart from the yellowing.) It's funny you mention the font, when I found it my first impression was "wow that looks like the font on my old Mitsumi keyboard" so I was quite surprised when I turned it over and saw that it was also a Mitsumi. Must be a standard font they used on all their keyboards. Alas I can't find any switches or anything on them, however there is a small flat plastic area on the right-side of the keyboard (not visible in the photos) which looks like it could have been used as a switch location on a different model.

The two MS serial mice have been claimed by leeb, and I'm thinking of taking one of the three button serial mice for myself after I noticed yesterday that they have switches on the bottom to change between "MS" and "PC" which I can only guess is the protocol they use.