Brent>
Speaking of various keyboards: some time ago I received a bare
Brent> (no machine, no case, no ID) keyboard utilising
Brent> magnetically-activated reed relays for the key contacts. Reed
Brent> relays were commonly used for calculator keyboards in the
Brent> late-60s/early 70s and it probably dates from this era, but
Brent> this is the only occasion I have seen reed relays used in an
Brent> alphabetic keyboard.
Tektronix also used this. The Tek 4014 has such a keyboard.
Maybe we should make a list of the various keyboard technologies :
Mecahnical switches
Metal contacts pressed together by key
'Snap action' domes or strips (e.g. HP35)
Membranes pressed together when key is pressed
Metal contacts held apart and allowed to touch when key is pressed
(e.g. VT100)
Microswitches
Reed switches
Hall Effect sensors
Capacitance change devices
Plastic flap over PCB (e.g. IBM PC)
'Keytronics' type
Transformer coupling between PCB tracks -- moving core on the key
(e.g. ICL Termiprinter)
Pair of balanced transformers, one of which is damped by the key (e.g HP9810)
Mecahnical encoding, parallel output mechanical contacts (e.g. ASR33)
Mechanical encoding, serial output mechanical contact (e.g. Creed 7E)
What have I missed (I think I have examples of all of those in use here!)
-tony