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Knight and SAIL keyboard replicas

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Lars Brinkhoff

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Dec 20, 2021, 11:53:38 AM12/20/21
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Hello,

I'm trying to gauge the interest in keyboard replicas. The ones I have
in mind would be modeled on the keyboard for the Knight TV, and the
similar SAIL keyboard. Apparently there's a large start-up cost for
making key caps, so the more orders the merrier.

The Knight keyboard is useful for running ITS, and the SAIL keyboard
would be really good for some of the WAITS applications.

More info here:
https://github.com/osiweb/unified_retro_keyboard/issues/37

Paul Rubin

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Dec 20, 2021, 3:23:00 PM12/20/21
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Lars Brinkhoff <lars...@nocrew.org> writes:
> Apparently there's a large start-up cost for making key caps, so the
> more orders the merrier.

Aren't the keyboard frames even more expensive? I wonder if the key
caps themselves can be 3d printed in two passes, with the key legends
made as a groove and an "inlay".

Lars Brinkhoff

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Dec 21, 2021, 3:01:25 AM12/21/21
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Paul Rubin wrote:
> Aren't the keyboard frames even more expensive? I wonder if the key
> caps themselves can be 3d printed in two passes, with the key legends
> made as a groove and an "inlay".

It's probably going to be a pricey affair from start to end.

I welcome any 3D printing experiments. I suggest posting any results to
the GitHub issue.

Three Jeeps

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Dec 22, 2021, 6:14:31 PM12/22/21
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My knowledge of the Knight keyboard is minimal but some googling turned up some good photos. My first impression is that the keycaps and layout (for the most part) look very similar to an IBM 29 key punch machine. Perhaps the supplier of those keyboards is still around? (I dont recall who made them for IBM)
Back in the day (1990s) Cherry would supply keyboards and custom keycaps as well. They are still around and may be a source for the keyboards.

At this point, I don't have too much of an interest in a keyboard replica. My interest in doing anything 'AI' went away when the LMI and the TI Explorer machines were taken out of my office.....
J

Lars Brinkhoff

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Dec 23, 2021, 3:03:49 PM12/23/21
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Three Jeeps wrote:
> At this point, I don't have too much of an interest in a keyboard
> replica. My interest in doing anything 'AI' went away when the LMI
> and the TI Explorer machines were taken out of my office.....

My post actually had an off by one error; it was intended for
alt.sys.pdp10. Still, it's not too off topic because the keyboards were
attached to a PDP-11.

Thanks for you comments!
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