I found my first gold

[K9-TSN]

I have been monitoring this bulletin board for approximately four months. During that time, I saw where you were speaking of older IBM computer keyboards containing mylar with gold contacts.

I have two IBM keyboards, and took one apart yesterday. Below, you will see a photograph of the keyboard's contacts. There appears to be gold on both sides.

Now I know how each of you felt when you found your first gold. 8)

 

[stihl88]

Welcome to the forum,

Ive taken apart one of these keyboards before and was quickly deflated when i scratched back the top protective layer to find only copper and no gold.
You need to do a simple scratch test to see if it is gold or not.

The keyboards are probably worth a bit now as is.

 

[macfixer01]

This looks to me similar to the circuit boards in the old original IBM PC or XT so-called Clicky keyboards. As you slowly pressed the keys past a toggle point there was a positive internal switching action you could hear. They were actually capacitance switches though. The board pads were coated with what looked like a typical green solder mask, and there were capacitive contacts made of what looked a lot like a dark brown plastic, with springs attached.

macfixer01

 

[K9-TSN]

Stihl88 and Macfixer01, I want to say "Thank you."

Mcafixer01, you are exactly right in your response. It is an old IBM "clickey" keyboard.

Thanks for setting me straight.

K9-TSN

 

[macfixer01]

Stihl88 and Macfixer01, I want to say "Thank you."

Mcafixer01, you are exactly right in your response. It is an old IBM "clickey" keyboard.

Thanks for setting me straight.

K9-TSN

No problem. It was nice back in those days to be able to do a good turn for customers at the computer store I worked at. Usually all that broke was the contacts. We'd take parts from one bad IBM keyboard and repair several others. IBM's only sanctioned repair at the time was replacing the whole keyboard, for around $200 as I recall? You have to realize though it was back before any of the clones came along and everything got so cheap to replace with third party peripherals. IBM had a lot of clout in those days. I recall they strong-armed my company into taking the crap PC Juniors conveniently on the same delivery truck if we wanted the more coveted models behind them, whether it was XT's or AT's at the time I don't recall?

macfixer01

 

[Drewbie]

I recall also IBM getting pretty hot under the collar when the IBM dealer I worked for started selling AST memory upgrade cards for XT's and AT's. A significant difference in price!

Good times!