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Lots of TI-99/4A Keyboards

I'm confused by the wording of the ad; are they selling *one* for $135, or the box of 36 for that. I'd definitely pay $135 for the box. Why? Heck if I know. I wonder if the switches are physically compatible with the TRS-80 Model I keyboards made by Hi-Tek, the stems are splitting on both of my machines. (common problem)
 
The way I read it, it sounds like $135 for the box, and that would mean they have "more than 10" boxes(!). But I'd suggest checking with the seller to be sure. You never really know these days.
 
The Oric Atmos keyboard also ended up as surplus in the U.S. even though the computer itself was never sold here.
 
NeXT said:
How many of these damn keyboards did TI contract to have made that we are still finding them NOS four decades later?? 🤪
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At least TI didn't bury them in the desert, like Apple did with Lisas and Atari did with 2600 "E.T." cartridges.
 
Stuart said:
He's also been selling them in boxes of 12 for $50. See [https://forums.atariage.com/topic/2...heads-up-notice/page/325/#findComment-5872303]. So the price would appear to be per box. Someone did ask and was told it was per box, but suspected that English might not be the seller's first language.
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Yeah, I saw that tray of 12 listing too. I looked up the matrix layout of the keyboard and... I'll be honest, I'd have already bitten on a tray if the matrix was optimized for straightforward ASCII encoding (like the Model I keyboard is) instead of basically random.

EDIT: Meh, I gave in and just hit BIN on the tray of 12 listing, I'll let folks know what I actually get. Maybe if nothing else I'll do something lame and program an AVR to read the matrix and output a strobed parallel ASCII byte so you could use one on an Apple I replica or whatever.
 
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MicroCoreLabs said:
Seller offered me a discount... but shipping is a bit high...

View attachment 1327263
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So that’s what’s interesting/worrysome about the auction for one tray of 12 vs. the box of 36; the shipping is *much* lower, so much that it’s a much better deal to buy three of the other listing. (I don’t *want* 36 anyway, I have zero interest trying to flip them.)

My order status is still “awaiting shipping”, so holding my breath if they’re actually going to honor it. This could be one of those situations where the 12 tray fits in some kind of flat rate box or otherwise pays a different rate than the full box, or… someone screwed up and is thinking how to weasel out. Hope it’s not the latter.
 
Eudimorphodon said:
My order status is still “awaiting shipping”, so holding my breath if they’re actually going to honor it.
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Just got a notification that my package shipped via the slowest boat USPS Ground Advantage service, should be here by Saturday. Waiting with bated breath to see if they actually just send me one keyboard. ;)
 
Personally, if I wasn't sure if they'd work for me, I'd first order the 2 pack for $4.49 +$5.80 shipping.
 
Torch said:
Personally, if I wasn't sure if they'd work for me, I'd first order the 2 pack for $4.49 +$5.80 shipping.
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That listing is bizarre. It's written like you get the *one set* of keyboards, IE, a "new" Hi-Tek plus a Stackpole that he cut some traces on, but there's also a "quantity" box and they have "more than 10 available"? So... does only the first guy that orders this get *one* free stackpole, or does he have a pile of stackpoles that he's all mauled and this is the weirdest case of reverse-quantity-discount I've ever seen? Someone needs to order quantity two of this listing and see if they get 2, 3, or four keyboards...

*shrug* Anyway, I'm fine with having a dozen of them. I have some *very old school* unfinished projects lying around, like a hacked up TV typewriter and my long slumbering "Dino 128" project, I'll figure out something to use them for. The only thing I will probably regret is just how minimal these keyboards are in terms of key count. It's kinda bonkers they didn't even give it a dedicated double-quote key, considering how important quotes are for BASIC...

... Edit: Actually, I mentioned converting one into a parallel-encoded ASCII keyboard, I have a bare Apple II motherboard that needs some repairs lying around, maybe I'll mate one of these TI keyboards with that. (When the Apple II came out they briefly offered it as a bare motherboard; this was one of the trade-in offers for Apple-1 owners. I've given thought from time to time of repairing it and sticking it in a crude wooden case that's a knockoff of that Apple-1 at the Smithsonian... except this one would actually be fun.)
 
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I bought one of the 12 keyboard groups--yes, you get 12 for that $50 plus shipping price. The tray is the original tray that held the 12 keyboards, and if you look at the lot of 36, the box underneath holds two trays of 12. The tray came reinforced and well-taped, so all of the keyboards in my group came through the postal system without problems (other than a few keytops that popped off which I had to put back where they belonged).
 
In case anyone's interested in an update/review, my box-o-keyboards came in:

20260821_163848.jpg

Good Points:

The packaging job was pretty minimal (they just taped cardboard over the open end of the tray), but it's a good sturdy tray so everything was fine. The last keyboard at one end had some keycaps popped off, but no harm no foul, they just pop back on.

20260821_163905.jpg


The boards are very light despite their depth (Don't buy these if you want a low-profile keyboard, they're a good two inches tall), and they have a nice easy 0.10" pitch pin plug on the end of their ribbon cable so they should be simple to interface to a breadboard. Would be nice if the ribbon was slightly longer, but that's nitpicking. When it comes to "feel", the keyboard mechanism is your standard Hi-Tek, so it feels pretty clattery, but could be worse. (It's nicer than a Commodore keyboard that uses those conductive pads, for instance.)

Not so good points:

I mentioned the keyboard is very light; these were intended for a very cheap computer and it shows. The keycaps are pretty thin plastic and they pop off maybe *too* easily. Here's a picture of the back of one next a TRS-80 Model I keycap. Notice how the plastic is twice as thick on the M1. I think despite the thinness these *may* have double-shot legends on the top, you can see a darker gray plug inside the very tip, but it's not a complete double layer like the M1 key is:

20260821_165210.jpg

The stems *are* the same size as a TRS-80, so the keycaps are compatible:

20260821_165235.jpg

That said, I don't know how useful parts from this would be for fixing an older Hi-Tek.

The other reminder I'll chuck out there is that because there are so few keys there are a few gross compromises in the layout. The worst is undoubtedly how the quote keys and question mark are mapped to FCTN+I through O; that might get old after a while. On the bright side across the whole boartd there are legends silkscreened for a pretty full character set (front/back slashes, tilde, pipe, curly and square brackets), so if you don't mind needing that second modifier key you should have no problems using it as a keyboard for any application that wants the full ASCII gamut. One bummer: no ESC or dedicated BREAK key.

Anyway, now I need to decide what to *do* with one...
 
Yep, that's the TI-99/4A for you. It uses the function key plus a number key for the equivalent of break, escape, or others, depending on the application. (If trying to make one in to an ASCII keyboard, I'd probably follow a similar convention).

Those look to be in good very condition, probably well stored. From the photos, I see no reasons the key switches would not work.

I don't see any cracks in the white keyswitch plastic. Do they seem brittle?
 
SomeGuy said:
Those look to be in good very condition, probably well stored. From the photos, I see no reasons the key switches would not work.

I don't see any cracks in the white keyswitch plastic. Do they seem brittle?
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A generic problem with Hi-Teks is those little metal wipers can get oxidized and you’ll need to hit them with contact cleaner, I guess I won’t know if that’s an issue until I can actually exercise one.

I… feel like I need to reserve judgement on the keyswitch stems? They seem “fine”, but they are quite thin, and it’ll be interesting to see if some not-immediately-obvious imbrittlement causes them to crumble in use. I have to admit the “lightness” of these overall kind of throws me. The plastic seems to be of decent quality but it’s so much thinner than the older keyboard…
 
Eudimorphodon said:
I… feel like I need to reserve judgement on the keyswitch stems? They seem “fine”, but they are quite thin, and it’ll be interesting to see if some not-immediately-obvious imbrittlement causes them to crumble in use. I have to admit the “lightness” of these overall kind of throws me. The plastic seems to be of decent quality but it’s so much thinner than the older keyboard…
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I don't think you will have trouble with crumbling unless these keyboards were stored in unfriendly conditions.

I'm assuming these are all identical. (They look like they are, from what little is viewable in the box.) You should check that out anyway. TI went through at least 2 different designs for their keyboards. The earlier TI-99/4A with the metal case was much more solidly made. The keys used actual individual switches instead of the "plunger" style that you show in the above pics which actually only push down on a membrane keyboard underneath. While the plastic is the absolute minimum necessary, original TI-99s with these keyboards still exist today with fully intact, usable keyboards.

I'm thinking that the tray these came in was the original packaging from the manufacturer and are part of TI's last (failed) attempt to bring the cost of the computer down to compete against Commodore's Price War slashed C64.

The older keyboards were built to last and much easier to modify.
 
acgs said:
I'm assuming these are all identical. (They look like they are, from what little is viewable in the box.) You should check that out anyway. TI went through at least 2 different designs for their keyboards. The earlier TI-99/4A with the metal case was much more solidly made. The keys used actual individual switches instead of the "plunger" style that you show in the above pics which actually only push down on a membrane keyboard underneath. While the plastic is the absolute minimum necessary, original TI-99s with these keyboards still exist today with fully intact, usable keyboards.
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These keyboards do not have a membrane. Here is a picture showing the many variations of keyboards they went through over the course of the TI 99/4A's lifetime, the membrane keyboard was made by Mitsumi, these are Hi-Teks. These Hi-Teks have the same "wiping brush" mechanism as any other HI-TEK keyboard (like the original TRS-80 model I keyboard), my observation is simply that these keyboards feel cheaper/lighter duty than the older Tandy board I have to compare them to. (Thinner plastic, basically.) Although if I'm going to be completely fair, this board also has some improvements over the TRS-80 version; for instance, it has a molded upper plate that would *probably* make it a little more resilient to dust or spills verses the open top grid of the older board.

There were at least two different TI keyboards that had completely discrete keyswitches. (HI-TEKs are mechanical keyboards but the moving parts are mounted in a waffle-iron like grid, and Stackpoles, which were also used on 99/4As, are basically HI-TEK clones, they're often confused with each other.) The ALPs were almost certainly the "best" keyboards, the other brand with separate keyswitches were made by Futaba and are usually described as pretty awful-feeling. Both of those are from the early units that cost much more than the tan machines that these boards were for, and include nicities like metal mounting plates that, yes, these Hi-Teks don't have. On the flip side, the sturdy waffle-iron grid of plastic probably means the HI-TEKs don't really *need* the metal parts.
 
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