Re: Keyboard

["Scott Holmes" <norgasm-at-hotmail.com>]

The keyboard you're referring to is literally called 'The Virtually
Indestructible Keyboard"  and  it lives up to that  name.  I wouldn't want
to type an essay  on  it,  but it  feels  better  than  the  keyboard
condoms may  people use.  They're  sold by CompUSA in the US  and
CompuSmart in  Canada.  They're manufactured by GRANDTEC
(http://www.grandtec.com) and I can't say enough  about them  when it comes
to harsh environments.  Looking at the construction it appears that you
could literally put  them in the  dish washer and have them come out without
a problem.  I roll mine up to take with me on site to labs where the risk is
blood serum and decontamination products.  I've never had an issue.  Also,
just so I could speak authoritatively about this I just grabbed a lighter
and held a  corner of the  keyboard in the flame, and as I suspected, the
silicone didn't show a mark after a 5 second burn.  It looks to  me like
this would  even have a fair resilience to hot chips!  I have the large blue
ps/2 model, but they also offer USB models now including a more compact
laptop-style model.  Nothing  to stop you from gluing it to a board or scrap
of aluminum if you don't want it flopping around on you either.  Hope that
helps you out.

Scott Holmes
http://mynock.dhs.org/

----- Original Message -----
From: "D.F.S." <dfs-at-xmission.com>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <emc-at-nist.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 4:08 PM
Subject: Re: Keyboard



I don't know about toughness, but I saw some this last week-end.
they are ~ 100% silicone?.
There is no structure as such, they are flexible and appear to
be 100% sealed.
As long as oil and fluids are the problem they may be a good bet.
They were being sold by a regular mass-market retailer so I assume
they are common and easily found.
I don't have a brand, but anybody that has seen a "rubber keyboard"
would know what you were talking about.

On the other hand, cheap keyboards can be had here for $4.99 on sale.
this is about 1/8th the price of the silicone units I saw.

I have seen true industrial keyboards but they are pushing $200.00.

Marc Christensen

ps. what ever came of the pendant discussion?

I have code that can make an atmel microcontroller act as a keyboard.
maybe a good design for a pendant or ctl. panel would be a good project.
something with X,Y,Z displays, mode indicators and rotating knobs for input
would be good.

>
>
> Hello EMC List,
>
> Could somebody suggest a PC keyboard that is up to the rigours
> of the shop environment please?. UK source if possible.
>
> --
> Best regards,
>  Richard                          phebos-at-btinternet.com
>
>
>