Northgate OmniKey Ultra

From: Frank McConnell <fmc_at_reanimators.org>
Date: Fri May 2 20:57:00 2003

David Holland <dholland_at_woh.rr.com> wrote:
> I've had it for about a week now, and just can't get used to funky
> arrangement of the arrow keys in the middle, and the F keys on the left
> just throws my Unreal Tournament gaming off.

So we know it's one of the sort with the Omni key instead of an
inverted-T layout.

If it's an Ultra, it should also have the function keys across the
top.

> Anyways, I gather these things were something of a 'gotta have it'
> keyboard at one time, and were bloody expensive.

Not that bad. In the mid-1990s you could get them for about $70,
which seems expensive for a keyboard, but for those of us who really
wanted the control key to be to the left of A and didn't want to have
to fuss with driver software to make it happen, it was well worth it.

If you want expensive, go check out the Avant Stellar! That is
reportedly the modern Northgate OmniKey, and it sells for about $150.

> I gather it might of came with some extra keycaps when it was new, so
> you could move around control/shift. I do not have those.

So, some questions to help folks ID what you've got.

Is the control key to the left of A?

Where are the switches? Poking out the back, or hidden under the
"OmniKey" flip-top lid, or not present at all (flip the lid up, see
nothing)?

Not present at all means it is a late-model programmable keyboard.
They had firmware bugs, and the "fix" was "remove the EEPROM that
holds the key remappings".

> Anyone want it? (I think this is at least on-topic)

Somebody better!

-Frank McConnell
Received on Fri May 02 2003 - 20:57:00 BST