Northgate OmniKey Ultra

From: David Holland <dholland_at_woh.rr.com>
Date: Sat May 3 14:50:01 2003

On Fri, 2003-05-02 at 21:33, Frank McConnell wrote:
> 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.

It does. Across the top, and on the left.

>
> > 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.

Saw'm for as much as 198$ a couple of places.. (ouch)

>
> > 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?

No, control-key is in the bottom left hand corner. (I guess its not
quite identical to the picture on northgate-keyboard-repair.com - My
bad.)

The bottom corner keys are laid out something like so:

Capslock
Shift
Control [Grey < & > key] Alt

>
> 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)?

Under the lid are a set of dip switches and what looks to be a orange
reset switch. It claims to be Rev 7.03 on the back of the keyboard.

>
> 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!

I've got a couple of follow up's already. (Hopefully they're paying
attention when I say: I'll find out what shipping/postage is to their
respective zip code(s) on Monday, once I can figure out what kinda box I
can find)

David


>
> -Frank McConnell
Received on Sat May 03 2003 - 14:50:01 BST