Zenith KBD17 163-73 keyboard review (Alps SKCL Yellow)
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- Skip to 11:29 for a typing demonstration.
Today we look at the youngest of the four Zenith brothers, the KBD17, and finally review yellow Alps switches!
My keyboard reviews: bit.ly/1TbOtft
My switch teardowns: bit.ly/2C1QGHz
My TOP X videos: bit.ly/2FmpZfd
Taobao SKCLAR link: item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=5...
I'm Thomas and I do videos and reviews on mechanical keyboards ranging from the most sickening modern RGB gaming keyboards to vintage hardware relics, or sometimes keycaps or keyswitches ranging from Cherry MX to Alps SKCM to IBM buckling springs and anything in between.
Follow me on Twitter for updates on my keyboard videos! / chyrosran22
The practice sentence was: "Hello my name is Thomas and I'm typing on a Zenith KBD17 right now. The younger brother to otherwise better keyboards, it nonetheless kicks most other keyboards' arses!" 
Наука
![Young Nudy - John Wayne (feat. Metro Boomin) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NY8HnYYo2fo/mqdefault.jpg)
Grew up near the old Zenith headquarters North of Chicago and everyone I knew said ZEEENITH. I believe it was the donkey ass balls revelation that ultimately lead to them shuttering their doors.
Jubsy xD
No way! My very own ZKB-7 made it into the video at 2:14 ! Awesome!!
The citation on 1:16 LMAO
My engineer Dad's company lent him Zenith computers as these models evolved from 286 to 486 processors and so on. In addition to using the first DOS Autocad, I would have tons of fun with that silly piezioelectric chirp. I hadn't thought of that in over 25 years! Thanks for the nostalgia!
People think Model M's are loud, but you haven't lived until you've printed out a novel on a dot-matrix printer while that kb chirps away on super-janky adaptations of Pac-Man and Asteroids.
Thank you for the new graphs, it really helps to visualize.
I'm an American and have never heard somebody call it Zeenith.
Interesting! Where in the US are you from?
Same. Not sure why it would ever be pronounced that way
Chyrosran22 the south. We "mispronounce" a lot of things, but I've never heard somebody say it like that.
Same. Everyone I know says Zenith. Some of my friends work at a company called Zenith and it's still pronounced Zen-ith. Ive never hear anyone say Zee-nith.
Most interesting. I get called out on it a lot, you see xD .
You had me at "donkey assballs." Might they be converted to clicky, yethinks?
You could, but you'd need new top shells as well, as SKCL top shells aren't compatible with click or tactile leaves.
I love you dad
Mitchell M. TF
was scrolling through my home page, then saw this listed '4 minutes ago' :D
Oh sweet, a board with actual yellow alps.
Niiiice, I caught this video just before work too. I love my Zenith keyboards!
All alps are the best. Man I hope they make a return, with out the dirt issue.
I'm happy that my board still has the old lightning badge instead of the lame tree badge. I didn't even know their logo changed later since my grandparents had quite a few Zenith products (stereo, VCR, TV maybe? Etc.) and they all had the lightning logo.
I don't think any of their TV products ever went to the tree logo, AFAIK Zenith never sold off the TV branch to Bull. The younger ZKB-2's have the tree badge, as well.
You should get your hands on a SKBM Gray board.
I'm only saying this because i got an Alps board with those recently and i want to know your opinions on them and how they compare to other clicky Alps
SKBM alps are very nice if they're typed on at the right angle and if they are clean. Very different from SKCM alps IMO, they feel a bit more like more well-rounded Kailh Box Jade switches. If you are ever interested in selling that SKBM Grey board, please PM me on geekhack. Username is _haru.
Yeah i noticed that angle thing. I'm gonna clean and lube these eventually and i'm curious to see how much of an improvement it makes.
Also, thanks for offering to buy it but it's my only Alps board AND it's a *left handed* keyboard too so i'm probably going to keep it for a while :P
Ah haha, nice one.
Chyos, happy to see another video of linear alps :) For my next board I want to obtain some alps, and after using my modded linearised black I would prefer linear switches which are a bit stiffer. How do the yellows compare between the linearized black alps?
Yellow Alps are a bit stiffer than linearised black. The latter are closer to SKCL green in weighting, I think.
Damn nice sound on this one!
That thing sounds really pingy! I normally have a hard time hearing ping in videos, but it was really apparent in this one.
Yes, all old Zeniths were super pingy xD .
I don't like the smaller enter key to accommodate the unnecessary oversized right parentheses key. A larger and far more used enter key that is pressed with the pinky is far more desirable IMO. I could never figure out the logic of these designers.
Yes, I prefer a bigass enter, myself. I make more mistakes with a medium-ass enter than with a big one.
Yessss another vid
The rollover issue looks like it could be an issue with your PS/2 - USB converter. Have you tried more than one type?
Also, have you tried that converter with different operating systems?
The USB HID protocol is spec'ed a bit weird in that if there is a block, a non-NKRO device is supposed to overwrite _all_ keys in the keyboard report with the special code _ErrorRollOver_ .I don't know of any keyboard that actually _does_ that however.
I'm thinking that maybe the converter receives a block-condition code over PS/2 and tries to send a report according to the USB HID spec and then either has a bug or the host has a bug.
The limited rollover is definitely not a function of the converter; the motherboard lacks diodes for the switches, so it's definitely a 2KRO board to start with. I guess they used a rather weird controller to protect it from ghosting.
Oh, I understand that it is a 2KRO board. The issue would be with how it handles blocking.
Yeah, it's really weird. I don't have it on hand, but I just used my Soarer's for the conversion, it's never given me anything like that before. But the fact that it doesn't display this issue over PS/2 does mean it's probably something in that direction, or at least USB-related.
Alps Brown?
Working on it :p . It's not an easy request, you know! ;)
Thanks for another video :)
Smooth-e you're welcome, glad you're enjoying the videos :) .
I scored a rosewill rk-9000v2 with MX brown switches today while out thrifting for $20 USD that needs a good cleaning, no browns are not my fav. switches but I think I can make it a good office keyboard. anyways as always excellent video.
That rollover issue does sound really bad for gaming. I prefer not to use my Model M to play PUBG, because the 2 key rollover makes it impossible to sprint diagonally while using the alt key to rotate the camera (I think, last time I played was long enough ago that I can't remember if it is that specific set of inputs or another similar one). It comes up often enough while I'm playing to become a minor annoyance. I can't imagine having the keyboard suddenly cancel out all inputs every time I tried to do this. On the Model M, I only need to stop doing one thing I was doing previously in order to add the new input, but it'd be very annoying to suddenly stop moving altogether just because I exceeded the rollover, even with a decent matrix.
Can the ping on Zenith keyboards be cured by laying a piece of foam inside?
It's been a year since this vid... Wow...
6:20 Also not to mention yellow alps use a pom stem unlike green alps which use a nylon stem.
Ughhh, kinda want (I use a AT101W); but the chord out the left side kills it as a lefty.
How about an video with the best switches with the MX design?
There's way too little variation for that to be a remotely interesting video xD . Remember it's all the SAME design in the end! ;)
Chyrosran22 Thats fine for me, but it would be cool, if you review more switches with the design like Aliaz Silent, Tealios or the really rare Hirose MX Oranges.
i have a love/hate relationship with vintage keyboards like this. i like the switch feel, but i HATE the pinging of the metal plate
If I wanted to make my scratchy green Alps feel like new again, which parts from the NOS yellow Alps do you recommend using in combination with the green Alps parts?
Matthew Deluca if it's a little, only the top shell. If it's very bad, as much as you can bar the coil spring.
As a side note.
*ILLUMINATE* (IL - LUMIN - ATE)
*IL* (Capable of)
*LUMIN* (Light)
*ATE* (Process)
*ALUMINUM* (AL - LUMIN -UM)
*AL* (Serving to)
*LUMIN* (Light)
*UM* (Singular)
Thus, *ALUMINUM* (ALU - MINI - UM) is incorrect.
Have anyone found white comlicated alps on taobao?
So how do these compare to linear modded Black alps? I linear modded my AT-101W and they feel pretty damn smooth but the only other linear switch I've tried was MX Reds and Roamer G's I think.
I actually like linearised blacks more. They feel smoother, and the weighting is a bit lighter.
How would you say linear blacks compare to greens?
Roughly on par. I wouldn't go through all the trouble of finding a green Alps board in good condition if you can get a black Alps one, unless you do it for the chassis specifically.
Bailey Benge romer g is not linear by design but it feels linear so i get why you would think it was... it is "tactile"
mangeHD Idk that's been over 2 years ago. I was at staples and tried some Logitech keyboard that had really scratchy linears in it. Thought they could have been Roamer Gs
Sounds great for linear switches, and I don't like linear switches.
Could you make a video on the difference between tactile and click switches.
I already did! ruclips.net/video/bG0DwHniqu8/видео.html
Chyrosran22 thanks! That was a great explanation!
I like the tree =3
Are Alps SKCL Yellow still sold?
would you review old laptop keyboards? like the 7 row ThinkPad keyboard
he won't, because it uses the same switches as an apple aluminium keyboard
tu key roll over? Does that mean the roll over is honestly significant?
Jonah Loeb well it's mostly that it FORGETS OTHER inputs what's so significant here.
wish I still had my SKCL Brown board to send you :)
Andrew Dias hah, that'd make for a good comparison :) .
Is it weird I only really watch these to listen to your voice?
Wow sound like heaven. I'm dying_
All Alps sound amazing xD .
4:54 More like a "half-assed" Big Enter Key.
Be careful from buying the switches from Taobao! Both SKCL and SKBL Yellow Alps are available there and you won't be able to tell them apart (The pictures shown shows both versions mixed). I've left a comment on the SKBL one (bought some of these instead of SKCL since there were no indicators) so just look at it. The other one SHOULD be SKCL ;) Note: These are the ones without the LED holes, and the ones WITH LED holes seems to all be SKCL (There's only one listing for it and if Chyros bought it and he got the SKCLs, all of it should be SKCL.)
This is the link from the opening post of the DT thread. I can't now remember which link I used to buy mine. Is this the right link then?
So far, I only know one that is SKBL. There should be 3 listings in Taobao, one of which has LED holes. This one is the SKBL one (The one that has about 222K switches available) item.taobao.com/item.htm?scm=1007.10011.70203.100200300000001&id=558118276592&pvid=94bd796a-86a5-429b-a4cb-c7de0a2e74b6
The best part about this keyboard is the SysReq key. :D
Why? xD
I feel like I am one of the five people who actually use that key and having a dedicated button instead of Alt+PrintScreen is really nice ;-)
Was that keyboard built March 1990?
TheComputerGeek010101001 September 1990.
I'll take my Zenith with a can of cheese, thank you very much!
are you selling some of your keyboards?
Not at the moment, no.
Chyrosran22 ok
The ZEENETH KAY BE DEE SEVVINTEEN! apparently my country speaks like that, I think it's only said that way in southern parts, im right next to canada soo.. yay?
KAY BEE DEE SEVINTEEN BAWMER
_)wow Alps for the world(-
Someone might want to let Google know it's got it's donkey ass balls on backwards, then, because if you google "zenith," it gives the pronunciation "ˈzēnəTH," or "zeenith," complete with an awfully damning audio clip.
I've never said anything related to computers "incorrectly". Like, you'll never hear me say "Zee Ex Spectrum," I'd say "Zed Ex Spectrum". It bothers me when people do that.
Edit: Is it just me or is the audio quality lower than most?
I mean,
Why doesn't some big company just buy Alps switches manufacturing rights and fully resurrect them. Probably the best switches family ever
ZEEEnith would have to be spelt xenith
Like xenomorph
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Zeeenith, lol wtf. I love it how Americans tell us how to pronounce things correctly in English... the answer is in the name... "English" which was a spoken language for, I don't know, a thousand years before the U.S.A was even discovered never mind existed as a country!
FIRST
knowyourmeme.com/memes/first
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