Univac 1710 keyboard review (Micro Switch microswitch switches "MSMSS")

Skip to 7:19 for a typing demonstration.
Back from holiday! This week we're looking at an ancient 60%-like keyboard from the late 60s-early 70s. It comes with an extremely interesting type of keyswitch - Micro Switch microswitch switches - which I've been aching to show you in action. Hope you enjoy the video! :)
Intro by Kyle Carter
Outro by Facundo Cabanne
My keyboard reviews: bit.ly/1TbOtft
My switch teardowns: bit.ly/2C1QGHz
My TOP X videos: bit.ly/2FmpZfd
My XL typing demos: bit.ly/2OoAW3w
My tutorials and featurettes: bit.ly/2OrkLUh
My unboxing videos: bit.ly/2TSrr0m
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 Univac 1710 right now. This chunky motherfucker is one of the coolest sounding and feeling keyboards I own!"

[@stampycatfan01lol]

I appreciate translating the weight into quarter pounders for us Americans.

[@seemysight]

impressed that its accurate

[@stampycatfan01lol]

Just looked up the converted units for myself and yes, it is accurate!

[@expendableround6186]

*obesity units

[@jdod64]

What if we are used to wendies?

[@Noxonomus]

The end of that cable is spectacular.

[@jasperdiscovers]

"it isn't... quite USB" made me laugh way more than it should 😂😂

[@computeraidedworld1148]

They didn't refer to this as a peripheral, it was a modual.

[@finaltransconfigurat]

Yeah I was expecting some crazy connector but not three cards/boards. What the fuck lol.

[@finaltransconfigurat]

I don't think they make an adaptor for this

[@leftyxbuffalo]

Because this is a keyboard for a keypunch machine, I suspect that each output contact drove one of the 12 solenoids that operated the card punching mechanisms. (I don't remember using one of these, but I used the comparable IBM 026 and 029 keypunches extensively in a high school programming class.)

[@RubyRoks]

Typing on this must feel like driving a vintage american car, which is to say, it feels like driving a boat

[@rich1051414]

It's not a 20g linear somehow calling it's tactile, like 99% of modern switches, if that's what you mean.

[@treeleaf6471]

@@rich1051414 Just because there isn't a land mine explosion every time you press a key doesn't mean there isn't tactility. Some people need to type fast and can't have that huge tactile feeling in the key press. Like me

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

Those switches sound friggin amazing though.

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

@@treeleaf6471 Yeah I just got an Anne Pro 2 with Gateron blue switches and I find the click/tactility just slows me down and I have to bottom out to assure a keypress when typing fast. So far Gat browns and reds are superior for me.

[@SergeantExtreme]

@@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017 Which is ironic because browns are supposed to mimic buckling spring keyboards. So if you like browns so much, then why don't you get an authentic Unicomp Model M Classic?

[@hjalfi]

That big diagonal stripe on the card deck, by the way, is that when the operator inevitably drops it on the floor when loading the machine and hands you a big bag full of unsorted cards, it's easy to sort back into the right order again. Out-of-order cards become extremely obvious when looking at the top of the deck.

[@gunjja13]

6:59 "The connector is not quite USB"...:) The connector has the same size as the keyboard it self. Love it! :)

[@ugyuu]

If this is what Micro Switch considers a "Micro switch switch", then I don't want to know what other sized switches they've come up with.. But I kinda do too.

[@RaymondHng]

2:23 It's 12 rows, not columns. The topmost row of the card is row 12. The next row below that is row 11. Then the next row is row 0 followed by row 1 and so on. Hollerith encoding is as follows: A 12 - 1 (holes punched in row 12 and row 1) B 12 - 2 C 12 - 3 D 12 - 4 E 12 - 5 F 12 - 6 G 12 - 7 H 12 - 8 I 12 - 9 J 11 - 1 K 11 - 2 L 11 - 3 M 11 - 4 N 11 - 5 O 11 - 6 P 11 - 7 Q 11 - 8 R 11 - 9 S 0 - 2 T 0 - 3 U 0 - 4 V 0 - 5 W 0 - 6 X 0 - 7 Y 0 - 8 Z 0 - 9 *Special Keys* *-11* : Enters the hyphen ("-") character which is a hole punched in row 11 in the column. *&-12* : Enters the ampersand ("&") character which is a hole punched in row 12 in the column. *12-0* : Holes will punch in rows 12 and 0 in the column. (may be "{" in some encoded character sets) *11-0* : Holes will punch in rows 11 and 0 in the column. ("}") *0-8-2* : Holes will punch in rows 0, 8, and 2 in the column. ("\")

[@balobreached]

You were the reason I got into mech keebs, I watched a bunch of your vids because of your voice and then got hooked on the keebs themselves, “thanks again mate!”

[@ominous-omnipresent-they]

I'm typing on some beautiful SA profile PBTs at this moment.

[@zubich]

"&-12" -> there was an imperial system joke somewhere in there....

[@kenclive7106]

6:22 Your metric-to-imperial conversion was actually spot on. 2.1 kg = 4.62 lb * 4 = 18.48 quarter-pounders

[@BasicFolders]

I've been here for over a year... am I mistaken, or is 3:06 the first time we ever heard an actual giggle from Thomas...? 🤣💙

[@portlyoldman]

Think you are correct, quite disturbing 🤔

[@BasicFolders]

@@portlyoldman LOL... I thought it was cute. 😊

[@JackOfHarts96]

There was a very similar moment in his AMA video.

[@Chyrosran22]

Yes, I laugh, it happens :p

[@portlyoldman]

@@Chyrosran22 - what????... personal world view crumbles....😢

[@vimtheprotogen2855]

you're the reason I keep KZbin notifications on.

[@AIRDRAC]

That is one of the best sounding clicky keyboards i've ever heard! Damn i want one now!

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

These things are 50 years old and probably really expensive when they do turn up in auctions. Edit: There's one on Ebay right now for $999.00 if you want one badly enough.

[@RaymondHng]

2:22 The punch card has 12 rows. The top-most row is row 12. The second row is row 11. The next row is 0, followed by row 1, row 2, and so on. The special keys punch the following holes below. *-11* : Enters the hyphen ("-") character which is a hole punched in row 11 in the column. *&-12* : Enters the ampersand ("&") character which is a hole punched in row 12 in the column. *12-0* : Holes will punch in rows 12 and 0 in the column. *11-0* : Holes will punch in rows 11 and 0 in the column. *0-8-2* : Holes will punch in rows 0, 8, and 2 in the column.

[@ckafi1011]

The "claw marks" in the numerical keys look like they're from fingernails. Maybe a secretary with huge nails?

[@Chyrosran22]

No, that's just what key erosion looks like :)

[@jonathanbuzzard6648]

I would say secretary with false nails

[@RaymondHng]

@@jonathanbuzzard6648 Even with short fingernails on real fingers striking the keys, the plastic can easily get eroded in a production environment. Each numeric key can be struck over 4 million times a year.

[@manwithnolife5239]

Did you try shaving down the USB port a little to get it to fit into the connector?

[@Daijyobanai]

He just has to learn how to fold.

[@nickcarter4006]

Micro Switch is proud to present the Micro Switch microswitch switch! It's a micro switch that's micro, but also a switch. From Micro Switch!

[@dmitrynikolaev5743]

Spirit of the Old School lives only in contactless switches. And Microswitch Microswitch switches sometimes.

[@portlyoldman]

Ahhh... electric card punches, luxury, we often had to do edits using card patch stickers and hand punching

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

When I was a kid in the 70s we'd be given punch cards (often used) for art projects at the daycare I went to after school. I remember some of them having tape on them and little notes written on the bundles. I knew that it was outmoded tech, but I found it fascinating nonetheless.

[@trollsthatlol1]

Glad to see you back!

[@ephemedusk24]

holy gods of golarion this thing is beautiful! and that sound! maybe it's bias from the uniqueness factor but I almost felt like the sound rivals if not better than blue alps!

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

Oh hell yes. Those switches sound glorious. I want one of these so badly.

[@batzzzz]

I hope you hit 100k this week!

[@an2qzavok]

with cable this thick, did they wire every key individually?

[@daveryan2148]

That connector tho! Love the tall microswitch setup.

[@wkg19591]

Welcome back Tom, I hope you had a good holiday. Besides the sound and feel of that keyboard there is a peripheral benefit. You get to say 'Univac' a lot. OMG Uni fucking Vac.....UUUUUUUiiiiiiiiVVVVVaaaaccccccc :-)

[@Chyrosran22]

Thanks! Yeah, was pretty good ^^ .

[@Lazarus7000]

Incredible. I have some contemporaneous Micro Switch switches including one that is so crisp and smooth that it breaks like a rifle trigger, you can't help but think of building a rail gun when operating it.

[@faiz_tidak_bisa_terbang1470]

Still waiting for the 40% ergo keyboard you showed in the Razer Huntsman mini review :p

[@a4h426]

I just don’t understand how a man’s vocal chords can have bass

[@raulsaavedra709]

4:35 Sounds like a good reason/opportunity to try 3D-printing a keycap?

[@233kosta]

Ideally using one of the new Formlabs machines, made in two parts (just like the double shot ones) and maybe glued together

[@darkurthe]

This is magnificent sounding

[@Bertvanrij]

I used to maintain these things (when I still was young). The operator just did not hesr the click of the keys befsuse in the botton of the keyboard a relais was mounted with the only purpose to generate a click sound. You could change the loudness of the click by adjusting the gap beween the core and the lever. If you made the sound of yhe relais softer the operator got the impression the keyboard operated lighter...pure illusion, but it always worked. 😊

[@smada36]

I wonder how many times you have to strike a key with a long fingernail to wear a grove in it. How many hours did that person sit there punching numbers into those cards. With the position of the hand, I guess it makes sense that the 9 would take the most damage. Quite fascinating.

[@RaymondHng]

Even with short fingernails striking the keys, the plastic can easily get eroded in a production environment. Each numeric key can be struck over 4 million times a year.

[@dubbu3543]

What’s going to be your 100k subscriber milestone?

[@ObiTrev]

This looks like a contender for my ideal keyboard.

[@TheTonyMcD]

Does that keyboard really have a dedicated wire for each and every key? I count 60 wires in that monster of a cable. There are 52 regular keys on the board, and I'll assume the 8 other wires are for the various toggle switches. Even back in the 60's, surely they could have come up with a more efficient system?

[@TheRyanator36910]

great interesting and unique board... cool new outro as well

[@bakakafka4428]

@Chyrosran22, could you do an update on your best modern gaming keyboard? The Wooting One Red is sold out (and they're stopping the use of Flaretech switches - and with so many complaining about broken switches after just a few years of use, maybe that's for the best).

[@Chyrosran22]

I'd love to! But not that much has come out this year! xD

[@listofoptions]

the numbers at the top of the keys refer to the punch position, ie 0-8-2 would punch in the 0, 8, and 2 rows on the current column. every printable symbol has a corresponding punch position encoding.

[@Graham_Wideman]

Yes, but why does the keyboard have keys with just few with explicit punch positions listed? What's the significance of 0-8-2, or 12-0, or 11-0? Presumably those codes had some special function, but what?

[@listofoptions]

@@Graham_Wideman because they followed the pattern set up by the character encoding but didnt have a symbol associated to them. So the program that read the data could use or invent a symbol or meaning for that punch combo even though the actual standard for the encoding didnt provide one.

[@haelscheirs_haven]

I find that a switch with a similar, _satisfyingly_ scratchy clicky sound and feel may be the Kailh Typelits as found on the Azio Retro Classic on which I am typing this very comment. It unfortunately doesn't sound as glorious and consistent as this recording of the product in soundcloud.com/vsg-3/azio-retro-classic-bt-with-azio-typelit-switches.

[@greyareaRK1]

Our local university still had a card-reading computer in operation when I was in high school, and everyone who took the Business Machines course had to create a program in Fortran, typed out on those cards. Nightmare.

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

It's a wonder we ever got to where we are with miserable input systems like that, but to imagine that punchcards were an improvement over hand-wiring each program. ; )

[@voidmachines]

We had a similar punch type computer in my university (back in 1997 gathering dust in an storage room) can't remember the brand at all.

[@JanPospisilArt]

Previous owner: a fucking velociraptor, judging by those claw marks.

[@GeoStreber]

Do you know if there's a way to adapt the keyboard of a Compaq Portable 1 to PS/2 or USB?

[@SuniL._]

Thomas stop giving my eyes rsi with the titles, thanks

[@Boyetto-san]

Micro Switch Microswitch Switches: back Xzibit: Yo dawg

[@hereticyes1380]

how long does it take you to come up with the imperial unit conversion?

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

There appears to be a NOS version on Ebay right now for $999

[@clownpiece5992]

Holy shit a new Chyrosran video!

[@justice83]

Outro ---- WOOOT!!!!

[@sauceseji]

is this the OG of all clicky switches?

[@AzureFlash]

0:50 Nice.

[@kuyajayy]

Lmao

[@MarksBigOlHam]

Can you even compare the part count to Buckling Springs? That’s probably 10.5 times the amount. XD

[@TheC0smicGoose]

Hi, was wondering if you could do a video on the red dragon Kumara anyway nice video keep it up

[@UberMassiveGaming]

I'd help fund some sort of project to get you the tools to create force graphs of all these unique switches you collect.

[@Chyrosran22]

Haata already measured many! Head over to his treasure trove of force graphs :) .

[@Qualltoxy]

'Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.' is what comes to my mind after learning about these switches.

[@Chyrosran22]

In a way it's a very elaborate solution using a very lazy approach. The switch is its own juxtaposition.

[@EyesackWorley]

Are you going to do a review on nk sherbets?

[@bb_lou]

He's back!

[@gyakusetsu]

Oh how I wish someone would make a modern 104 key board with these switches!

[@TrueNorth1970]

Ever tried the "Ducky Shine 6 " Keyboard ? Would love to hear your thoughts on it :D

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

He doesn't usually mess around with gaming keyboards as much.

[@khoinguyenphamtrong4637]

Is the tactility in this keyboard similar to the one presented in Beamspring?

[@Chyrosran22]

No, it feels quite different. That's more of a small but very definitive event. This is a broader, bigger event. It feels more indirect.

[@chickenpower5732]

01:13 but I am willing to forfeit sleep.

[@SockyNoob]

Amazing sounding switches with a ridiculous name.

[@davelogan77]

I used to work with a guy who ran something similar in the Military.

[@wmd40]

Sexy. Is it weird to call a keyboard sexy? I don't care haha. We need more modern recreations of vintage boards like this

[@theeeves]

But, is the space bar hideous?

[@toolthoughts]

love the old beasts

[@MatthewHill]

I missed these...

[@AgentHubcap]

Where the heck do you find these things?

[@DarkusObscurius]

This thing is an friggin' sexy keyboard!

[@nickcarter4006]

omg those are indentations from fake fingernails XD XD XD LOVE IT

[@uuurettererreeeer]

Chyrosran talking : 🗣💨

[@vanteal]

The thing sounds like a bunch of mouse traps going off with each keystroke.

[@daveg7878]

it is clunky but it does make a pretty great sound when typing.

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

This thing basically sounds like a typewriter.

[@AditVats]

Does anyone make new vintage keyboards like these available for international shipping?

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

Nope. This is an extremely unique item from a very expensive and ancient punchcard computer system.

[@AditVats]

@@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017 No, not this particular item but something like this. Only unicomp sells such keyboards I was wondering if any other company sells good old fashioned keyboards without rgb and shit.

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

@@AditVats There aren't keyboards "like this" anymore. As Thomas demonstrated this unit used microswitches, which was extremely unique, nevermind the keycap and slider design. So when you say "like this" I have no idea what you're aiming for that could even remotely reproduce it. Unicomp boards are reproduction Model M boards. Might as well just get on ebay and type in "vintage computer keyboard" there's tons to look at.

[@samuelschwager]

Is that quarter pounders or quarter pounders with cheese?

[@Chyrosran22]

And is that cheese or "cheese"? :p

[@samuelschwager]

@@Chyrosran22 Yes!

[@trollsthatlol1]

@@Chyrosran22 American cheese! Lol same difference

[@Chyrosran22]

@@trollsthatlol1 floppy orange plastic and aerosols don't count as cheese :p .

[@JackOfHarts96]

Dat end card tho!

[@safetinspector2]

Those li'l gouges: women's fingernails. Did work at a lawfirm in the nineties and saw ladies with truly impressive false nails typing with them. Once in a while they would break off and go flying which would pause the typing as they applied a replacement and waited for the adhesive to set.

[@sonicase]

key feel more similar to a typewriter i bet

[@gyozakeynsianism]

"Not quite USB" lol ... It might as well be a quarter pounder.

[@Zerge6095]

I know how much 2.1 kilos is but, how much does a quarter-pound burger weights?

[@urdnal]

Yo dogg I heard you like microswitches...

[@MARS-eb8pt]

25 minutes late, but I am here now

[@hellNo116]

Ok it is 8 in the morning I was about to go to sleep (I am a student during exams) but I couldn't just ignore one of your amazing reviews !!!

[@jb_lofi]

Go to sleep! Kick ass and good luck with your exams. May you get to use a half decent keyboard for your studies

[@ClarkieReidri]

18 and a half Travis Scott burgers

[@trenxee1165]

3:22 what fucking werewolf they hired to input numbers?

[@docmcstuffins6300]

wait wut, when did he get to 100k subs

[@Chyrosran22]

I did? XD

[@BasicFolders]

@@Chyrosran22 Yes you did. It's just that over there they are measuring them with metrics. 😛

[@docmcstuffins6300]

​@@Chyrosran22 i havent watched you in a few weeks and was suprised how you have boomed in subs haha

[@Chyrosran22]

@@BasicFolders for me it's saying 98.5k Oo .

[@docmcstuffins6300]

@@Chyrosran22 i was rounding up haha, sorry for the confusion xD

[@agfa1854]

wooooo

[@rogue3398]

My dad had a card punch machine. Let me ask him about this.

[@cbrnix]

Made to print during a nuclear explosion

[@farstox4656]

Busy looking hole, eh?

[@wutzitrone4522]

Nice timijg just woke up

[@bdhaliwal24]

This is a true hipster keyboard

[@GuacamoleKun]

Wow, are those fingernail dents in the caps?? lol

[@EyesackWorley]

who

[@airy9461]

"they are different in various ways" i mean the fact that a whole key is gone is enough for me XD

[@SudosFTW]

those marks were left with long fingernails. the person running that station was definitely female.

[@defcon30]

i hate it

[@Owlman-OvO]

A woman sitting at a desk probably used it; the dents seem to line up with someone who had long fingernails. And given it was the 60's...

[@davidpatt3080]

1st view :)

[@yuristocat]

Congratulations

[@zzfoe]

Congratulations, time to claim your prize!

[@faiz_tidak_bisa_terbang1470]

@@zzfoe Oh my, what is it?

[@zzfoe]

@@faiz_tidak_bisa_terbang1470 Absolutely nothing