Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 94 posts

Re: Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

#81

Post by gurkendoktor »

Wingman4l7 wrote: post #33
gurkendoktor wrote: post #15

That model, but without the numpad, is still my favorite keyboard (the A1242). I've tried mechanical keyboards for fun, but I keep coming back to this one for the low profile. It was only sold for a year or so before the wireless model replaced it, and it's hard to find them now. What I did was to look for used iMacs from 2010, see which ones have the A1242, then ask the seller to only sell me the keyboard. Based on…

People seem to have forgotten eBay exists -- the A1242/3 is still readily available on there. I cringe a little seeing all this affection for the A1243, after having seen scads of them go into the scrap heap at my local nonprofit electronics recycler.

The A1243 is available on eBay, but the A1242 is really hard to find here in Germany. Hence the iMac detour.

+1 for eBay, anyway. I've made an exception for my M1 MacBook, but generally I try to buy everything used.

Re: Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

#82

Post by gurkendoktor »

echohack5 wrote: post #25
gurkendoktor wrote: post #15

That model, but without the numpad, is still my favorite keyboard (the A1242). I've tried mechanical keyboards for fun, but I keep coming back to this one for the low profile. It was only sold for a year or so before the wireless model replaced it, and it's hard to find them now. What I did was to look for used iMacs from 2010, see which ones have the A1242, then ask the seller to only sell me the keyboard. Based on…

This isn't widely known, but the Magic2 keyboard can be turned into a wired keyboard by simply plugging in a thunderbolt wire. It will function entirely without bluetooth.

The current Magic Keyboard has the weird arrow key layout that Apple already phased out again on its laptops. I also don't like how it feels to type on. But the ability to use a Lightning (not Thunderbolt) cable is a godsend on my Magic Trackpad 2, for some reason I'm getting a lot of lag with Bluetooth.

Re: Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

#83

Post by londons_explore »

wpearse wrote: post #74
londons_explore wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a characteristic of your mains AC supply. You won't get a shock off things not connected to the mains AC earth (usually plugged in appliances and radiators/water pipes).

The MacBook power adapters here (NZ) don’t have an earth pin, but my MacBooks give me vicious shocks. I always wondered if finding an earthed adapter (must be available in other countries!?) would fix this.

In most countries untried it is illegal... But if you crack open the power supply and remove the "Y" capacitor (usually the only bright blue component in there), these shocks won't happen anymore.

The downside is your MacBook might start giving out radio frequency interference...

Re: Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

#84

Post by Hamuko »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #60
Hamuko wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> talking normal usage + spilling drinks a few times a year I've definitely dumped at least one cup of tea into mine, possibly even more, and it's still working perfect. It's quite bizarre actually.

I dumped an entire cup of tea into a 2016 MPB, it did not survive as well as your keyboard

My coworker apparently managed to dump at least some tea into his 15-inch MacBook Pro and it actually survived. I found it quite surprising, would've figured it was a death sentence for sure.

Re: Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

#85

Post by joelby37 »

wpearse wrote: post #74
londons_explore wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a characteristic of your mains AC supply. You won't get a shock off things not connected to the mains AC earth (usually plugged in appliances and radiators/water pipes).

The MacBook power adapters here (NZ) don’t have an earth pin, but my MacBooks give me vicious shocks. I always wondered if finding an earthed adapter (must be available in other countries!?) would fix this.

The two pin plug that attaches directly to the power brick isn’t grounded, but the power adapter extension lead is and it solves this problem. https://www.apple.com/nz/shop/product/MK122X/A/power-adapter...

Re: Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

#86

Post by simonh »

PurpleFoxy wrote: post #73
josefresco wrote: post #48

Why isn't this a blog post? /old man rant

Not just an old person thing. Anyone who’s brain functions for longer than 10 second bursts prefers a blog post over a series of tweets

If it had been a blog post, would the submitter even have come across it? I agree Twitter isn't a great platform for this sort of content, but it's where the people are. Not me, I don't use it (nobody goes there, it's too crowded) so I sympathise, but if I come across links to content like this I don't begrudge it.

Re: Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

#87

Post by Veen »

Hamuko wrote: post #77
semanticist wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one with a UK Mac layout: https://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard/uk-va109mac-pbt-backlit-... I'm currently dithering between buying that or the Das as my own A1243 is slowly dying, but at least that one looks like all the buttons are in the right place.

That's not a Mac layout. Function key is in the wrong place (it should replace the Insert key) and it's missing an Eject key. I don't know why people find it so hard to believe when I say that there are no mechanical keyboards with a Mac layout. There just simply aren't. The best is the Matias Tactile Pro and even that has slight shortcomings (short Option and Eject button replaces F19). Pretty much everything else i…

> I don't know why people find it so hard to believe when I say that there are no mechanical keyboards with a Mac layout

Probably because they have a looser definition of Mac layout than you. Many people just mean that there's a command and option key and that the media control keys are in the right place.

Re: Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

#89

Post by awiesenhofer »

echohack5 wrote: post #25
gurkendoktor wrote: post #15

That model, but without the numpad, is still my favorite keyboard (the A1242). I've tried mechanical keyboards for fun, but I keep coming back to this one for the low profile. It was only sold for a year or so before the wireless model replaced it, and it's hard to find them now. What I did was to look for used iMacs from 2010, see which ones have the A1242, then ask the seller to only sell me the keyboard. Based on…

This isn't widely known, but the Magic2 keyboard can be turned into a wired keyboard by simply plugging in a thunderbolt wire. It will function entirely without bluetooth.

Connecting a keyboard via pcie, now thats a commitment to low latency. Although Apple keyboards are great at that even via USB:

https://danluu.com/keyboard-latency/

Re: Teardown of the Apple's A1243 Keyboard

#90

Post by johnwalkr »

appleuser43242 wrote: post #79
johnwalkr wrote: post #71

For those that love this keyboard: the new MacBook magic keyboard feels similar and is great, but be warned that the current standalone magic keyboard hasn’t been updated from butterfly keys yet.

The new MacBook keyboards use the same switches as the current standalone Magic Keyboard. Apple has never released a standalone keyboard with butterfly keys.

Huh, that's true. Playing around with it now, it certainly feels closer to my 2018 macbook pro than my ancient magic keyboard, 2015 macbook pro or M1 macbook pro, although it's somewhat in the middle of those.
Post reply on HN