On Sunday 22 October 2006 00:23, Randall R Schulz wrote:
Bob,
On Saturday 21 October 2006 14:18, Bob S wrote:
Hello SuSE people,
The old guy is vision impaired and is beginning to have a lot of trouble seeing the keys on the keyboard. Decided to get a backlit keyboard.
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So the OT question is: Do any of you have experience with them or can make a reccomendation?? Prefer PS2
I have a Saitek Eclipse keyboard. It is a very basic keyboard with numeric pad. It's USB (which of course is easily adapted for PS/2, if that's your preference). It has two-level (plus off) back-illumination of the letterforms on the keytops. It has minimal additional keys: Beside the illumination control button, it has three sound-control keys (volume up and down and mute, at least according to the symbology associated with those buttons). It's fairly solidly built, but the keycaps are made of transparent plastic painted with reverse letterforms. The only problem is that the paint wears off eventually and the illuminated letterforms become progressively obscured. On my keyboard, A, S, E, R, N and L are now somewhat illegible and because of the odd way I handle modifiers (using only my left thumb for all of them regardless of which key they're modifying) the left ALT key is just a big blue blob when the illumination is on.
The back edge can be raised about a centimeter by deploying the retractable legs, which are more solidly constructed than those on many other keyboards I've used, and I always tilt the back up on my keyboards.
The real reason I chose this keyboard was not the illumination, but rather the fact that it is about as small as you can find for keyboard with a number pad. I have no use for all the funky special "media" keys, volume knobs, fingerprint readers and other goo-gaws on keyboards nowadays and I have limited desk space. I don't actually use the illumination (I can touch type, and the keyboard has the usual raised locater bumps on F and J, which is all I need).
Anyway, I'm happy with the keyboard. Since I tend to be pretty hard on things, the fact that it has lasted over a year without serious wear or becoming to noisy to tolerate speaks well of its construction.
If you Google "Saitek Eclipse" the very first hit shows some pictures. The palm rest you see in these images is removable.
Thanks for replying Randall, I had found them on my searches of vendors and had considered getting one. but your telling me about the letters wearing off kind of makes me reconsider. I like that Deck but that is a huge difference in price. I guess I will have to think about it. Thanks again. Bob S.