CF-19 Emissive keyboard : Advice needed from canadian members

Hi canadian members, just need your opinion about this kbd.
Keyboard Clavier Emissive Qwerty Panasonic Toughbook CF 18 CF 19 FR Version | eBay
1st: is it canadian french ?
2nd : the seller states in the listing that backlight doesnt work, but looking at the keys you have F12 for backlight level, what are they missing ?
Waiting for your answers...

Romain from France

 

No it does not light up. It only has 1 ribbon cable. The light up one has two CF 19 Toughbook Fully Rugged Emissive Keyboard with White Backlighting | eBay

 

Well, no connector, no backlight ! I'm 100% convinced, but what about the F12 printed as backlight level ? FAKE, or what ?

 

photos explaining...

 

Blair,:hi2:

You beat me. Were you waiting for someone to ask? Musta had your finger on the reply button.

Fleabay does have FAKE emissive keyboards for CF18//CF19 for sale at the moment. My guess is a Chinese vendor had them made and someone screwed up and forgot the backlighting...Wait a few months and see if knock off emissive keyboards don't start coming up for sale.

 

OK, good assumption Shawn ! seller seems to be based in France, but probably has relatives in asia (assuming from his other listings)

 

Of course the illumination cable could be tucked underneath. I've never seen a Toughbook keyboard with a white bar on the space bar that wasn't backlit.
CAP

 

Capt, your hypothesis is tempting, but 69.99 € are $100 ... that's a bet ! I think I'm gonna ask the seller a question...
and by the way, thanks for all your posts about GPS gear in the past, they were all good advice!

 

Can't hurt to ask. See if he'll send you some pictures of the back of the kb.
CAP

 

As Shawn said they are a couple China sellers that are selling the same one. Will see if I can find them

 

OK, keep digging and let us know
THX,
Romain

 

Remember these keyboards (original ones) are not water-resisant and will be dead after some water.
Maybe chinese copies are waterproof, I've tested only 2 original keyboards.

I have these keyboards (non-backlight, "appearance like emissive", non-French) cheaper. This price is not low.

 

Here is one of the China sellers auction New Panasonic Toughbook CF 18 CF 19 Keyboard Appearance Like Emissive Keyboard | eBay


As you notice there is no second ribbon.

 

let's say that's FAKE panasonic stuff

 

Thx, but I can access the add without changing my IP adress (restricted access for IP french adress), fleabay turning to dark internet

 

The French keyboard in question is NOT BACKLIT.....The seller clearly indicates this in his ad.

The keyboard from the original post is different from the ones linked to. This one has FRENCH characters....The other ones have standard USA/QWERTY characters.

By the way,If this was a backit keyboard I would have bought it yesterday morning when I first saw the ad......

 

Shawn, I guess we all noticed it wasnt backlit, I just wanted to point out that we have FAKE pana stuff around, and this, I REALY dislike.

 

The fake stuff has been around for a while. Some fakes are bad, but some fakes are acceptable.
People have had fair to good luck with most aftermarket hard drive caddies. The port covers on the other hand are poor quality. If the Chinese make an emissive keyboard for a CF19 for $50.00 US or less, I'll cheerfully buy one..Keyboards are ALL made in China anyway...

 

OK, I read you, but is it gonna work ?
I personaly prefer 2nd hand original gear (cars, tools, computers, guns, watches, whatever...) from reliable brands, than knock-off fakes (wherever they come from China, Italy, Pakistan, ...)

 

Original emissive keyboards for CF-19 are bad, unreliable.
Maybe copies are better

 

I'm sure the keyboard will work even though it won't light up.
I'm guessing you are still interested in it because it has the French characters. There are ads on Ebay for Polish, Czech, Spanish, Japanese, and Italian keyboards for a CF19. Sadly the French one costs the most.

A original good used CF19 emissive keyboard (US character) sells for over $200.00.

 

I must be the lucky one, I have had mine for almost 3 years and it's still working great. I have had it in 3 CF-19 and was lucky to have only paid $119.00 for it

 

It’s real keyboard, I’ve seen a lot of this KB in China, may be a pre-production sample with some test label on the back, some of the KB had backlite working, some does not work.I’ve got one of this French KB with working backlite for approx. 20USD, thay all come from china not in hong kong.

 

Well I seem to have stepped in it a bit. My only excuse is that I have not been doing much TB shopping lately. Would you Southern Fry that Corvus dear.
CAP

 

Maybe you don't use it under water jets. Or just try a cup of water... I have 2 dead keyboards already and don't want to bury them anymore )
Standard plastic keyboard is undestructible as well as the rubber one. Of course you can destroy them mechanically

 

I think this is a good thread. I am sure the question of emissive keyboards for a CF19 will come up many times in the near future. At least now we have a wealth of information in one thread that the newbies may be able to find..

The emissive keyboards are not made for water use. If they were then Panasonic would not have made the rubber emissive.

 

I just added this to our http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/746328-cf-19-guide-f-q-2.html

 

Is it an official Panasonic position?
Total PC (CF-19) has IP65 rating. So I can presume it's keyboard has to satisfy IP65 rating too
And, while standard plastic keyboard is really tough, emissive one is a piece of... worthless thing ))
Rubber keyboard is protected against oil and is not more waterproof than standard plastic. Both are waterproof. I can prove that

 

BaRRmaley is always a bit against the emissive keyboard and for a large part I do understand it. They are pretty expensive for a regular ba keyboard, but nowhere has it ever been stated that they are not waterproof. I've used a brand new emissive myself, never had any water on them, but I do use them for typing a lot. Really a lot, several hours a day, practically every day of the week. And recently it started to fail to registers keystrokes on the tab to left-alt part of the keyboard. Not really convenient.

So now I'm back to the regular keyboard and I do miss the emissive a lot. The emissive had a bit short travel, but typed really light with a well noticeable click that was
the regular keyboard has a longer travel, it costs me more pressure then I prefer, the click is rather hard and I have more cross-typing: you want to hit the y and also hit the u. But I believe the regular keyboard is more sturdy, less fragile. Which is also important.
So the regular works, is sturdy, but not for the novel-writing-amount of typing.

 

The most important is, you can use in dark area.

 

The most important is you can use it )
I always have at least one spare CF-19 while travelling, but it's unacceptable to have such a weak component in toughbook. I'm used to rely on my laptop

 

IMHO first thing is that you can type on a keyboard, backlit or not.
And an expensive keyboard like the emissive should be IP65 and durable. BaRR told his two keyboards weren't IP65 and I can tell mine is not a keyboard that can withstand a lot of typing. I made around 6000 hours in 2 years and tab, caps, left shift, Q, A, Z, X, left ctrl and left alt where becoming seriously unresponsive.

That all being said, I do miss the backlit badly.

 

Maybe these will last longer..

Rugged

 

WHAT A DELL... :laugh:

 

Hahaha. Good one!
I have to add, im really locking forward to owning a mk8, so never mind how grumpy I am about the emissive, it's the best laptop I've used in my life. Period.

 

I guess I got lucky on one of my emissive keyboards. CF-19 was filthy so just took the detachable kitchen sink hose and had at it, especially the keyboard since it was so grimy. Still working but now I am worried its going to fail this was about 3 months back. Basically slightly soapy water and then clear with all port covers closed. kinda like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7vWV0lmtPo

 

I had a CF-30 with 39k hours on it that I have used in the rain and snow... I have hosed off the keyboard several times. (Then blew it out with compressed air.) I have always found the emissives to be more bullet-proof than any other. The standard keyboard has too much travel in the keys and the silicone keyboards tear easily plus they type very slow. I suppose they all have their uses and callings... But I have always preferred the emissive type and have never had an issue.

YMMV

 

I have photos coming of the innards of a lighted keyboard..If UPS ever gets me my pkg.

 

good to hear they are doing well!

 

Usually OOPS does well. But this time they screwed the pooch.