Zbrojovka Brno 262.5

History

This board was manufactured by a Czechoslovakian company called Zbrojovka Brno in the late ’80s. Zbrojovka Brno manufactured small arms, motor vehicles, and later typewriters and computers.

This board was made in 1988, and it uses the Soviet-era Tesla hall effect switches.

Zbrojovka Brno 262.5 back

Acquisition & Restoration

It had been up for sale for more than a year on r/mechmarket, and I was lucky enough to snag it for a very fair price. It took exactly a month to reach India from Czechia, and it did survive the trip.

Dirty/Rusty assembly

The case and keycaps were quite good; however, the plate was rusty, and some of the switches were scratchy. It took a good bit of force to take apart the switches from the plate too. Unfortunately, during that process, I scuffed a couple of switch stems.

Tesla hall effect switches

I have planned to lube the switches and swap the rusty springs with the Cherry ones. The plate needs to be sanded and repainted. This board uses a DB25 connector, so I need to find the pin layouts and make a converter for it.