I found something in the bin!

[KennyR]

Today was a good day, I went to a second hand store, but didn't find an interesting board in the store.
But I did something naughty..

At the back of the store, there are some containers with stuff in it which the people who work there think is broken and is ready for the trash. It's off limits for customers but I went and had a look anyway.

And there I found this!





I was hoping someone could help me identify the switches on that keyboard, I know they're not Alps.

Now it's time for me to start cleaning these lovely boards and give them a nice home. That container was way to cold and wet for them.

[rodtang]

They're ALPS, shit alps, throw that shit away again.

It is the same switches as the Macintosh adjustable keyboard.

EDIT: The ones in the adjustable keyboard is the white version of these, I assume the black ones are just as bad.

[Mrinterface]

You naughty boy!

Low profile alps aren't THAT bad....

[Daniel]

Nice find! The keyboard looks like it was used in a opium den! And who rips of complete switches? You need a lot of force to do that...

Wikilink for the switches: http://deskthority.net/wiki/Alps_low_profile

EDIT: typo

[KennyR]

They're ALPS, shit alps, throw that shit away again.

Why would I throw this lovely board away, the switches aren't that bad, I also like the layout.
Maybe I'll try to solder in some different switches, I hope the pins of other Alps switches match.

And you rips of complete switches? You need a lot of force to do that...

Wikilink for the switches: http://deskthority.net/wiki/Alps_low_profile

Thank you for the link!
And no, I didn't rip of the switch, I found it that way, without the ² switch.
On the back of the PCB, the 2 pin holes for the switch are connected with a little wire, I' don't really know why, maybe the previous owner messed around a bit with the board.

[rodtang]

Alps switches match.

They don't.

[KennyR]

They don't.

Meh, nothing to do about it, I'll just try to make it pretty again.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I was hoping to get a board with the black low-profile ones, although I have no white low-profile ones with which to compare. The question I have — they're low profile, so by definition, they're only comparable with M8, ML, the other Alps low profile, and scissor (and other low-profile models).

The Alps CM one is interesting, because Alps CM is a plate mount only switch, yet someone's PCB mounted it!

The switch itself is [wiki]Alps lock[/wiki], and the missing cap will be Num Lock, which is a latching switch on this board. (Yours is also missing the front T tab, which is why the latch is exposed.)

Latching switches are relatively rare, although many brands made them:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Category:La ... k_switches

I'm curious to learn more about the Futaba one in Trent's FK-8000.

[maxrunner]

How do these low profile alps compare the to hated type II ?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

What's Type II? ;-)

A lot of clones and related switches tend to be too stiff. The force isn't the problem, but that the force curve is too sharp. I can't say whether this is true of all clones, but it's been my experience with different "Type II"s (Xiang Min and Hua-Jie); my (potentially) Type IV (probably also Hua-Jie) is similar but not as bad.

There's not a huge difference between clones and real Alps in terms of feel — clones just tend to be too extreme. Even the comparatively lightweight blue Alps are still very stiff, but much easier to type on. Clones tend to be 60–70 gf, but blue Alps feels more like 45–50 gf (the main difference with white Alps vs blue is the stronger spring in white Alps — I'll compare once I get my FK-2002 off Ascaii). Ducky keyboards have 55 gf Xiang Min switches, and people do report that they're perfectly usable.

I don't have a low-profile keyboard yet (may happen, may not), so I have nothing to compare to yet — I don't know what specifically is meant to be so bad about them.