Cherry Pre-MX Research Thread

[Parak]

Was able to desolder just one switch - turns out they can be removed easily even with the plate in place due to the side clips. Here's an example of one with a heavier spring, and an LED:

http://imgur.com/a/1zBTQ

Total Height: 27.05mm
Actuation at ~24.68mm
Fully pressed height: 22.63mm
Top view profile: 16.95mm (L) x 17.85mm (H)
Distance between PCB pins: ~12.5mm

Also I think dust got into my lens

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I do believe that's an M9. It shows:

a) M8 and M9 have very similar internals
b) M9 has the same design of case securing latches as MX

You just have some sort of mongo M9, as normally the stem is nowhere close to being that tall. Not in the 1982 catalogue anyway :)

[graboy]

I did some stalking research while I was waiting for a response from ysb8433 in this thread, I found out that he posted a very detailed documentation of the switches he owns here, but it's in Chinese and you have to be registered for an account to see pictures. I tried to register but for whatever reason it's refusing to send me an account verification email, maybe it'll go through later. By the way, Parak, that's an awesome find! Congrats, you're the first person ever to have a confirmed M9 switch!

EDIT:

You just have some sort of mongo M9, as normally the stem is nowhere close to being that tall.

I'm pretty sure it's standard, if you look at the datasheet, pg 26 bottom right hand corner, you can see how one of these switches has an LED that is hidden out of view inside of the keycap. Specifically, it seems like that switch is a M93A-12RW. Finally this stuff is starting to match up now!

[graboy]

I decided to try and give the "likeykeyboard" website a shot again, and I managed to get it working. They have a HUGE amount of undocumented switches, I downloaded the webpage and tweaked the html a little bit because the images weren't showing. Here's some pictures from that post that were especially awesome. This is significant enough that we should really find someone to translate this, it's in Chinese. The zip of the webpage is attached.

[graboy]

Also with more relevance to this thread:
(From this thread.)

[graboy]

Alright, sorry for the post spam, I found another thread that shows a bunch of different types of M8 switches, and an M9 switch without an LED, as seen earlier in the thread. I'm not sure if they know that it's an M9 switch, I don't think they have the cherry manual for it... they probably think it's an M8 switch. (from this thread.)

EDIT: Forgot to attach a zip of the webpage.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

More pics and gen for graboy (bottom of this page):

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/105170 ... ge__st__25

Notice the I-beam stem on the Cherry switches — not seen that before. Cherry loved changing the stem designs on their switches.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

mintberryminuscrunch: would you be able to confirm visually which internals match which branding, i.e. how do your Hirose Cherry M8 switches compare to the German Cherry M8 switches? My suspicion is that the ones with the unusual internals are a modified Hirose design, and that the ones that match the Cherry catalogue photos are the German production runs.

Just a single photo of each switch showing the top view next to the bottom view, with the base branding visible, would be fine.

Thanks.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I've just added a couple of recognition diagrams to the M8 page:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Cherry_M8#Recognition

I've drawn them the best I can from the photos available, and a lack of any measurements (photos have perspective skew that messes up drawing diagrams).

They are at least adequate for the existing purpose. The diagrams should also go in this section [wiki]Switch recognition[/wiki]; maybe one day I'll figure out all the different mounts and knock up a bunch of diagrams accordingly, but I would rather have the existing diagrams corrected first before I spawn a load of new ones that would need correcting likewise.

Let me know if there are any exceptions to this Germany/Japan split.

[lowpoly]

Cherry G80-0349:



Thread on GH

The photos suck (overlit). I can take better ones if necessary.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

They need to be directly top-down, but the trouble with even top-down photos is that they still have perspective skew and it's a headache trying to figure out the actual dimensions. When I have the switch to hand I can measure it with a ruler and calipers.

[Muirium]

Admirably large legends, those. And no sign of SHIF T down the bottom there. These new guys are on to something! Oh, wait…

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Yeah the keming on my Poker II is a bit suspect.