Individual Buckling Spring Switches?

[LoneWannabe]

Hi guys, I have have been into mechanical keyboards for a bit of time now, have been browsing different forums, and decided to make my first post on deskthority. I don't know if this has been posted before, how a proper forum post should be written, or if it is under the correct category, so please bear with my ignorance

On to the main topic, when I was searching on the topic of custom buckling spring keyboards a while ago, I read through a discussion here at deskthority: keyboards-f2/buckling-spring-switch-for ... t5892.html , and it seemed to me that a custom buckling spring keyboard with individual switches is impossible. But then recently I did the search again, saw the fourth link which was a reddit post (https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... ds_i_want/), and it seems like /u/ BuckBuckPing has invented a working prototype for an individual plate/pcb mounted buckling spring switch that has a cherry mx stem! When I first saw this I was so hyped but since I do not understand the details of a buckling spring I wanted to see the opinions of other forums, with nothing found to my surprise. So now I want to ask you guys, the professionals: Does this seem viable? If it does, do you guys think it has potential to be a great switch or will it probably be just like another poor knock-off switch? And last but not least, is there anything missing/incorrect in the buckling spring mechanism that will result in a non-authentic buckling spring feel/sound? I am very curious how this will turn out, and of course I hope this will become a fully working high quality switch so I can finally fulfill a dream of a completely custom layout with buckling springs with custom keycaps (oh I never would've thought a day would come when these three words would be put in one sentence).

By the way, if there are any errors in my post or simply just badly expressed ideas or statements, please forgive me as I am but a mere 14 year old from Taiwan

[Ray]

Hello and welcome to DT!

Some people managed to do custom Buckling Spring keyboards, but it took them quite a lot of work since there is no modular BS switch availabe atm. If modular BS switches with the same sound/feel as IBM's would be availabe, we would see much more customs using them for sure.

Someone posted a link to a prototype BS module on reddit before, and I wasn't impressed then. It is still a prototype and only when/if it becomes available, we can try it and get a fair opinion on it.
From the little information we have, we can clearly see it uses a completely different activation mechanism than IBM BS. I haven't seen another switch that uses the spring as a contact. The idea sounds bouncy to me, but the claim is 5ms debounce time which would be fine.

The sound of my Model M is completly inconsistent across the board. I guess it is mostly due to the position of the switch and the resonance it has inside the case. It is the same to a lesser extent with my Bigfoot.
Since the spring in the prototype does not hit the housing of the switch, but a plate in front of it, the resonance within the case should be dampened quite a bit - would be my guess.

[Ratfink]

Wow, is he seriously trying to patent that? IBM did essentially the same thing back when they were still figuring out buckling springs. Good luck getting a patent on a 45 year old design that was already patented.

[LoneWannabe]

Hello and welcome to DT!

Some people managed to do custom Buckling Spring keyboards, but it took them quite a lot of work since there is no modular BS switch availabe atm. If modular BS switches with the same sound/feel as IBM's would be availabe, we would see much more customs using them for sure.

Someone posted a link to a prototype BS module on reddit before, and I wasn't impressed then. It is still a prototype and only when/if it becomes available, we can try it and get a fair opinion on it.
From the little information we have, we can clearly see it uses a completely different activation mechanism than IBM BS. I haven't seen another switch that uses the spring as a contact. The idea sounds bouncy to me, but the claim is 5ms debounce time which would be fine.

The sound of my Model M is completly inconsistent across the board. I guess it is mostly due to the position of the switch and the resonance it has inside the case. It is the same to a lesser extent with my Bigfoot.
Since the spring in the prototype does not hit the housing of the switch, but a plate in front of it, the resonance within the case should be dampened quite a bit - would be my guess.

Yeah it does seem like custom BS keyboards took quite some technical knowledge, and since I am no engineer it was impossible for me to attempt such a feat. But I hope this shiny new toy may fix that

So the activation mechanism is completely different? Even though my understanding of the mechanism isn't great, I have a hint of fear that this will have some negative impact on the experience, but if the sound inconsistency is really as you say (I do not own a BS keyboard myself, I have only tried out someone else's a while ago and loved it), I hope the dampened resonance would change BS keyboards for the better

Wow, is he seriously trying to patent that? IBM did essentially the same thing back when they were still figuring out buckling springs. Good luck getting a patent on a 45 year old design that was already patented.

Hm I don't know if patenting this design is for the better or if it is purely for the increased income, but if a patent helps the development and success of the switch, I would wholeheartedly support this decision (since I really want this for my keyboards and myself ), even though I kinda wanted some 3d component files to try print out a switch