Alps Appreciation

[Menuhin]

Spoiler:

Here's one of my Northgate Omnikey 101 boards on the operating table after replacing the top housings, springs, and sliders with the corresponding parts from Orange Alps switches.

omni101_white-orange1.jpg

This Omni was a later model that had Bamboo switches. My motivation for this top mod was to reduce the rattle of the Bamboo switches and to make them slightly lighter. Orange Alps have Pine top housings and reportedly a lighter spring, although I have not tested the spring weight myself.

NG_White-Orange_25a.jpg

After the surgery, the board was quieter and felt lighter. Plus, I like the look of the orange sliders. It seems a pity to cover them with keycaps. Maybe I'll learn to type on the bare sliders.

I never understand why people may want to have transparent keycaps especially for those boards that have no lighting function. Aha, now I understand. Let's convince Tai Hao some time to create something like this:

So the Alps folks can stare at their blues, orange, neon greens, brown, etc all the time.

[Darkshado]

Shameless plug: want-to-buy-f56/a-handful-of-alps-skcm- ... 15007.html

My TMK ADB to USB converter works on a breadboard, I plan on making it internal.

The absolute minimum this board needs for its eventual restoration:
[*]One slider damper
[*]Two springs
[*]One switch

A few more springs would be preferable given their tendency to vanish into thin air...
Same for whole switches in case I break more tabs.

Regards,

Darkshado

[scottc]

Scott showed me a board recently with both their old, well-known doubleshots as well as some of their new ones on it. The difference is staggering, the new ones almost look lasered by comparison.

Here is a comparison between Dolch and a cap from my FK-3001. You can see the outline of the Focus's cap a little more, but that might be down to white being harder to see. I wouldn't call them 'terrible'

How does his cap's compare to mine? Newer batches might be worse.
<img>]

The ones I showed Chyros were the "Olivette" Alps set, compared to a set from some NIB Alps rubber dome keyboard with Arabic pad-printed secondary legends. They were from Massdrop, from a drop about 18 months ago or so. The Olivette legends look very blurry to the extent that, like Chyros says, they look lasered or badly dye-subbed in comparison to the crisp and sharp legends on the originals. I'll try to grab some pictures later if I get some time at my desk!

On the other hand, my new Tai-Hao white-on-black Alps doubleshots are really good. The only reason I don't use them is that the spacebar is completely useless due to its Cherry-style stabiliser mounts, and I've got no matching spacebar.

Side-note: if anyone has any spare 6.25u spacebars from wrecked Dell AT102s in black or beige, I'm looking for some.

[Hypersphere]

I recall seeing Cherry-style stabilizer inserts on some Alps-switch keyboards, and you can also get them from Matias. They can be used in conjunction with a variety of stabilizer wires and clips.

[Mattr567]

Before Ultrasonic:


After Ultrasonic:

[Scarpia]

Wow Mattr567! But how do they FEEEEEEL?

[andrewjoy]

Did you ultrasonic the bottom part of the shell ? or just the slider and top part ?

What cleaner did you use in your ultrasonic for the alps ?

Also , ewwwe , gross.

[Mattr567]

Wow Mattr567! But how do they FEEEEEEL?

They feel snappy and smooth

Did you ultrasonic the bottom part of the shell ? or just the slider and top part ?

What cleaner did you use in your ultrasonic for the alps ?

Also , ewwwe , gross.

I think it's the same one that was used in this thread. E3E did them for me, he own's the cleaner. Everything but the switchplates were done. I would normally not do the slider to preserve the lube but the slider's in the original condition were unrecoverable. The lube I used was Dupont Teflon Silicone lube. I put a very small amt. on a q-tip and put it on the sides of the slider where the factory lube already was.

Lol in the original condition they would get stuck down they were soo bad.

[Mattr567]

Did a bunch more Alps reassembly today. Probably through 60-70% of the SKCM Blue I have. Lengthy process to reassemble since I have to put the switchplates back in the bottom housing and strategically lube the slider's as well as the normal reassembly route.

Still have 130 SKCL Green's to do. Already did the 101 SKCL Yellow's I have.

I've gotten quite good at doing these. In total i've probably done over 1000 individual Alps switches

[PollandAkuma]

I'm so jealous of you Mattr, would love to have some SKCL greens. I'm actually so crazy about alps that I'm planning to buy a board full of blues just to butcher it...

Do the feeling of the same switches differ from board to board?

[alienman82]

removed.

[Mattr567]

I'm so jealous of you Mattr, would love to have some SKCL greens. I'm actually so crazy about alps that I'm planning to buy a board full of blues just to butcher it...

Do the feeling of the same switches differ from board to board?

Well, i'm selling the lot when I get them all back together. All 100+ each of Greens, Blue's, and Yellow's

Have no need for the switches, not with my SKCL Green V60, SKCL Striped Amber Zenith and SKCM Blue Packard Bell among other things.

Yea, it can be different board to board depending on a lot of factor's such as condition and wear etc. I bet the Taobao Blue's I'm putting back together don't feel NIB for example, but they still feel good

I've put a huge amt. of effort and hour's into restoring these Taobao switches, and I can't wait to finish them up and move on lol. I'm a bit sick of them so be honest. Between the failed experiments pre-ultrasonic and the repetitive process for putting them back together.

[Mattr567]

Beauty of the Alps mechanism. Opened a SKCM Cream Damp and everything came with it

[fohat]

the repetitive process for putting them back together.

I just did my first keyboard full of Alps mods (I have de-soldered and re-soldered several boards but never gone into the switches themselves) and I can say with certainty that it is far easier to re-assemble them with the bases soldered down in place than it is trying to hold loose switches in your hands.

Next time I hope to find a dead Alps PCB and at least set them in place, even if they are not soldered down.

PS - Mr Bishop's tool is a great help!

[Mattr567]

the repetitive process for putting them back together.

I just did my first keyboard full of Alps mods (I have de-soldered and re-soldered several boards but never gone into the switches themselves) and I can say with certainty that it is far easier to re-assemble them with the bases soldered down in place than it is trying to hold loose switches in your hands.

Next time I hope to find a dead Alps PCB and at least set them in place, even if they are not soldered down.

PS - Mr Bishop's tool is a great help!

Yea it's wayyy easier. I use an old IBM Multistation mounting plate on a set of wood blocks to hold them in place as I put them back together.

[alh84001]

I have to disagree. When you hold the whole piece, you can just put everything in the top housing and just close it from the top with bottom housing. Contact leaf is usually locked-in in the bottom housing with soldering tin remnants, but obviously as from the post above that is not always the case I don't think it ever happened to me. It also helps if you get an upstroke click and you need to disassemble and assemble it again, It's much quicker to do it with a switch in hand.

Now, when I have switches in the board, I put sliderin the top housing and not on the spring, so every now and then I get a misaligned spring and I have to open the switch and do it all over again. I know the more common method is to put the slider on the spring, and click/tactile leaf around it, but sooner or later, by doing that, I manage to deform the click/tactile leaf by crushing it with top housing.

My $.02.

[Mattr567]

I have to disagree. When you hold the whole piece, you can just put everything in the top housing and just close it from the top with bottom housing. Contact leaf is usually locked-in in the bottom housing with soldering tin remnants, but obviously as from the post above that is not always the case I don't think it ever happened to me. It also helps if you get an upstroke click and you need to disassemble and assemble it again, It's much quicker to do it with a switch in hand.

Now, when I have switches in the board, I put sliderin the top housing and not on the spring, so every now and then I get a misaligned spring and I have to open the switch and do it all over again. I know the more common method is to put the slider on the spring, and click/tactile leaf around it, but sooner or later, by doing that, I manage to deform the click/tactile leaf by crushing it with top housing.

My $.02.

This is my setup. Nothing wrong with having a stable surface The 130 key IBM Multistation mounting plate serve's as a great base.

I have crushed a few tactile leaf's in my life but the solution is to realign the leaf with the top housing half way on with a toothpick from the side so it doesn't get crushed. Otherwise I do it the Chryos way with only toothpick's. Using them and fatter cocktail sticks is a huge waste of time. The toothpick's alone can get the top housing off easily

[PollandAkuma]

stable on the table (an r/mk joke)

[Mattr567]

Very interesting to see that some of these early black switchplates have heated treated metal contacts. These samples come from SKCL Greens from a IBM Multistation with a 1984 date stamp. It is possible that some of these switches were made in 1983, which is the first production year of the SKCL/SKCM series.

Normal switchplate:


Rainbow switchplate:

[PollandAkuma]

wow, that's so cool! reminds me of an oil spill

[keycap]

Alps are really growing on me again. There goes any chance of me saving money.

[Lynx_Carpathica]

hi
I've got a bag of Alps clones, and want to lube them, but lubing them one by one is a painfully long priject. Is it OK to put them in a jar and spray it with a ton of PTFE? This time, they're black alps

[seebart]

hi
I've got a bag of Alps clones, and want to lube them, but lubing them one by one is a painfully long priject. Is it OK to put them in a jar and spray it with a ton of PTFE?

bad-idea-meme.png (77.34 KiB) Viewed 5354 times

[Lynx_Carpathica]

hi
I've got a bag of Alps clones, and want to lube them, but lubing them one by one is a painfully long priject. Is it OK to put them in a jar and spray it with a ton of PTFE?

bad-idea-meme.png

Fck. So one by one...

EDIT: Only the SLIDERS!!! XD

[seebart]

EDIT: Only the SLIDERS!!! XD

That's right ONLY the sliders and go easy on the PTFE!

[keycap]

I've never actually had a case where lubing Alps made them feel any better aside from linears. If you're trying to lube clicky Alps clones, don't even bother.

[Chyros]

Don't bother lubing them. It's better to clean them, if anything. Either way it's going to be a long process and it probably won't work fantastically.

[XMIT]

I agree. I've used Super Lube 51010 oil in trace amounts along side a clean switch and a clean switch is still best. You're better off spending the money on an ultrasonic cleaner than the time in lubricating these.

With a good thorough cleaning of the sliders and switch tops, and a shot of compressed air in the bottoms and the switch plates, these can feel like new. That's the best combination I've found.

[Scarpia]

I agree. I've used Super Lube 51010 oil in trace amounts along side a clean switch and a clean switch is still best. You're better off spending the money on an ultrasonic cleaner than the time in lubricating these.

With a good thorough cleaning of the sliders and switch tops, and a shot of compressed air in the bottoms and the switch plates, these can feel like new. That's the best combination I've found.

Please put this in big bold letters in the wiki somewhere. I've spent altogether too much time trying to find reliable information about cleaning methods and 'lube versus not lube' for Alps switches. If there's any sort of consensus about this, it's critical info for anyone who collects Alps boards.

[Menuhin]

I agree. I've used Super Lube 51010 oil in trace amounts along side a clean switch and a clean switch is still best. You're better off spending the money on an ultrasonic cleaner than the time in lubricating these.

With a good thorough cleaning of the sliders and switch tops, and a shot of compressed air in the bottoms and the switch plates, these can feel like new. That's the best combination I've found.

Please put this in big bold letters in the wiki somewhere. I've spent altogether too much time trying to find reliable information about cleaning methods and 'lube versus not lube' for Alps switches. If there's any sort of consensus about this, it's critical info for anyone who collects Alps boards.

+1