Alps Appreciation

[Lynx_Carpathica]

Hi guys, what do you think about my DIY Alps tee?

[seebart]

Oh very stylish. I love how "regular" people will just think it's a pic of some junk. You could have the old Alps Electric logo at the bottom right but I'm sure it's (C) which is why I've been using it for years.

[Madhias]

Looks good that shirt! Very subtle, it is silk screen printed?

[Lynx_Carpathica]

Oh very stylish. I love how "regular" people will just think it's a pic of some junk. You could have the old Alps Electric logo at the bottom right but I'm sure it's (C) which is why I've been using it for years.

I couldn't find a great resolution pic of the old Alps logo. But... There you go. It turned out to be shit.

Madhias: what?
I've used a Laser printer, printed on a piece of Baking paper. Then iron it on.
Jamming: 11 out of 10 tries

[Khers]

Anyone know of a, preferably European, outfit that can laser cut 1-1.2 mm thick brass with nice quality results? If not, I guess I'll go stainless again, but I would like something a little softer. ...and more bling!

[tkim]

Hi Khers, I am not affiliated with this site nor have I used their services however I did note free international shipping and it was the first vendor that came to mind.

Hope it helps http://lasergist.com/

Perhaps you can enquire about the feasibility of a brass plate

[Scarpia]

Seconding Lasergist. I used them for my 60% and the result was impeccable. Turnaround time was maybe 2 weeks total, which was fine for me, and I thought the prices were very reasonable.

...though I don't know if they offer brass at all, you'll have to ask.

[Khers]

Yeah, I know lasergist is the go to option, but as they don't openly offer brass, I was wondering if anyone had some brass cut somewhere and what the results were like.

[Wingklip]

Oh very stylish. I love how "regular" people will just think it's a pic of some junk. You could have the old Alps Electric logo at the bottom right but I'm sure it's (C) which is why I've been using it for years.

I couldn't find a great resolution pic of the old Alps logo. But... There you go. It turned out to be shit.

Madhias: what?
I've used a Laser printer, printed on a piece of Baking paper. Then iron it on.
Jamming: 11 out of 10 tries

Holy sheet it actually works? That was a theory I had because they would heat on the toner. I never expected someone to actually try it!

Looks really nice. You might want to heat it up a bit more and give it some proper pressure though lol

[seebart]

There you go. It turned out to be shit.

Haha I love the washed out vintage look. Cool. Here are the logo's:

wiki/Alps_Electric

[mike52787]

Boredom, //Gainsborough's urging, and spare parts yielded this: SKCL green NTC 6851ea with a modified layout and alps sphericals.
Better photos of the finished product will come later.



Where it started. Gutted board, originally came with pine white alps.



Warning! PCB gore! The stock arrow and bottom row layout sucked ass, so I had to fix that. This is the first time I have ever lifted pads on purpose... but definitely not the first time.



All patched up and soldered together.



Greenies!



The Semi finished product. I am working on getting more alps sphericals to hopefully get rid of most of the apple pbt caps. Also, terrible photo as I was very tired when taking this...

[Wingpad]

Here are the logo's:

wiki/Alps_Electric

I added my recreation of the Alps logo to that page as well. I used it a while back to make my Alps Mug:

It's slightly different than the one that was already up there but my guess is we simply used different sources in the recreation process.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

You lying toad. That's my SVG from 2012 just re-coloured to darker blue and fiddled about a bit. The reason I removed it from the Alps Electric page is that it was only a very rough approximation (being based on the low-accuracy logo created using mould tooling) and I've since recreated it much more authentically based on a silk-screened keyboard logo and trademark records (which are all different from each other!)

OK, to be fair, it seems that you've merely found this logo and wasted time rebuilding it from scratch by bitmap tracing when it already existed on the wiki, but anything you found it on must have been community material, because it's not a real Alps logo and never was — it's just my own guesswork. A monumental waste of time!

[Wingpad]

I did not realize there was one on the wiki until it was mentioned here. I recreated it from a bitmap I found on an old, non-community affiliated website and did not waste that much time on it, maybe 15-30 minutes tops. Presumably they borrowed it from the community, then, haha. Well, not a real Alps logo and never was, eh? Fine, I guess I will just go back to being a "lying toad."

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Before I add a vintage company logo to the wiki, I spend time investigating it to make sure that what I'm looking at is authentic. I won't just grab a logo off some website, as it could be wrong, as was the case here. When I drew that image, there wasn't anything else readily available to use as a basis. Sometimes I just take a stab at whatever looks more reasonable, as companies do fiddle with logos.

I suppose I should be flattered that you were convinced by it; by comparison I was a bit embarrassed about it after creating the Mk II version based on more accurate information. With the Mk II, I used the logo on someone's keyboard, the logos on several PCBs, and two trademark filings (filed several decades apart) for references, and every single one was different — the end result was a compromise between all of them, that overall looks far closer to real Alps logos.

It's an awkward logo, and the "waving flag"/"river" portion of the P is the most inconsistent aspect of it; it can be both jagged and very rounded.

[//gainsborough]

The Semi finished product. I am working on getting more alps sphericals to hopefully get rid of most of the apple pbt caps. Also, terrible photo as I was very tired when taking this...

Nice work, dude! That thing is going to look awesome if you can get some spherical modifiers to replace the apple ones!

[seebart]

Boredom, //Gainsborough's urging, and spare parts yielded this: SKCL green NTC 6851ea with a modified layout and alps sphericals.

Very nice work! Love it.

[Mattr567]

Soo bought a Ducky 1087 (anyone remember those?) It is a Alps TKL that came out like 6 years ago, which is crazy to me. Gonna swap SKCM Blue and throw on a Taihao Dolch set.

Anyone have any experience with this keyboard?

Doing some research I found this, apparently, it sucks ass according to these people:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=76624.0

Other's say it's alright:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1343405/duck ... ons-review

Seller pic:

[ohaimark]

Hearsay is all I have too. I was looking at those when I wanted my first Green Alps 'board and was blissfully unaware that vintage Alps were the good ones.

[Mattr567]

Well had to return it due to complications with what I wanted to do with it. Ah well.

[Hak Foo]

I had the 1008XM, its fullsize brother.

The keycap infill will wear out.
The case, never open it or the screw holes strip.
The plate is paper thin.
XMs are mediocre at best.
I wrecked my PCB trying to replace them with Matias switches; the result felt better but the board was so damaged that I wrote it off as unreliable and had an AT101W rebuilt with them instead.

[fohat]

Gonna swap SKCM Blue and throw on a Taihao Dolch set.

I did just this and it worked fine. I have not subjected the board to much use, since I need a numpad, but my project went off without problems. I do agree that the original switches and key caps are pretty bad.

I did the same thing with a Filco Zero, which is a better board, but choices here are limited.

PS - I bought the Ducky without a top case shell, and still need a replacement.

[Mattr567]

Gonna swap SKCM Blue and throw on a Taihao Dolch set.

I did just this and it worked fine. I have not subjected the board to much use, since I need a numpad, but my project went off without problems. I do agree that the original switches and key caps are pretty bad.

I did the same thing with a Filco Zero, which is a better board, but choices here are limited.

PS - I bought the Ducky without a top case shell, and still need a replacement.

The plate uses costar stabs so they aren't compatible with the caps. Plus the plate is paper thin anyway. I thought about cutting up a Dell AT101W plate but the F row spacing is off among other things.

For what I paid for it I was only $13 off a brand new V80 so i'm just gonna go with that. The Zero is a cool board.

[dokyun]

Opinion requested: Am thinking of putting to use some greens I have laying around into a fullsize case, but don't have enough for much more than the alphas. Would it be advisable to fill in the modifiers with oranges or will the difference drive me nuts?

[Lynx_Carpathica]

Opinion requested: Am thinking of putting to use some greens I have laying around into a fullsize case, but don't have enough for much more than the alphas. Would it be advisable to fill in the modifiers with oranges or will the difference drive me nuts?

take off the tactile leaf. it will be heavyer (or not), but will not be tactile. so won't noice it that mutch, as long as you're not a light handed typist who avoids bottoming out, like I am. That's why I actually prefer MX Blues over SKCM White or Model M Buckling springs. DONTKILLMEPLS

[Menuhin]

Well had to return it due to complications with what I wanted to do with it. Ah well.

Return it??

What's wrong with it?
It seems to have POM caps and I totally dig it even TKL is a tiny bit too wide for me.

[dokyun]

Opinion requested: Am thinking of putting to use some greens I have laying around into a fullsize case, but don't have enough for much more than the alphas. Would it be advisable to fill in the modifiers with oranges or will the difference drive me nuts?

take off the tactile leaf. it will be heavyer (or not), but will not be tactile. so won't noice it that mutch, as long as you're not a light handed typist who avoids bottoming out, like I am. That's why I actually prefer MX Blues over SKCM White or Model M Buckling springs. DONTKILLMEPLS

Hmm...the bump when it clears the switch plate on a linear orange is more noticeable but otherwise very similar to green, probably a slight difference in weighting but not much. Greens feel smoother but that's probably more down to condition of my oranges.

Seems a crime to mod oranges and not make them clicky, mind you.

[Mattr567]

Well had to return it due to complications with what I wanted to do with it. Ah well.

Return it??

What's wrong with it?
It seems to have POM caps and I totally dig it even TKL is a tiny bit too wide for me.

The plate used Costar stabs, when my caps used Alps. The plate is also paper thin. I tried to see if a AT101W plate would work but the F row spacing is off.

I got all my money back, he hadn't shipped it yet.

[Mattr567]

M0116's can come with White Damp, who knew. Undocumented!!!!

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w178012397

[//gainsborough]

Even though this board turned out as a major fail it still looks pretty cool.




Here's a picture of what I had to settle with, due to case compatibility issues... =/