Nexus Alps slider, Nexus Top Housings, Alps stab inserts for keycaps

[BlindAssassin111]

GB Page is now live over on Geekhack. It was really hard to keep both threads up to date, so I will no longer be updating this thread in order to make accurate information easier to obtain. GB form will be live 3/12 at noon central time.

Geekhack thread: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=94500.0

GB link: https://goo.gl/forms/8728GgF6meSsZKj53

[Nuum]

I already read your thread on Geekhack with much interest, but I seem to have missed one thing: How do you solve the problem that the stem of some MX keycaps doesn't fit into an Alps housing without interfering with it?

[BlindAssassin111]

There is a small bit of text in the product features that explains that unfortunately you will have to slightly file the sides of the housing with a small jewelers file in order to add some clearance. I can see that it would be hard to see it in all of that so I will change the text color to better get that in front of people.

Most cherry stems are 0.217" diameter which is almost the exact size of the opening in the alps housing, so the filing is only to make sure that when the slider is pressed and doesn't go down perfectly straight it won't catch on the top and either prevent that keystroke or make it a pain to type.

There is no way around it and I have to have people do it but I can't do anything about it unless I made another part to replace the top housing, which means I need to make one for alps and matias as they are different. Which would cost me about $10k to just do that...

[BlindAssassin111]

Anyone have pine alps laying around that they can send to me to model? Typically I would like a small sample (maybe 5 or so) in order to make an accurate assumption on what a dimension should actually be. I don't know what all the differences could be between the inside of the pine vs. bamboo, so I would like to check both if possible. I would prefer just the top housing just so I don't scratch you housing when taking it apart.

[BlindAssassin111]

Update:
We are now at 8500 sliders!!! Once I get the response from the other manufacturer, I will determine the final pricing and probably open up the Groupbuy for the sliders soon. And then if the top housing gains interest I will handle it separately.

[codemonkeymike]

So are these sliders going to be POM (like Matias switches from what I know) or some plastic more similar to the original alps used?

[BlindAssassin111]

So are these sliders going to be POM (like Matias switches from what I know) or some plastic more similar to the original alps used?

That is a great question, forgot to answer that in the original post.

Yes these will be made of either POM copolymer or POM homopolymer(delrin) just depends on which manufacturer I use.

[Scarpia]

Very interested in this - in particular if top housings are made available as well! As a side effect of replacing slider+top housing, this would actually revive scratchy Alps!

One question: will these fit SKCM Browns? I seem to recall that Alps sliders differ a bit to accommodate different tactile/click leaves - could you make a switch compatibility list for these sliders?

And also: It sounds like you are planning on making tooling for one single cavity (slider) per shot? Isn’t it far more economical to lay it out as a larger mould with, say, 10 or 16 sliders per shot?

[BlindAssassin111]

Very interrsted in this - in particular if top housings are made available as well! As a side effect of replacing slider+top housing, this would actually revive scratchy Alps!

One question: will these fit SKCM Browns? I seem to recall that Alps sliders differ a bit to accommodate different tactile/click leaves - could you make a switch compatibility list for these sliders?

And also: It sounds like you are planning on making tooling for one single cavity (slider) per shot? Isn’t it far more economical to lay it out as a larger mould with, say, 10 or 16 sliders per shot?

I never thought of this as a way to fix scratchy alps...New market for interest.

I have no idea if browns will work, I have none and don't have the money to buy alps variant keyboards, I would love to have the collection that Chyros has but I sadly don't. Currently I only have my at101w left for my alps boards as I had to sell the others a few years ago, so I can't guarantee fitment of all alps variants for the housing. Unless someone has loose switches or willing to just send top housings that are labeled so I can check to see if there are any small variations in the housings that may be hidden.

I honestly don't know how many cavities the mold has, I do know that one of the quotes was for 4 per shot but they were way to expensive for the current level of interest. I assume that they have more than just 1 because otherwise imagine how long and tedious it would be to do the mold 10,000 times....that would take foreever.

[BlindAssassin111]

Update:
We currently have 9000 sliders of interest which is nearing the limit for the first run, which is great!!! As well the top housing has hit just over 3000 which means that I will most likely be doing that part as well for those that do want it, just need to have a minimum of 7,500 before I will commit to doing the production of it.

I have posted but in case someone didn't see it, I need SKCM alps variants to model the top housing and to check to see if there are any small differences internal to the housing. If anyone is willing to send some over I would appreciate the help!!

[BlindAssassin111]

Update:
Okay, So still waiting on the prototypes to be shipped out, seems that they are busy and haven't sent it yet. Sucks but I can't force them to produce them any faster. Hopefully they ship out by tomorrow.

I was able to get some help with the pine/bamboo top housings so I will be able to fully model them to make sure there is no major internal differences that may be present. Currently half way through modeling the SKCM black housing so any differences will be added to that. I haven't decided if I will put the slits in the top for pines, but I will decide once I have the older SKCM housings in my hands.

Currently we are at 9630 sliders, and 3310 housings. So once I get the prototypes in and make a video showing them off, and making any changes that I need to make it be a perfect product, I will open the GB and we will have a full first run of 10,000 most likely and if any extras are present I will sell them to those who either want a small sample or need a small quantity. I am planning on doing a round 2 in the future, so keep posted.

We still need to get more people on board with the top housings in order for it to be made. I will be modeling it and purchasing a prototype set to make sure they work well in the coming weeks. I have noticed that not many people on deskthority have joined the interest check so if you know anyone that may be interested or want to spread it more please do so.

[Scarpia]

Will you be checking different Cherry MX stem keycaps for clearance over the top housings?

I have never checked myself, but with many different popular profiles and keycap manufacturers it's possible that some keycaps don't have enough inside clearance to slide down over the standard square SKCM switch housing.

It would be great if we could make sure the keycaps will fit over these new top housings -- if we are actually getting new tooling made for the top housings (I REALLY want this to happen) it would be clever to redesign them just a little (maybe rounding or tapering the corners might be necessary for some keycaps?) in order to make them compatible with more keycaps

...OTOH that might infuriate purists and --- worse yet --- it might affect the sound of the switches. On second thought, changing the design is probably too risky.

[BlindAssassin111]

Will you be checking different Cherry MX stem keycaps for clearance over the top housings?

I have never checked myself, but with many different popular profiles and keycap manufacturers it's possible that some keycaps don't have enough inside clearance to slide down over the standard square SKCM switch housing.

It would be great if we could make sure the keycaps will fit over these new top housings -- if we are actually getting new tooling made for the top housings (I REALLY want this to happen) it would be clever to redesign them just a little (maybe rounding or tapering the corners might be necessary for some keycaps?) in order to make them compatible with more keycaps

...OTOH that might infuriate purists and --- worse yet --- it might affect the sound of the switches. On second thought, changing the design is probably too risky.

So before I posted the IC here, I had already talked it over with some people on geekhack and actually had a guy send out caps of all profiles so I will be checking clearance to make sure they fit properly and everything once the prototypes get here. Sorry that I hadn't mentioned it on this forum, should have but didn't think to as it was already a solved problem.

I don't want to change the top housing design much just because it will be hard to as they are almost as small as they can possibly be, I may just round the top differently but that would really be it. I don't want to change the sound characteristics if at all possible.

[Menuhin]

@BlindAssassin111

Please make sure that everything works first on your prototype, before ordering a few thousand pieces for you to earn some quick money from people who have high hope to use their pretty keycap sets on their Alps switches. It's important to run one's first group buy right, if one is looking forward to build a good reputation as I can see it seems to be your first GB project - at least under this username.

Again, on the many mechanical keyboard forums, there are lots of users who have all these equipment and skills:
1. Alps switches - vintage and new;
2. Key cap sets from various manufacturers;
3. 3D printers at home;
4. CAD drawing skill.

They basically can do rapid prototyping quicker than you do, if they bother to do so.
Only after reading a few posts following these this project do I learn that key caps of various profiles have yet to be tested and that the difference between SKCL stem and SKCM stem was not consider until being brought up.

This is potentially a great project for a few reasons:
1. MX style key caps are much stronger and with better design compared to the Alps style key caps - I have already broken some Alps stems and have seen quite a lot of broken stems for Alps caps. And it is easier for MX caps to sit squarely flat and firm on a switch without wiggle. MX stem is just more robust in general;
2. Instead of just copying from the simplified design of Matias and Simplified Alps, it is even better to study the complicated design and see if some design elements can be incorporated into the new housing top and the new stem.
Further, Alps switches suffer notoriously from deteriorating performance because of being exposed to dust get and getting dirty while being used - if your new design can provide a remedy to that, then that is a definite game changer.

MX design makes great linear switches, and Alps design makes great tactile / clicky switches - this is just my opinion. The MX design has the added bump and click quite before the actuation - perhaps it can be a good thing still, while Alps click and bump feels quite on spot. Moreover, Alps switches were the switches in so many iconic computers, so they always have a special place in many people's heart.

I hope you can manage it well eventually - please do it well also, while completing a project is of course very important.

[BlindAssassin111]

@BlindAssassin111

Please make sure that everything works first on your prototype, before ordering a few thousand pieces for you to earn some quick money from people who have high hope to use their pretty keycap sets on their Alps switches. It's important to run one's first group buy right, if one is looking forward to build a good reputation as I can see it seems to be your first GB project - at least under this username.

I am not looking to make quick money, don't see why you think that, I am going to barely make anything at all on this, just enough to cover the cost of the sliders I was wanting personally. So please do not accuse me of doing this to make quick money, that is not at all what the goal of this project is. I want to allow people to use keycap sets they may love but haven't been able to put on their alps boards.

Again, on the many mechanical keyboard forums, there are lots of users who have all these equipment and skills:
1. Alps switches - vintage and new;
2. Key cap sets from various manufacturers;
3. 3D printers at home;
4. CAD drawing skill.

They basically can do rapid prototyping quicker than you do, if they bother to do so.
Only after reading a few posts following these this project do I learn that key caps of various profiles have yet to be tested and that the difference between SKCL stem and SKCM stem was not consider until being brought up.

First off I have a SKCM board, and have had a user on geekhack send me keycaps to test, as well as older SKCM pine housings in order to make sure there isn't any changes that will affect the final product.

I have CAD drawing skills as I am a mechanical engineer, So I don't really need help in that regard.

No home 3D printer can achieve the finish I am looking for in my 3D printed prototypes, I have to have it printed on a $250,000 printer to have the material and finish quality to better test this. So no they can't prototype faster than I can, as I will be getting them early next week.

and that the difference between SKCL stem and SKCM stem was not consider until being brought up.

I don't know where you got this idea from, I had the design consideration already, just made some changes to make it more obvious in the final product so you can identify easier, and some other small changes. That happened at about the same time the person made the comment with the wiki link, and I just posted there that I had made changes.

2. Instead of just copying from the simplified design of Matias and Simplified Alps, it is even better to study the complicated design and see if some design elements can be incorporated into the new housing top and the new stem.
Further, Alps switches suffer notoriously from deteriorating performance because of being exposed to dust get and getting dirty while being used - if your new design can provide a remedy to that, then that is a definite game changer.

I am not copying the simplified/matias design, my slider is designed after both SKCM and Matias to make sure it can work in both, which any SKCM slider does already. After a few iterations of design it has migrated closer to a custom design as it will have a tighter fit in the housing to reduce wobble, and it incorporates things from the SKCM as well that are important.

I don't know why you came at me making accusations and trying to more or less "bash" this project, but please read up fully before you make a comment. Only mistake I made was thinking my AT101W had SKBM switches, which was a misunderstanding from info I read years and years ago on here and geekhack, which lead me to say I would make a housing that worked with SKBM and SKCM, which isn't possible, nor what I am going to be doing.

[Menuhin]

All right then.

I am looking forward to seeing improvements after each iterations of refinement.

[BlindAssassin111]

Update:
I have sent out for a quote on the top housing, so I will know what pricing is in a few days. I am looking at either doing ABS or POM, as I believe the alps were some time of ABS from what I have read, but POM would also be a great material as it has a very low friction coefficient, which can make these even smoother than the original. Once the quote comes in, I will see what may need to be changed to either make it manufacturable, or to remove erroneous features. From there I will then order a small sample of prototypes as well, which will take another week and a half probably.

Something that I noticed while modeling the housing is that SKCM Black alps used a different mold than any other SKCM (pine or bamboo) I don't know why this was done but it was, so the housing will fit on pine or bamboo alps, not sure about SKCM Brown as I don't know if the housing was different to accommodate the different style click leaf/plate. If it is physically the same width and depth slot in the top housing as any other SKCM switch, then it should fit. I will be testing the prototypes on SKCM Blacks to see if they fit.

SKCM Black Top Housing:

SKCM_Black.png (77.42 KiB) Viewed 22141 times

All other SKCM Except maybe Brown:

SKCM_Pine and early bamboo.png (71.95 KiB) Viewed 22141 times

This is what the top housing looks like at the moment, may change in the coming days.

Housing_TopISO.png (203.57 KiB) Viewed 22141 times

Housing_Top.png (128.14 KiB) Viewed 22141 times

Housing_BottomISO1.png (153.61 KiB) Viewed 22141 times

Housing_BottomISO2.png (181.11 KiB) Viewed 22141 times

[codemonkeymike]

The top slits on the side of the slider seem a little large.

[BlindAssassin111]

The top slits on the side of the slider seem a little large.

They were a tad large in that picture, had them at 0.2mm wider than I thought I had made them, fixed that. Only bad thing that would have come from that is more space for dirt, nothing else would have been affected.

[BlindAssassin111]

Update:
Currently waiting on the prototypes to get here, the local weather delayed delivery so I am not sure if they when they will attempt delivery. As for interest we have reached the max for the GB, but I am working on something to sell these again. GB will consist of 11,000 sliders max, and final pricing will be announced once open. I had to upgrade to a more expensive tool steel in order to get the finish I was wanting, so pricing will reflect that, but it will only be a couple cents difference. That does mean that the new tool can produce more sliders, in fact it may be able to do a couple hundred thousand which means these may be for sale for those who miss the initial GB.

Working on finalizing the color choice for the slider, at this point I am thinking of doing a sapphire blue (Pantone color to come soon).

I will be testing these on my newly acquired omnikey ultra, and will have a typing video along with an unbiased description of the feeling, as I don't want to sell a product I don't believe in or think is high enough quality.

Thank you for the wait, hopefully the GB will open in the next week or two.

[BlindAssassin111]

Important Update in the original post, please read it and make sure to fill out the new IC form if still interested.

[Mr.JAM]

What difference make the switch less wobble? Are you going to make the slider a tad bigger than the original one?

[BlindAssassin111]

What difference make the switch less wobble? Are you going to make the slider a tad bigger than the original one?

Basically yes, it will be slightly larger to reduce the wobble, the prototypes had significantly less wobble and were still very smooth with no binding.

[Mr.JAM]

Just a silly question, but I dare to ask you. Does "Nexus" named after Nexus from Blade Runner? If it doesn't, why do you named your slider as Nexus?

[BlindAssassin111]

Just a silly question, but I dare to ask you. Does "Nexus" named after Nexus from Blade Runner? If it doesn't, why do you named your slider as Nexus?

That is not why I named the slider Nexus, It is a long story why I decided that but the definition gives a second meaning to the name as well. As it is a means of connecting the past to the present.

[Scarpia]

Someone please send BlindAssassin111 an SKCM Brown switch! I would send one, but I'm an ocean away and it would take weeks to get there

I just disassembled two switches to test top housing compatibility: An SKCM Brown and an SKCM Orange. A few observations:

The Orange top housing had two side slots and a wide shallow slot, like the first rendering above (SKCM Black), whereas the Brown had three slots just like the second rendering (SKCM others).

Something odd happened when I tried putting the Orange top housing on the Brown switch: The top housing wouldn't seat all the way down. Only one of the tabs would lock in, but not both. As far as I could tell (hopefully someone will correct me on this), the plastic piece holding the tactile leaf was preventing the switch from closing, ostensibly because the Orange top housing isn't quite deep enough to accommodate it. The two top housings seem to be exactly the same outer height, so I wonder if there is an indentation inside the Brown top housing which isn't there in the others?

Like I said, someone should really send a Brown to BlindAssassin111 to see if the Nexus design can accommodate Browns

[codemonkeymike]

If you shoot me your address I can send one over, no cost.

[BlindAssassin111]

I actually have one in the mail right now, should be here tomorrow if USPS doesn't take forever.

Interesting that SKCM Orange has the same top housing as SKCM Black, I never saw that in any pictures, but it may have been one I couldn't easily see. I think the only way the Orange can't fit on the Brown is something special about browns as I have measured damped cream and white, clicky white, and black and the only difference was that one spot, and I think it should fit easily. Will check tomorrow.

[BlindAssassin111]

Something odd happened when I tried putting the Orange top housing on the Brown switch: The top housing wouldn't seat all the way down. Only one of the tabs would lock in, but not both. As far as I could tell (hopefully someone will correct me on this), the plastic piece holding the tactile leaf was preventing the switch from closing, ostensibly because the Orange top housing isn't quite deep enough to accommodate it. The two top housings seem to be exactly the same outer height, so I wonder if there is an indentation inside the Brown top housing which isn't there in the others?

I figured out the reason why it wouldn't close, if you look inside of the top housing there are rectangular recesses on the back of the top side. On an SKCM Brown the housing is mirrored, meaning they are identical on both the switchplate side and tactile leaf side. This is not the case for all other SKCM switches. The SKCM Orange, and every other SKCM variants, matches my pictures where one side has two bars dividing that recess on one side only. The point of those bars is so the tactile/click leaf is held in place at the top and bottom better. These bars prevent the browns tactile leaf from fitting inside any other top housing.

Now because of this I have to make a modification to the top housing I designed in order to accommodate both, which will be pretty easy with an idea I have. I can't do anything today as I have to build a new computer in order to do CAD again, as the last one decided it didn't want to live anymore...So probably saturday or late tomorrow I can make the change.

But just a quick announcement: My sliders are once again compatible with clicky switches and in fact work with stabs. I will make a video maybe tomorrow going over what was found out. As well they work with SKCM Brown beautifully. Just have to fix the top housing and then they will forever be compatible.

[mana]

Are you still accepting orders for this? I'd be in for 131 or so of the stems if they work with clicky alps!