IDENTIFY THE KEYSWITCH thread

[kbdfr]

Preh? They make non-mechanical point of sale keyboards.

Here's an old pic I took more than 10 years ago - you bet the keyboard has long been discarded, after all it hadn't a Lambo attached to it
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Preh-03.jpg (161.85 KiB) Viewed 6707 times

[jensma]

I need some advice from you smart people

I just added this keyboard to the wiki:
wiki/A-2_KB-2101/2

I can't identify the switches realiably. They look like MX blues, but they feel and sound very different. I compared the keyboard to another MX blue I have (a chicony). The A-2 is WAY quiter and softer.



The keyboard with the "On Line" label is the chicony. The stems of the switches are considerably brighter and the housing is a bit glossy. The A-2 is darker and the housing is matte.

Any ideas?

[tactica]

It could be Cherry MX Dark Blue if the stem is darker than it seems on the photo.

BTW you didn't add to the wiki any picture of the keyboard depicting the darker switches.

[jensma]

It could be Cherry MX Dark Blue if the stem is darker than it seems on the photo.

BTW you didn't add to the wiki any picture of the keyboard depicting the darker switches.

Hi again!
It was pretty late yesterday and I had a second look at the switches. I put them side to side in daylight and they look _almost_ the same. I read over at geekhack that some people differentiate between modern and vintage cherry switches, like here:

https://imgur.com/a/RBH4Uq7 (c) davkol@geekhack - note the slightly different colors, glossy & matte housing & different sound profiles

Topic at geekhack, seems to be down atm:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=72626.0
archive without images:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240202185 ... ic=72626.0

So I guess they're vintage mx blues. I like them waaay more than modern mx blues.

[davkol]

https://imgur.com/a/RBH4Uq7 (c) davkol@geekhack - note the slightly different colors, glossy & matte housing & different sound profiles

Topic at geekhack, seems to be down atm:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=72626.0

Feel free to add any of that to the wiki under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

[thefarside]

I saw this Texas Instruments Low Profile keyboard on eBay and didn’t recognize the switch. Anyone know what it is?
Listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/167035937371

IMG_2150.jpeg (944.01 KiB) Viewed 585 times

[keycap]

ITW magnetic valve, low profile. Neat switches. Shame it's missing caps (and return springs), though.