Acer 6311/6312 de-click mod

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Looking at the Acer switch patent, there's a suggestion that it could potentially be tactile without the click leaf. As such, I decided to de-click mine. The leaf springs are retained a long, pointed peg on the slider, but they're actually fairly easy to remove. Just insert a thin object (e.g. closed pair of tweezers) under one of the slider engaging hooks, pull the hook away from the slider, and then slider the thin object into the middle and push out the click leaf. The whole process should take ten minutes or so.

Acer de-click 1.jpg (535.14 KiB) Viewed 1204 times

Acer de-click 2.jpg (466.15 KiB) Viewed 1204 times

The end result is curious. The switches are not as light as you'd expect them to be, and they're still a bit balky. The cam mechanism for the actuator isn't snappy, but nor is it smooth. It just feels a bit odd, and it's inconsistent between switches. Some feel almost tactile without the click leaf, and others feel linear. It doesn't give me much faith in the design itself. Even without the click leaf it still feels a bit ropey.

The keyboard itself is totally busted. I had to peel the membranes off the controller board originally, and although they were not wholly retained this way (there is a pressure pad to hold them onto the PCB) each time I take it apart and reassemble it, fewer keys work. It mostly worked after I had it apart originally, but after opening and reassembling it today, a load more keys died (most of them in fact). I stuffed some bubble wrap in to try to improve the membrane to membrane and membrane to PCB contact, and now this is all that's left of the alphanumeric cluster that is still working:

56-=ty[]gh'\

Backspace works, but enter is gone, as are most modifiers, the navigation cluster and the number pad except 4.

When I took apart my two AppleDesign keyboards, and reassembled them, they just typed gibberish afterwards. I've since thrown both in the dustbin, as they felt rubbish anyway and neither one was worth trying to salvage the membrane connection.

I've also taken apart and reassembled many modern membrane keyboards (Chicony, Silitek, NMB and others) and all of those still worked perfectly afterwards. However, the Acer keyboard is fubared.

[//gainsborough]

Would those click leaves fit into SKCM switches at all? I'm curious, if they do, what kind of sound they would make.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Well, I was not expecting that. I figured they'd be completely the wrong size and shape.

They do fit, and they do work. They're far too narrow, but even if you place them off-centre, they still work.

However, it's the wrong shape to click properly, so instead you get a tactile switch. I've just swapped an Acer leaf spring into a cream damped switch (pine), pine white, and amber. Cream damped is virtually unaffected — it sounds the same and feels the same (that was very confusing). Amber feels lighter and no longer clicks. In pine white, where I'd inserted it off-centre, it did click, but very faintly.

So yes, in theory you could use them to convert clicky switches to tactile.