deskthority

https://imgur.com/8aaOMKL
Can't identify this thing for the life of me. Anyone know what it is?

It's a Macally keyboard.

Back in the day, these were a couple steps up from an Adesso.

viewtopic.php?t=22576

Adesso build quality was terrible, but there were some white clicky Alps in mine.

Okay thanks, that makes more sense. What switches were cloned for these and how did they compare with real Alps?

raoulduke-esq wrote: 29 Jun 2021, 17:19 Adesso build quality was terrible, but there were some white clicky Alps in mine.

Yup. I've got one with the nice fluorescent Xiang-Min green and yellow switches and my other one is white Alps. I don't remember if that one is bamboo or pine. Because the caps weren't yellowed on either KB, I wonder if they are PBT.

I can say that, on the Xiang one, you can see the perforation where the PCBs were supposed to break off in the assembly line. I've got a couple extra inches of another PCB.

veyern wrote: 29 Jun 2021, 17:24 Okay thanks, that makes more sense. What switches were cloned for these and how did they compare with real Alps?

Looking at the thread I mentioned and some pix online, it doesn't look like they only used one manufacturer, so it's going to be variable. I can say that OA2 Alps clones can be good and clicky, if they're clean. Matias and Ducky used Xiang-Min, so they're not a terrible switch. Now that I actually have a couple KBs with bamboo white Alps, I can say that they can be quite good. I've not tried simplified white Alps, so YMMV.