MEI Sabrecoil

MEI Sabrecoil
Manufacturer	Mechanical Enterprises
Sense method	Metal contact
Keycap mount	Cruciform
Patents	US4203016 (1978)

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Sabrecoil (alternatively SABRECOIL) is a switch grid system from Mechanical Enterprises.

Description

The switch is described in US patent US4203016. According to the patent, the contacts close at approximately half travel, given as 0.15″ (3.81 mm); from this, full travel would be 0.3″ (7.62 mm). This may be an error.

The sliders accept the same keycaps as MEI T-5 series.^[1]

US magazine Computer mentioned Sabrecoil in its September 1982 issue.^[2] The product is described thus, tying the product to its name:

The Sabrecoil keyboard uses a single rigid switch housing that reduces the number of parts in the keyboard and eliminates the need for a supporting frame. The two spring contacts in each switch are identical, and they double as return spring and solder terminals.

Here, the spelling is "Sabrecoil"; by comparison, US patent USRE32419 (a re-issue of US patent US4359613) refers to a document titled "SABRECOIL® Keyboard catalog" from Mechanical Enterprises, Inc. (of which unfortunately no date is given).

The article also refers to "specially coated silver plate" contacts instead of gold-plated contacts, claiming that while more expensive keyboards use gold contacts to reduce contact bounce, the slightly increased bounce generated from silver contacts will be acceptable in typical usage.

The article (and its placement in the New Products section of the magazine) implies that the keyboard had just been introduced at the time of writing, which is clearly not true as it was already in use in the Acorn Atom in 1980, following a patent application two years prior to that.