I had to get some help with this one, as these things are a real pain to take apart. I was told that it would never work again, but I've got it back together and it still works. Sadly the most damage occurred when the top buckled. This is how it started out:
The switch was desoldered, removed and the top removed (not by me!), then reinserted and re-soldered with the top off:
With the slider removed, you can see the mechanism, which interestingly is yet again a new take on the idea. A plastic plate with freedom of lateral movement, contains a minuscule brass pin that follows the latch track in the slider:
This piece comes out, and you can see that pressure is applied to it by a leaf spring:
Finally, that spring is now removed:
Just as I said to myself that if you ever lost that pin … and boom … well, ping …
Spot the pin:
Sometimes, fortunate favours the bold hopelessly insane, or maybe CSW sent serenity waves my way … but I actually found the dratted thing very quickly. Average seek time for a whole return spring is around 20 minutes.
The switch is nonetheless beautifully designed and made, even if the only people who could assemble them are Borrowers.
The lid didn't go on properly — it buckled in the middle, so now the metal is damaged in addition to the damage to the plastic:
The regular linear switch has an LED slot, but under the switch is an open space, and in the case of the NEC PC-8201, is where the diodes live for each switch. The side and rear of the latching version are clearly different:
No time to add these to the wiki right now, but I will at some point. I also snapped a load more pictures of the NEC PC-8201 keyboard, which I removed completely from the PC-8201 (which inside is in brand new condition).
Alps SKFL Lock
- Daniel Beardsmore
- Location: Hertfordshire, England
- Main keyboard: Filco Majestouch 1 (home)/Poker II backlit (work)
- Main mouse: MS IMO 1.1
- Favorite switch: Probably not whatever I wrote here
- DT Pro Member: -
- Contact:
-
- Location: geekhack ergonomics subforum
- Favorite switch: Alps plate spring; clicky SMK
- DT Pro Member: -
Thanks for adding these! I haven't bothered to desolder the locking switch yet or take it apart. Eventually I'll take some measurements on HaaTa’s force gauge, and then include the switch in an Alps-mount switch tester, which I’ll send on tour of the US (and maybe elsewhere after, depending how it goes).