deskthority

Not posting this to the wiki at the moment, as I don't know whether it qualifies. Supposedly it's a keyboard switch, and supposedly it comes with a windowed keycap ("Key with LED window including cap"), but I never got any keycaps.

The RS part number is 103-9403 and Marquardt's part number is 6425.5111.

RS call it an "SP-NO Illuminated Keyboard Switch". It's 70 cN with 1.6 mm travel.

"Pre-travel" means distance to actuation. I don't know what the term is for distance to tactile peak; maybe "pre-ramp". The pre-ramp of this is basically zero, making it very tactile but also only comfortably responsive to a firm tap, as a gentle press is very stiff. As such, I can now see that RS's description of "keyboard switch" is a blanket term for a lot of pushbutton switches and this is not suitable for a keyboard.

However, the design is quite novel, so you can have some photos anyway — someone might draw some inspiration from the design somehow:

Took pics of this a while ago (damn...2011), but similar. Didn't know it was from Marquardt.

https://plus.google.com/photos/11384566 ... 6194233265

Ah. The Marquardt logo is on the bottom, which is why you never saw it. (You can only just see it in the photos above as the flash makes branding hard to see.)

Mine are plate mounted, which seems really odd considering the profile! It's also a real hassle to get the slider off — mine's all scuffed now. It might be possible to thread some cotton around the guide bar holes and pull the plastic away without getting screwdrivers involved. (I also bought the other type of "WEAB" switch from RS — sadly it's the same thing with a different part number, although I've not opened one to prove that conclusively; it's not the ultra-rare hollow slider illuminated version I saw last year in person.)

Do yours have zero pre-ramp like mine?

Nice find! I doubt that, they were used in anything bigger than a keypad. Maybe for machine controllers etc.

Yeah it's not a keyboard switch. Still, it answered one of HaaTa's questions.

FWIW, the manufacturer's page — it's Marquardt Series 6425:

=overview&tx_produktkatalog2_pi1[modifier]=0&tx_produktkatalog2_pi1[value]=6425&tx_produktkatalog2_pi1[pointer]=0&cHash=9c85e9dfc22f5a7092183ccc5a2f0dfa]URL is too stupid to use with BBCode

(Edit: added url tag — what sort of retarded URL is that anyway? You seem to need all that bumf to make the right page come up.)

And the keycaps, from RS:

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/keyboard-caps/6077848/