deskthority

So, "unbending" the flipper results in the following: Thickness: 0.92 -> 0.85mm Swing: 2.73 -> 1.72mm (12 degrees -> 7) This should reduce the flipper landing noice materially. To silence the flipper upstroke, a small silicone plug/bumper added: rebound-damper.png Rebound flipper inside the barrel s...

Just curious: I assume these are not included in the official QMK repo for a reason. Why might that be if they have such broad usage? Sorry if that’s another stupid question. I'm not even sure why QMK has such a wide apparent usage when it's not even really HID-compliant. Probably because they are ...

Only one out of 4 modified barrels materially quieted down the rebound (around 11 seconds in the attached wav) - but again, 12db. Which is not to sneeze at, especially on the already-quiet rebound. Note that this recording isn't loud taps - it's "press as slowly as possible to the bottom, then relea...

So, I decided to try o-rings to silence the fast taps - but I didn't have suitable size o-rings laying around, so I used 2mm craft foam instead: PXL_20230612_204300637.jpg The result is interesting: without affecting key feel much (the only thing that changed is that bottoming out is now softer), th...

..looks like I screwed up recording somehow - maybe didn't control for the recording levels, or something. Everything sounds about the same, volume is about the same (except model M - it's different, way quieter. I think that's because both key travel is limited by flipper protrusions and flipper de...

..So, I've recorded 51 tracks of 28 buckling spring inner assembly configurations over the last few days. Audacity file is 582MB, so not sharing yet - need to figure out how to chop it to manageable pieces first. Details: 12 keys in 3x4 matrix ("678", "yui", "hjk", "nm,"). Same keycaps (from AT) for...

Ah! So where does most of the noise come from? The community, of course. Just kidding. In fact, I'm 1/3 into recording the sound of "normal keypress", "very slow keypress" and "fast tap" with 5 flipper types in 3 barrel types right now. This supposed to end the "what part makes what kind of noise" ...

Here's a side picture. Hopefully this is what you wanted but if not I’m happy to take another: IMG_8259.jpeg poyfect! The angle looks the same to the rest of them - at least from what I can figure out with uninstrumented eye. The pads on the PCB are raised and I think you’re right - the flipper bum...

I happen to be taking apart an XT and noticed the flippers are different. Mine are very shiny and there’s a little bump on the bottom end of the flipper. Here’s a pic comparing the am XT on the left to an original F107 in the middle and a reproduction on the right. The reflection gives you an idea ...

How well do big F flippers fit in an M barrel frame? Got some pics? Surprisingly fine (with some minor modifications to a couple rows). Really doesn't seem like they changed the important dimensions too much. M "barrels" are actually greatly simplified F barrels: the flipper chamber height is 5mm e...

..and now, just because I can, time to get SACRILEGIOUS!!! (yes, the sound will be recorded and analyzed. Also with nibs shaved off). SACRILEGIOUS.jpg It'll be also sacrilegious, but what would happen if one shaved that central nib off and then covered the hammer surface with conductive paint? Migh...

..and now, just because I can, time to get SACRILEGIOUS!!! (yes, the sound will be recorded and analyzed. Also with nibs shaved off).

Sincerely, Reference Desk IBM Corporate Archives A TALKING DESK!!! My party and I walked into a tavern. The bar tender asked 'Why do you carry your swords inside here?' I looked him dead in the eyes and said, 'Mimics.' The bar tender laughed. I laughed. My party laughed. The table laughed. We kille...

Keys are virtually identical. Good job! PXL_20230605_224830427.jpg The only visible difference is larger grippers (wider to simplify the mold and ~0.1-0.2mm higher). Makes keys harder to insert, but also holds them in place tighter. There's also a vertical parting line behind the gripper - hard to t...

I still have all of the parts (sans plastic barrel plates) but I don't know if I want to try making another FSSK with those plastic plates as they are always under a lot of stress. Have you tried to ask Unicomp for the Mini M barrel frame? Should be close enough. ..or the Ultra Classic barrel frame...

I accidentally acquired an XT, an AT and was loaned one of the new reproductions. So now I have 2 XTs(older: "4870-10313"/oldest chip date 8411, newer: F3 5275, oldest chip 8538, controller has "0686" on it), AT (F4 4924/8427), F122 (F6 5218, controller desoldered and I have 4 of those, so..) and th...

How about plotting multiple radius curves on the same sheet of paper—or a harder medium—and comparing the backplate visually? The lines needn’t all be superimposed (their apex points can be separate), and could all be neatly labelled to make the result immediately apparent. Slight problem with that...

Model F bottom plate, however, has a 300mm bend radius, I don't know what method you're using to measure the radius, but I would like to share my thoughts from when I attempted to figure out the backplate radius a couple months ago. OH LOL. Yes, I approached it exactly like this, only because I abs...

FreeCAD starts to show it's temper - like, it's EXTREMELY picky about point of rotation of an object.But still: flat-vs-curved.png Turns out, there's ~0.25mm gap at the tip of the classic flipper when used on the flat PCB. Which is, like, SIGNIFICANT. And yet it works - at least with CS. Anyhow, loo...

Turns out I modeled a flipper slightly wrong. This model is designed to lay flat on the plane. Model F bottom plate, however, has a 300mm bend radius, and the flipper is designed to lay flat against _that_. The difference isn't that huge - 0.18mm over 21mm key pad height. But it's still there, so fl...

Model F is one of the loudest switch mechanisms ever made. Silencing that is quite a windmill to tilt, Don Quixote. ;) IBM was explicitly targeting the Selectric feel and sound with their computer keyboards. The Beamsprings, from which these were derived, had a solenoid for a reason: to be as respo...

:mrgreen: Honestly, though, I think silencing F is a quixotic endeavour. You can take the edge off it, but it’s still a riot of a mechanism. Others, fortunately, are available. What's so "unrealistic and impractical" about it? Buckling spring mechanism was created for the feel, not sound. Anyhow, a...

Muirium wrote: ↑

26 May 2023, 22:04

How about steel? #solenoidclub

Yeah, for the silent version steel is just the ticket.

thefarside wrote: ↑

26 May 2023, 16:54

I’m also curious if the flippers could be made out of something slightly softer that would dampen the smack against the PCB but still be conductive.

Nope, bending stress will kill them.

So, I disassembled my F"SSK" and put random 2.5mm closed-cell polyethylene packing foam under the PCB like this PXL_20230524_000333345.jpg didn't seem to affect things much - although it does _somewhat_: https://youtu.be/w1DxK8ovW9U That video is unnecessary long, but if it's less than 1 minute, you...

Awesome project DMA! Regarding the plate, would it be possible to also have support for IBM AT and XT barrels? My only thinking there is using IBM barrels as future replacements. Nope! IBM barrels are 19x20.8mm, which makes them a bit hard to put them onto a 19.05x19.05mm grid. It is, however, poss...

If my idea of the hole plus optional rubber or silicone plug works to dampen the rebound of the flipper, it seems a similar hole and plug could be made in the side of the barrel. I hope lot_lizard is watching this thread--there are a lot of experimentation opportunities here for prototyping. Sorry ...

Yeah, you have +5V on the mimas v2 board, you can use that to power the keyboard. And since both clock and data are driven by the keyboard, you can just make resistive dividers to limit the voltage - like, "[keyboard pin] - [10k] [FPGA pin] - [15k] - GND" - this will give you +3V on the FPGA pin (ho...

tanks.png LOL TANKS. Stabilizers are actually a bit complicated - plate-mounted stabs are 5 mm deep, so those cuts will have to go thru the LED PCB and foam - which have to be thicc enough to keep those stabs away from the barrels. But it's doable. I know, I know, 2U stabs should have wider wire sl...

I am definitely in favour of contact based 'Model F modules', like Ellipse describes. Give them good contacts—not that membrane shit in Model M—and you've what could be an absolute barnstormer of a switch. I don't think so. First, the force that flipper generates is enough for the membrane shit but...