Micro-switch ST.. anything that can be done to save it

[juryduty]

I have this old board, 1984-ish, that has (what I believe to be) Micro-Switch ST discrete rubber domes.



In general this is not a great switch. They are very mushy and have hardly any tactility.

Some of the domes are completely squashed and have no 'recoil', i.e. they do not have sufficient force to push the keycap back up. In the below picture, the top two domes are permanently collapsed and the bottom two are normal.





And the plate hole size is just a bit too small for a cherry switch, just by about 1mm north to south.

If you had this board, what would you do with it? I can't think of a way to restore the springyness to the switches, they aren't available anywhere, and the board and keycaps can't be fitted with something else. It'd be kind of cool to put Cherry switches in it but it would require enlarging the plate holes with a file. Not sure I want to do that...

[drevyek]

The only thing I can think of would be to use small Topre-like springs under the domes to spring them back up, basically like a Foam and Foil switch.

Sometimes domes just wear out. It's a fact of their design.

You might be able to stick Alps switches in the plate, not sure.

[seebart]

In general this is not a great switch. They are very mushy and have hardly any tactility.

In general, that is your limited opinion. Limited because you yourself say that these particular ones are in bad shape. I own these in good shape and do not share your opinion. Possibly overthink generally bashing switches that you have not tried in decent working condition in the future.

Anyway toss it if it's not fixable or at least try to salvage parts.

keyboards-f2/honeywell-d3013-t17169.html

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Curious-looking keyboard — it's like it has a numeric keypad on the left. There's also a lone clicky switch (SC series?) in there — is that deliberate (a special key that benefits from clicking) or a repair using the wrong kind of switch?

[juryduty]

Thanks for the suggestions, greatly appreciated.

The SC switch appears to be for the special handling of the 'numlock' key. There is a custom keypad on the left with changeable legend keys, and a numeric keypad on the right.

Good to hear that it's possible for these switches to be good, even if not for my poor representative sample.

[seebart]

Thanks for the suggestions, greatly appreciated.

The SC switch appears to be for the special handling of the 'numlock' key. There is a custom keypad on the left with changeable legend keys, and a numeric keypad on the right.

Good to hear that it's possible for these switches to be good, even if not for my poor representative sample.

Sure, I'm not saying it's the greatest swtich in the world but for a slider over rubber dome /membrane it's pretty good. I'd love to try SC.

wiki/Micro_Switch_ST_Series