Toshiba-branded Alps Bigfoot keyboard with red + clicky Alps switches

[fool]

The day I have the needed enthusiasm to clean it up I think I can take some picures. This thread is already years old so don't hold your breath

[doomsday_device]

The day I have the needed enthusiasm to clean it up I think I can take some picures. This thread is already years old so don't hold your breath

you joined today only to post in this thread about this switches and dont want to give any more details?
interesting

[soyuz]

The day I have the needed enthusiasm to clean it up I think I can take some picures. This thread is already years old so don't hold your breath

Until your post it was pretty much generally accepted that this thread was faked, it would be really nice to get confirmation if it wasn't faked.

quick edit: Also uncleaned is preferable, helps determine whether they were lubed in the factory by Alps

[fool]

The day I have the needed enthusiasm to clean it up I think I can take some picures. This thread is already years old so don't hold your breath

you joined today only to post in this thread about this switches and dont want to give any more details?
interesting

Sorry for giving the wrong picture. It's not that I don't want to. I have disassembled and washed many keyboards and know it's not quicky well done. Just saying it's not happening today or tomorrow, but when it happens, I will give more details. This keyboard is a part of another project documented here https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=91902

[soyuz]

The day I have the needed enthusiasm to clean it up I think I can take some picures. This thread is already years old so don't hold your breath

you joined today only to post in this thread about this switches and dont want to give any more details?
interesting

Sorry for giving the wrong picture. It's not that I don't want to. I have disassembled and washed many keyboards and know it's not quicky well done. Just saying it's not happening today or tomorrow, but when it happens, I will give more details. This keyboard is a part of another project documented here https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=91902

Ah sorry, I edited my post while you were replying - uncleaned is preferable, lets us know whether they were lubed at the factory

[fool]

Ah sorry, I edited my post while you were replying - uncleaned is preferable, lets us know whether they were lubed at the factory

Thanks for the info. I'll leave switches uncleaned because those feel OK and I like it more original. Some are a bit sticky, but I think those will get better enough in use.

[photekq]

Sorry for giving the wrong picture. It's not that I don't want to. I have disassembled and washed many keyboards and know it's not quicky well done. Just saying it's not happening today or tomorrow, but when it happens, I will give more details.

For what it's worth, the pictures we really need are detailed and well-focused pictures of the slider. A slider could be removed without disassembling the entire keyboard or desoldering anything; you just need to remove one of the switch tops from the plate.

I'll look forward to seeing some pictures sometime soon, hopefully And thanks for posting your find, it's cool to see.

[fool]

I had some time today to clean this keyboard externally. I must admit my camera is almost as old as this keyboard... so detailed and well-focused I can only dream of. Here's a few shots, sorry for the quality. Please ask if you need shot from one certain spot etc. I may have bought a new camera since.

[darkcruix]

I wish there would be a resource from ALPS available working there during those days, when the switches were produced. Information or more details would be so interesting (e,g. were red sliders used for pre-production switches?). There must be the one or other person around who has that information; not everything can be lost in the void of space and time

Huge thanks for the detailed photos. Highly interesting stuff you have there.

[soyuz]

thanks very much for this! i think that answers without a shadow of a doubt that these are legit and yet another, baffling step in the alps story.

[zrrion]

Oh, and the springs in these red Alps seem stronger than those in white Alps. We had two vintage white Alps keyboards at the meetup today, too, and compared directly.

My guess for why these are a thing but why they aren't common would be that Alps wanted to develop a heavier clicky switch to serve as a space bar switch the same way that SKCL creams are used alongside SKCL greens. Alps seems to have abandoned doing this on basically all of their boards from what I can tell after a certain point so it's possible they ditched the switch line before they ever actually marketed it. For low volume switches like alternate action switches or dual action switches you can't replace those with something else, but for heavier versions you could easily just use the same switch everywhere and it would be fine.

If typists didn't like how light blues were when on the space bar (when having a heavier spacebar was far more common it might have been more of an issue) Alps might have started to developed reds to go with them before changing direction, killing reds as a product, and just making whites a little bit heavier than blues so that they would be better on the space bar while still being largely suitable for the rest of the board as well. After doing that they'd have a bunch of reds in stock that they weren't going to market so they put them in a line of boards they were producing in house and called it a day

That or Toshiba just wanted a heavier clicky and paid for Alps to make it heavier for them. Who knows.

[headphone_jack]

What an awesome find, great to see this years old mystery finally resolved. Would love a typing test!

[june bug]

this is awesome, thank y'all for sharing