Clare Pendar SF2101

User avatar
Muirium
µ

19 Oct 2021, 16:06

Here's a numpad my old man gave me. He doesn't know its story, just saw that it is old. Seems to be a hand wired job, with very large Clare Pendar SF2101 switches.

Numpad face.jpg
Numpad face.jpg (335.77 KiB) Viewed 978 times
Numpad matrix.jpg
Numpad matrix.jpg (423.67 KiB) Viewed 978 times
Here's one pulled out:

Switch SF2101.jpg
Switch SF2101.jpg (237.31 KiB) Viewed 978 times
Switch made in Belgium.jpg
Switch made in Belgium.jpg (161.22 KiB) Viewed 978 times
When I saw "Clare" I thought Clare Pendar. I don't see SF2101 switches on the wiki yet. Are these still to be documented?

Switch family shot.jpg
Switch family shot.jpg (501.38 KiB) Viewed 978 times
They are conspicuously deep! About the same size as beamspring switch modules.

Switches thicc.jpg
Switches thicc.jpg (307.34 KiB) Viewed 978 times
Here's an MX black size comparison:

Switch oblique.jpg
Switch oblique.jpg (422.38 KiB) Viewed 978 times
There's two different shades of switches in this pad. They're definitely the same feel and family, but may be different revisions. The outer shells are subtly different. The pale ones have the made in Belgium mark while the darker ones have the model number.

Switches plan.jpg
Switches plan.jpg (509.3 KiB) Viewed 978 times
The travel is a good bit deeper than MX, and the weight is definitely lighter, in that sweet spot between MX black and red. They're pretty smooth linears. Very little scratchiness compared to my vintage MX black, and about the same wobble. You can feel the switch contacts so they're not as smooth as Topre but fairly nice.

Switch crossmount.jpg
Switch crossmount.jpg (402.02 KiB) Viewed 978 times
The mount is cruciform but a bit smaller than MX, so no caps compatibility.

Caps.jpg
Caps.jpg (176.42 KiB) Viewed 978 times
As for the caps: they're a mix of doubleshots (with a single + mount) and whiter blanks (with +++) with what may just be stickers on them. The "compass" keys have a doubleshot numeric legend and an engraved bearing. They're kinda neat.

Numpad engraved high.jpg
Numpad engraved high.jpg (262.36 KiB) Viewed 978 times
Numpad engraved.jpg
Numpad engraved.jpg (196.17 KiB) Viewed 978 times
As a compact keyboard aficionado, I guess could occasionally use a little numpad actually, so I'll probably just Teensy this up, if I can find a suitable case.

User avatar
Muirium
µ

19 Oct 2021, 17:02

Ah, here we go: I reckon they're these. (Though without a picture to check, I'm not sure.)

wiki/Clare/Pendar_high_profile_reed

Notably, this page is not in the DT Wiki Clare Pendar switch list I found earlier. Had to poke round a bit. Which also dug up this:

viewtopic.php?f=62&t=9926&start=

Knew I'd seen something similar before! :lol:

Post Reply

Return to “Keyboards”