MrInterface sample bag, tactile white Alps

[Daniel Beardsmore]

My MrInterface switch sample bag came with clicky white Alps and tactile white Alps. Apparently. I lost the latter — I think I dropped it at the bus stop (I guess a dog then came along and ate it).

Could someone tell me please the white tactile switch is damped or not? The photo suggests it's bamboo, therefore it might be the white damped switch found in the last year of AEK II production. (Sadly there's no source keyboard list for any of the switches — I'd love to know where the grey simplified Alps switch came from.)

Cheers.

[Muirium]

Okay, I've Alps all over my desk here. Both clicky and tactile white Alps versions are present. The tactile one feels damped to me. It's quite a nice switch. By feel and sound it's the third in the sequence: amber, cream, white. Amber's the clackiest (or should I say loudest?) and the least damped feeling, while white is quietest and feels smoothed too. Compared to a tactile "quiet click" Matias switch, I'd say white tactile Alps is the closest match.

I've also got a grey Alps, as you mentioned it. (Don't know if it's complex or simplified, as I've a horrible record of wrecking switches when I open them up and I've just one of all of these.) My grey is clicky, and is the lowest pitched in the clicky group of white and blue Alps; sounding the least like a clicky Matias. But I 'm not exactly giving you new information by the look of it!

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Don't take the grey one apart. It's a real headache to get it back together when it's loose (but easy when soldered in) as there's virtually nothing there to hold the small terminal in position, unlike the clones.

Taking apart the white tactile one shouldn't be too hard — generally you can lever open one tab with your thumbnail, then turn it over and lever open the other side without the first closing back up, but if it's stubborn it may take a few tries. After that it should slide apart easily, and go back together fairly easily. (The only thing to watch out for is that the notch at the base of the slider should face the switchplate/contacts, for no reason I'm aware of.)

[Mrinterface]

That white tactile alps switch came from an SGI AT101

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Hm, so that suggests that those keyboards were still on sale until 1995. Do you have any date information on that keyboard to verify when those switches were being used?

Also, those switches are pretty loud!

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Also, who made the Granite? I've corrected Silicon Graphics on the wiki to branding. The design is Alps (and sold to numerous companies such as Bull, Dell and HP), but we know that Silitek took over manufacturing Dell's, so was the SGI Granite also Silitek, or did it remain with Alps?

[Muirium]

The individual switch isn't any louder than a cream Alps. In fact, I'd say it's quieter; and very close to a "quiet click" Matias. The sound could be pronounced by the rest of the keyboard. I've found my Ducky Shine 3 with Reds sounds quite different with a simple change of caps, for instance. And my Acer 6312 is much louder in practice than its switches themselves; thanks to its brittle, sound-transmission friendly, PBT caps and the solid frame, much of which is metal.

A good bit of the extra sound in IBM Model Fs vs. Model Ms comes from their distinctive case designs, too, as well as the flip plate mechanism.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Mrinterface: What year was your Granite made? The working theory was that [wiki]Alps SKCM Cream Damped[/wiki] (still pine until the end) was replaced in 1995 with the bamboo [wiki]Alps SKCM White Damped[/wiki] switch. Sandy's white damped Granite is from 1995, and although the AEK II is reported terminated in 1994, the white damped ones say ©1995 on them. All white damped switches so far appear to have been made in 1995.

I just want to collect more data points here.

[Mrinterface]

This is what is on it's back, hope it gives any clues.... I reused it's carcass to build the a clicky matias SGI

IMG_3057.JPG (1.7 MiB) Viewed 1870 times

[Muirium]

Clicky Matias SGI? Did you reuse the original PCB / controller? Matt3o's after stabiliser measurements so we can design our own Matias custom keyboards. The tricky part is that we must reuse harvested caps, like you did.

That part number begs a simplistic interpretation of what year this came from!

[Daniel Beardsmore]

This is what is on it's back, hope it gives any clues....

Maybe to an expert — I was referring to the dates stamped into the case mouldings. I wonder why some Bigfoot keyboards have them and some don't, maybe it depends on which factory made them, as the SGI keyboards were made in several.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

That part number begs a simplistic interpretation of what year this came from!

The part number acts as the model number. 9500900 is the "Granite".