Tipro switches

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I've been in contact with Tipro.

The bad news: no documentation appears to have survived on their old switches, having been lost in a move 20 years ago.

The good news: they were so kind as to send me some old switches. I was expecting a few of the ones from this topic: keyboards-f2/tipro-t141a-early-tipro-bo ... 15484.html

What I actually got was this:

Three different types, from two families

Tipro -- top.jpg (441.83 KiB) Viewed 1328 times

Bottom views, or as close as I can get

Tipro -- bottom.jpg (507.41 KiB) Viewed 1328 times

The larger switches are linear, while the small switch is tactile.

What I didn't realise is just how tiny the Cherry-style switches are:

Tipro -- side.jpg (231.87 KiB) Viewed 1328 times

Note that these do not appear to take Cherry keycaps: the keystem vanes are just slightly too thick. (Tested with GMK and Tai-Hao keycaps.)

The larger switches are based on SMK J-M0404 series:

Tipro -- opened.jpg (770.3 KiB) Viewed 1328 times

I've already bent a leg on one through just being careless and silly; it straightened out but there's a permanent kink now :(

These are also Tipro-branded, but the branding is extremely faint, and entirely unreadable on one of them. On the other, you can just make out some of the word "TIPRO" from the right angle.

The Cherry-style switch is surprisingly different inside:

Tipro -- opened, 2.jpg (624.41 KiB) Viewed 1328 times

This is the slider design:

Tipro -- slider.jpg (157.25 KiB) Viewed 1328 times

Sadly that one broke already trying to get it apart: I'm not sure quite how they are retained, and one of the retaining clips just bent suddenly. Sadly it's a left side one — the side I photograph from! Maybe I can position it in place with Blu-Tack when I come to take a proper photo on a white background, unless there are any other spares of these :P