"Counterfeit" white Alps switches

[Daniel Beardsmore]

A while back I encountered some photos of white Alps switches in a Focus FK-2001 which had distorted logos and scrawled handwritten mould numbering. I happened to encounter another couple of example last night, in an FK-9000 and a SIIG Suntouch K101 (rebranded Chicony KB-5181). The one constant is that there are no photos of the internals.

I just got my package from Ascaii today, and in it is a junk Macintosh white Alps keyboard with these same switches. One of them got smashed open, revealing the genuine Alps internals. (It also has a [wiki]Futaba lock[/wiki] switch, which I'll be desoldering for my collection.)

So, the dodgy white Alps switches appear to be real. I cannot explain the cheap and nasty moulds, but the insides are indeed genuine. The Far East is happy to make counterfeit Durex condoms disguised as the genuine article, but this appears to nullify the only alleged example of a counterfeit switch, i.e. one that illegally bears the branding of another manufacturer. I do not know of any other instance where any switch has been suspected to be counterfeit.

Robin from Cherry considers the Alps-mount MX switches to be counterfeit, but Cherry have historically offered so many mount options (official and bespoke) that I have no reason to believe that they are anything but custom batches, that someone must have harvested from a damaged keyboard.

[Muirium]

Are the dodgy white Alps any good to type on? You'd think that if the mould was messed up, it could affect key feel via microscopic inaccuracies in alignment.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Considering the jammed and non-click switches and the melted keycaps, it's a bit hard to tell, but the switches that are working seem to be in better shape than the Datacomp I paid him ~€40 for, which desperately needs lube. The Mac keyboard is a write-off — just going to harvest the Futaba lock switch from it.

[Ascaii]

Yeah, that mac looks like it went through some hard times. Sorry about the Datacomp...i had it sitting in a box because i never typed on it so i never noticed the scratchy feel.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

It's not scratchiness, they just bind.

The dodgy white Alps switches aren't misshapen — the "ALPS" branding is distorted, and the mould numbering is haphazard and in some cases looks like spidery handwriting. Here's an example from the SIIG Suntouch K101 (Chicony KB-5181):

Photo stolen from some guy on geekhack who's since disappeared

501342670_o.jpg (106.37 KiB) Viewed 1545 times

No photo of mine, thanks to flat camera battery. (Everything's still at the office, where there are nicer-looking tables and a bit more light.)

I don't know what went wrong at Alps, only that the internals are real, and the switches feel perfectly normal. It was a question of whether it was more likely that someone counterfeited the branding (shell fakes do exist), or whether Alps churned out miserable-looking switches, when their moulding is otherwise immaculate.

It looks like, for whatever reason, Alps just made some unconvincing-looking switches.

[Muirium]

Odd. Looks like the S at the end of ALPS is where all the trouble's at. Whoever thought of slapping on the logo so off-centre like that anyway?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I don't know why Alps made the logo off-centre — it does look odd. I discovered the other day that the LED switches are designed with the LED at the front, as the "ALPS" lettering is moved to the north position, and properly centred. I'd not seen later-generation (branded) Alps yellow before.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Photo:

Alps white complicated with cheap-looking moulds.jpg (454.13 KiB) Viewed 1434 times

For whatever reason, Alps did make some odd-looking switches. You can see the switchplate inside. (Not sure how the switch got broken — the broken piece was in the box as well!)

One day I'll desolder and clean up the Futaba lock switch it uses.