This kills the AT101W

[zhasha]

So I bought this AT101W brand new and still in the original box on ebay, hence I feel like I've desecrated something. I like the black switches but they're just not really what I was looking for. Then I remembered that 7bit sold me 400 of these lovely new clicky Matias switches.
There was a small issue with the stabilizers, where they'd pull the key down quite a bit, which I solved by making some spacers out of paper. All in all it's a lovely board now.

This should hold me over until I can build my dream board. The only thing I need now is some SA profile keycaps.

Sorry for the poor picture quality.

20140519_002.jpg (140.75 KiB) Viewed 5353 times

Spoiler:

I can't be held responsible for the destruction of this board. It's all 7bit's fault... it's all his fault . Oh god what have I done‽

[scottc]

I wouldn't feel too bad about it. The black ALPS switches that come in it are pretty crap! I want to do the same to mine.

[Yslen]

Interesting; the one thing that's stopped me picking up an AT101/102 is the black ALPS, which I don't much care for.

[webwit]

Disappoint. Was expecting keyboard destruction, such as by gravity testing.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Parts of my AT102W still have black Alps switches including the number pad. If I just tap keys with my fingers, they don't feel too bad, and I wonder whether I should have left it as black Alps. But no, it's not a good switch and replacing all the switches is the right thing to do with the AT101W/102W.

Personally I consider the whole Bigfoot series to be ugly, but it's the only keyboard I've ever seen with full 105-key ISO layout that takes Alps switches.

Of course, the best thing to do with an AT101W/102W:

• Throw away the horrid banana case (especially if salvaging an old keyboard that's gone yellow)
• Replace switches with green/orange/blue Alps or Matias click
• Fit PCB and plate into nice metal case (black dyed anodised aluminium looks really nice, like metal velvet)
• Replace keycaps with ............................?

As far as I understand, a group buy for Tai-Hao doubleshots in Alps mount is possible. Matias also have Alps-mount keycaps coming at some point, as I understand. I assume SP can still do Alps mount.

[collector of junk]

was thinking of doing the same myself ! very nice
IF I do mine I'll paint the plate .it wound be nice to be able to get a set of keycaps for alps switches
have a look at what I did ?
http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f8 ... t8039.html
and also look at

http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f8 ... t7468.html

[Julle]

Excellent choice of switches, sir. I think I just came a little.

[Daniel]

Nice work. I really would be interested in a sound sample of that board as I conceived the Matias switches as rather loud but ascribed it to the casing (Matias Tacticle Pro).

[Findecanor]

I believe you could also have opened all the switches and replaced the spring and clicky leaf with Matias'. No soldering, but could probably have taken more time.
I have also heard that Matias' switches would be more wiggly than "complicated Alps". I have not tried them enough to figure that out myself.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I believe you could also have opened all the switches and replaced the spring and clicky leaf with Matias'. No soldering, but could probably have taken more time.

That's the reason why I've still only converted something like 70% of my AT101 to fake blue Alps — opening up switches and swapping parts is really time-consuming, and I broke a couple of the blue switches in the process (nothing serious, just snapped T tabs from ageing plastic that's gone brittle, like how the plate retention wings crack and snap).

Having felt that the switchplate's actuator leaf might account for some of the degraded feel, I should really pull all those off and swap them too, but ........ argh.

[zhasha]

I believe you could also have opened all the switches and replaced the spring and clicky leaf with Matias'. No soldering, but could probably have taken more time.

I get my B.Sc. in electrical engineering in a week.
The desoldering only took me about an hour and the replacing and resoldering only about an hour as well. That's with my cheap and terrible iron from a local store and my pump from DX.

Also on the height issue. Turns out I just wasn't violent enough when seating the keycaps. It's all sorted out and without he need for spacers.

I have also heard that Matias' switches would be more wiggly than "complicated Alps".

They're only slightly more wobbly than the black Alps that were on here before.

I really would be interested in a sound sample of that board as I conceived the Matias switches as rather loud but ascribed it to the casing (Matias Tacticle Pro).

A sound sample you shall have. I'm bottoming out mostly. The quieter sounds that still sounds like typing is actually just me wobbling the caps ever so slightly. It's certainly a LOT louder than the black Alps it came with.

[vivalarevolución]

I had desires to do this with a SIIG Minitouch some time ago, but I found a Matias Mini Tactile Pro to be just as satisfactory.

[002]

I modded my Minitouch with the dampened Matias switches and to be honest it ruined the board for me. Just doesn't suit the Minitouch in my opinion. While I'm being honest I don't really get the hype behind the dampened Matias switches either. I find them too scratchy and unrefined and just underwhelming. Maybe the dampened switches in the Silicon Graphics keyboards are better...I always wondered how they compared. The clicky ones are more fun but there's a lot of good competition in the clicky world.

[Daniel]

Thanks for your sound sample. In my opinion your board sounds similar to the Matias Tactile Pro.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Yes, it does seem that the Matias click switches still retain the clatter of simplified Alps. It sounds quite similar to my own recording of a Tactile Pro 3, while the recording taken of the Monterey K102 (Tulip ATK 030244) has a far cleaner sound.

I'm curious about all the reports of switch failure from Tai-Hao (Clicker) keyboards. I find it strange that switches would fail that easily — it could be the soldering. The switches seem well made, and we already have past success with dealing with them.

So few people ever use Tai-Hao keyboards, that we don't get much in the way of feedback in terms of feel, reliability etc. So far, no-one seems to have broken a Xiang Min switch, only Ducky keyboards.

I was contemplating purchasing a Tai-Hao Clicker keyboard, before finding a ton of complaints about switch failure.

[fohat]

I transplanted orange Alps from an old Apple into a black-case AT101W but populated it with standard beige key caps, for a very nice-looking and exquisite-feeling board.

The original heavy PBT Apple keys are the best Alps keys I have ever used, hands down, but the awful font and the lack of function keys, modifiers, etc, is a deal-killer if you care about aesthetics.

[Hak Foo]

I recently did the same (well, I wrecked the PCB first trying to desolder the switches, then contracted it out to someone else to finish the job). It definitely makes a board that hits all the technical notches (sane layout, right switches, decent build quality), although I keep looking at it and trying to fogure what else I have to do to it before I finally *love* it. (Spoiler: I think the ugly lasered caps have to go)

One thing you might also consider is removing the two rubber bumpers in the path of the space bar's stabilizers. I found they annoyed me, because it gave one switch an odd, rubbery, thock sound. On the other hand, now the board sort of rings when typed on quickly, so you can't win.

[jacobolus]

I agree with fohat that the PBT Apple keycaps are really nice, especially the ones on the Apple Extended Keyboard II (which are even thicker than those on the M0115/M0116). They’re noticeably nicer even than the other PBT dye-sub Alps caps I’ve seen, such as the ones on the IBM 5140, or various double-shot Alps-mount caps made by Alps, either the cylindrical or quasi-spherical ones.

Hopefully Matias’s upcoming PBT caps will rival them.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

(Spoiler: I think the ugly lasered caps have to go)

Hak Foo has already seen this, but there's an interest check for Tai-Hao Alps-mount keycaps over at geekhack:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=58086.0