No cherry for old men

[DiodeHead]

Hi guys, first of all, i´ve been reading this forum for a couple of months now and i have to say, this is a great info you guys have here. The first step i took was to buy one of those packs with one of every kind of cherry switches, i liked the blue ones since i´m more of a typist than a gamer (computer programmer at hart and education but IT guy at work)

I was given an acer keyboard with acer keysitches a couple of days ago, very yellow, but that can be solve after reading the Retr0bringth post and now i started documenting what i would like to build in the near future with your help (and hard work from my part).

I would like to use the acer keycaps, and since everyone is making cherry builds i thought a alps build would be nice for a change.

I was hoping to use this layout:


To explain it a little, fn key activate all the special lower left symbols, the symbols on qwerty would be macroed, meaning that would write the two simbols and put the cursor in the middle.

joy stk, this would be an analog or digital navigation key (four switches in one), this would serve as navigation keys, the idea i saw from rmkl and i think is great so i´ll try my best

That layout should change a little bit since the spacebar i have is even smaller, i think 5.5 units.

If someone sees some mistakes or some bad design in the layout please let me know

Thanks.

The acnt is a shift key, but it use here would be accetuating vowels, like á é ó, since i´m spanish this is something important to have in case i have to write to someone work related or something like that.

[Muirium]

So you're planning to build a Matias / Alps switch custom?

[DiodeHead]

i would like alps myself, but matias or tai-hao is the options i found on the market, using the spring on acer switches would be nice now that you say custom , i´m hoping to visit one of my customers soon to see if he has some dell at or something i can scanveng, he told me he had some imb buckling spring ones so maybe he has some other mechanical models.

[DiodeHead]

Well, i started my plate and kicad files, but i found a problem, wich stabilizers should i use for alps switches? my donor has them built in the plastic. i only find cherry ones and i don´t know if those would work, any advice?

thanks

[andrewjoy]

alps stabilizers are not very good, they are usualy a small piece of plastic that the bar clips into, kind of like filco stabilizers but much smaller. See this image from ripsters guide for reference




i prob have a few spare but not enough for a full board may be worth picking up a cheap dell at101 for the stabilizers

[DiodeHead]

I think in my acer donor the metallic part goes the other way around (the longest part on the key the two small ones on the case), is it posible ? ill try to post a picture tonight

[andrewjoy]

i guess it would be the clips can just clip into the small part of the bar

then again i dunno where exactly you would place them. Do you still have the acer to measure it ?

[DiodeHead]

Yes i have:

this is the shift key:



between the withe tabs there´s 26mm separation approximatly from center to center.

This one is the space key:


here there´s 86 from center to center.

[andrewjoy]

I see your future, i see your custom building some stabilisers.

i guess you could cut out the ones from the acer and attach them to your plate

i may have some apls modifiers ( shift return and so on) you can have but they are not as nice as the acer caps

[DiodeHead]

I see your future, i see your custom building some stabilisers.

haha yes looks like it, but you gave me some good ideas with the filco, i´ve seen some post of people talking about alps and costar stabilizers

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=57458.0

are the costar the same as this cherry mx one´s ??

http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/ ... -2pcs.html

[Muirium]

Yup. WASD sells Costar stabs in various sub-components. Separate wires, clips, and cap inserts.

The only other kind of stabs you see on MX keyboards are Cherry stabs. Completely different to look at.

[DiodeHead]

Thanks Mu, then if i don´t find any more donors, i´ll order this one and play with them they look like could work fine

[Muirium]

If you're successful, a lot of us dawdlers who have been sitting on the fence will be very pleased. Stabs are the missing link for Alps/Matias customs. Especially on big ass enter keys, sigh…



These burly buggers typically have two stabs. I have a nice doubleshot Alps set where two cross over behind this cap. Nightmare!

[DiodeHead]

:O, yes the enter key is giving me some headache too, but mine is the measurements and siwtch placement i´m not sure about, the stabilizer is kind of easy, the switch is facing left instead of down, and has one tab above and another below.

[Muirium]

Yeah, ISO Enter isn't so bad. They take one stab, oriented vertically. Big Ass Enter (which was quite common on Alps boards) is like an ISO Enter and an ANSI Enter merged together into one huge key. I don't like them. But there's some nice Alps sets out there where it's the bogey prize.

[DiodeHead]

Between work and life i didn´t have much time to work on this project, thank god for illnesess, since this couple of days i´ve been with a cold, no one disturbed me while reading on key matrix scaning and stuff.

so this is my plate, unfinished, since i have some questions.



where do i position the switch on the enter key? do i make a rectangle of the full size and certer it?

here is the dxf file in case somebody finds some mistake

The stabilizers i have to figure it out too, but first i have to buy some costar ones to experiment. The left bottom corner would be for the joystick.

[scottc]

Where's the bottom right key gone? :p

[DiodeHead]

to joystick land, i have xbox 360 ones so i have to find some cad info on those too or just take out the calipers and meassure them.

[scottc]

Oh right, I thought that was in a different position! I admit I haven't read the previous few posts.

As for ISO enter positions, did you look at the DXFs included in matt3o's old group buy thread? I'm pretty sure that Broadmonkey made an ISO board in that GB (and a really nice one at that). That's where I got measurements for my own plate.

[DiodeHead]

I did open the phantom plate file, the ISO one and it looked like they did this.



so i´ll go with the flow , but in my acer dono looks like it´s done that way too, also found a alps plate file in the gh forum which looks like they put costar stabs so i´ll try to add that too.

T_T the bad part is that i ordered matias switches from dx.com since i had to order some other things to play with, and i´m cheking my order status and they appear out of stock ¬¬, the wait is going to kill me.

[scottc]

You can get Matias switches straight from 7bit, and pretty cheaply too! Can you cancel it?

[andrewjoy]

and the liner ones are fringing amazing ! I think i know why the new matias are smoother than alps, they come pre lubbed. I noticed it when i took it apart to try it without the dampeners, this could be why dirty alps or some older alps are now no good as the lub has dried up or got dirty.

The tactile ones are also very nice, the click switch not so much

they have the same problem as white alps the click leaf need more pressure to bypass, i know this is also the case with mx blue but its way more noticeable on the matias, i think that this is why alps blue are better as people have said they are not as heavy and i think this is what they may mean as the springs on white and blue are very similar

also you can mod the matias with black alps springs to make crazy light switches ( makes mx reds feel like super backs), but they are almost too light ( as in i would not want to put heavy caps on them ) but they may be good if you where creating a N52 style game pad for the WASD cluster

EDIT (as cool as alps are they give me a headache i think if i stay in the alps world too long i will go loco)

[Muirium]

Linear Matias? 7bit's doing them by hand?

http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/how- ... t8791.html

[andrewjoy]

yes he is, put it this way if i find an SGI granite he can take all my money i want them switches then my filco can go and sleep as the SGI will be my game board, may even mod it with a soarer converter for macros and the likes

the only thing i will miss is my round 4 caps and my thick dyesub but the sgi caps are also thick and with mr interfaces adapters

[DiodeHead]

you guys know by any chance if 7bit also have costar stabs ??

[Muirium]

Nope. He doesn't do stabs, or Teensies, though he should. We always need them! Try WASD.

@Andy: That crazy bugger! Imagine doing that a hundred times for free. Guess he wants shot of his Matias switches. They sell much slower than the 3x as expensive MX…

I got this SGI from Cindy:



Looks Granite, but not that "Granite", as says the Wiki:

Part number 041-0136-001 is the other granite-coloured model, which is not PS/2 compatible, and has a slightly different case.

So not PS/2, and doesn't even have a cable. Got my job cut out getting it on USB! I'll figure something out once I get it opened up. Oddly enough, this keyboard (of the 7 I sent his way) impressed my brother the most.

[andrewjoy]

is that the one with the sweet sweet thick caps ?

[Muirium]

Hopefully! They're a third of the way around the world from me until I pay him a visit…

Anticipation!

[DiodeHead]

that is some lucky brother indeed, well i added the stabs and modified the cap lock and enter positions, i took out the caliper and measured the keys, the enter is centered on the big rectangle and the cap lock is not centered since is one of those keys like on Mu´s SG (or his brother´s for the time being).

thanks guys

[DiodeHead]

Strange world this one, they are sending me the only two item that i thougt they where out of stock (the matias buttons and xbox pad battery ), and the rest of them are not coming, so i guess i have to wait and see what the mailman brings me.