Cherry to Alps adapters

[Mrinterface]

Anybody willing to do the Beta testing? Can't find the time to properly take this into the next step.

I can send via envelope....

[Muirium]

Sure. I bet there's a few keen to sign up along with me. How many samples have you got?

[Mrinterface]

Sure. I bet there's a few keen to sign up along with me. How many samples have you got?

How many do you need ?

[Muirium]

Hmm… a real test would be to equip a whole keyboard. But I'm guessing you've got too few for that. I've got a few Alps and MX boards, plus plenty of caps, and a (MX compatible Topre) NovaTouch to play with.

[scottc]

Beta Tester #2, at your service!

[Mrinterface]

@Beta testers : Please PM me your postal address!

[Muirium]

Will do. Thanks Mister!

[scottc]

Thanks MrInterface, I'm really excited to try these out! I'm surprised more people didn't jump on the opportunity.

[Muirium]

Only forum spy junkies like us! You'll get your feedback, Mr.Interface. And I'll volunteer Scott along with myself for sending these on to other interested people once we've tested them. More data is good data.

[andrewjoy]

Put me on the list as well thanks !

[beltet]

I would love to beta test. But I think my contribution would be more or less insufficient because of the time it would take me to do it(more like the lack if time).
But I'm interested in a finished product. Its a good project. More cap alternatives on a alp keyboard.

[chzel]

I could test a bit on my AT101W!

[faceyourfaces]

I really hope this becomes successful; I've been wanting to put Cherry keycaps on an Alps board.

[Blaise170]

Did anything ever come of these? I'd love to try some out on my Alps keyboard and I'm not too keen on spending so much money on Alps keycaps.

[Mrinterface]

@Beta testers : Packages sent!

[scottc]

Wonderful! Thanks, MrInterface.

[Mrinterface]

I sent 120 cherry to alps and 120 alps to cherry adapters to Scottc and Muirum ( so each one bag )

I suggest you try the adapters for a couple of weeks and then exchange them amongst the two of you. After that you can send them back to me.

Really looking forward to your test results/feedback!

[andrewjoy]

oh this is good , the one thing stopping me trying a alps board with linier ( modded) matias is the lack of good thick pbt caps so this should help out no end

[NeoNoeN]

Very interesting, if you end up creating molds and producing a large amount of these I could see a rise in popularity of Matias switches as sourcing keycaps would no longer be an issue.

[gogusrl]

I'd be interested about this as well. I have some very nice alps keycaps harvested from clones and I've love to try them on cherry mx.

[scottc]

Where'd you get the keycaps, gogusrl? I'm really interested in getting a classy ALPS set.

[gogusrl]

Got some double shots from a Gear G2101 keyboard (big ass enter, small backspace) and some ISO FR dyesubs (brand new) from an Acer Acer 6312-T4F.

pics of the dyesubs => http://imgur.com/a/9K5oR

[Muirium]

Thanks Mr. Interface! I'll put these guys through their paces.

Gogusrl's caps remind me of some Acer dyesubs of my own:



Really nice, pumice-like feel to them. Not exactly thick, but definitely worth a try.

[scottc]

So my MX switch to ALPS keycap converters arrived today. They really work! It's really exciting. I probably won't be able to do a more indepth review tonight, but I'll jot down some of my thoughts:

- These are REALLY high. They tower over the "native" Cherry MX keycaps! I think you'd need to outfit an entire board with these or it might look a bit silly.
- They're a snug fit - that's good, though.
- The keycaps wobble slightly, but I think it's due to the height of the keycap. The adapter itself doesn't wobble at all.
- They really work!
- The plastic seems to crumble slightly when I apply an adapter to a switch. Removing it results in a powdery dust remaining on the switch. This isn't a problem right now, but the durability of this plastic might not be enough if you feel like changing your keycaps daily!

Overall, they seem to work fantastically and I'm really happy with the end result!

I'm excited to hear how the ALPS brothers that are on the way to Mu feel.

[Hypersphere]

Interested if there are any left.

[Muirium]

The Alps (switch) to MX (caps) adapters are here. My thanks again to Mr. Interface. The first experiment is PBT DSA on my Monterey "Minitouch" K110. The cap is a tight fit, even more so than the usual experience with DSA. But it pops into the Monterey switch very nicely, and the result is a great cap on a great switch!

I'll report back with more results. I need to be careful not to get adapters stuck or snapped inside anything, so I'm taking it slow. So far no problem with the crumbling Scott mentioned, but it's very early days here.

[Hypersphere]

The Minitouch with Monterey Alps has a nice feel to it. However, is there a straightforward way to modify the layout to get a standard ANSI enter key and a Backspace immediate above (i.e., as on the HHKB)?

This is one of the advantages of some IBM buckling spring boards; sometimes changing the layout is as easy as installing some stabilizer inserts and/or perhaps moving some pivot-plate/spring assemblies from one barrel to another.

In any event, I am looking forward to the possibility of trying some of Mr. Interface's Cherry-Alps adapters!

[Muirium]

First problem with the adapters: they are tight. As in really quite difficult to remove from the MX cap stem. DSA grabs them real hard, as you'd expect. After much fiddling, I did manage to prise an adapter out of one of my tightest PBT DSA caps, though. So it is possible to get them out again, just hard. But I'm going to try mastering my removal technique before I get myself into trouble with a full set of stuck caps. The adapters are small, of course, and difficult to get a good grip on.

On the upside: they are pretty resilient! I haven't had much flaking at all, even with a lot of manhandling.

I'm thinking of maybe filing the MX mount side a bit so the adapters are more forgiving on my caps. The Alps side feels ideal, they pop into the switches perfectly, and out again; while staying in when the keyboard is upside down.

[Mrinterface]

Thanx for all the feedback Beta-testers!
@scottc : I also think that in order to use these adapters, you'd need to outfit a whole keyboard due to the height increase of the cap.
@Murium : I noticed the very tight fit already when I tried them myself. I think the tolerances inside an MX cap differ from brand to brand.
A simple solution would be to slightly decrease the width of the MX cross in the next iteration of the adapters. You could use a file for that. If you have a caliper I would be very interested in the best mx cross width.

One idea posted on this forum is to check the adapters on the non-character keys like shift,enter, etc. so the extra height would be beneficial for touch-finding them on the board. I wonder how this would work out? We'd have to make cherry-mx to cherry-mx and alps to alps adapters. Since I already have these designs it would be very easy to implement. Can you guys check if there is any validity to the idea?

Also : can you post pictures????? I'm really looking forward to pictures!!!!!

[Muirium]

Of course! Pictures once I've gotten confident at removing the caps. So far the few caps I've installed work very nicely, but they do definitely ride high. Your plan for mixing multiple adapters could be smart. We would need to consider stabilisers too.

I'll try filing some adapters for the optimum MX mount fit. I need to get callipers, though. Any recommendations?