"Project" keyboard, AT101-102 variant

[deeyay]

On our local Ebay kind of site here in Sweden I found an older keyboard while browsing a while back. I noticed it had the same body as the old and known Dell AT keyboards but without windows key and branded differently.

It also has Damped White Alps and it is very quiet for being a mechanical keyboard. It's the most quiet one I have at the moment and I have a few rubberdomes too. It also feels very soft to type on and almost kind of "buttery" so to speak. I fell in love with these switches right away and I use this keyboard every night now when I need to be more quiet. It didn't have Swedish layout so I switched some keycaps from another keyboard.

When I opened it up I also reflected over that the internals of the keyboard really takes up the whole space above the F keys. No dead space like in the usual Dell variants. The keyboard is in very good shape and does not seem to have gotten much usage at all and it is a joy to type on. My new "stealth" keyboard.

[andrewjoy]

Nice one, the early bigfoots used much better alps than the horrible black alps in the newer ones, still they are cheap and better than a dome.

This winkeless model looks lovely, how thick are the caps ?

[deeyay]

Yeah I do not like the black alps at all. I have another Dell AT102W keyboard but I modified its black alps into white alps by replacing the tactile metal leafs with the ones from my Matias Tactile Pro keyboard. Much nicer to type on that way.

Here's a keycap:

[andrewjoy]

ooo they do look thicker nice find !

you can also turn black alps into a liner switch by removing the tactile leaf and they feel very nice then

[Muirium]

How smooth compared to MX black: modern, vintage, or Nixdorf?

[deeyay]

How smooth compared to MX black: modern, vintage, or Nixdorf?

I don't have much experience with MX Blacks as I've never owned a keyboard with them as I think they are a bit on the hevy side for me. These feels more like MX Brown as these are also tactile but quite tactility. I would say the bump is a bit more noticable on these Alps than on MX Browns.

The difference is the landing and release of the keys. While the bottoming out still if fairly "stiff" and not mushy at all, it still feels very soft thanks to the rubber parts in the switch that takes the hit on both the bottoming out and release of the key. Removing these rubber pads makes it sound a lot more specially upon release of the key.

So basically it reminds me somewhat of MX Browns but with a much much softer feeling and much more quiet with a little "thump" when bottoming out rather than "clack".

[Muirium]

Yup. I like damped Alps quite a bit. Superior to anything in MX for feel and quietness. The ideal general purpose "Goldilocks" weight, too, between Cherry's light and heavy options.

My question about an MX comparison was to Andy with his claim about making linear Alps switches. I've got a few loose Matias switches, some modded to linear, but it's hard to tell what they're really like without a keyboard full of them.

[andrewjoy]

How smooth compared to MX black: modern, vintage, or Nixdorf?

If you mod them to liner they are very smooth, its hard to compare them to MX black to be fair but i would say they are just as smooth as vintage. i have a huge bag of alps black modded to liner if you want i can send you a few.

i would say matias modded to blacks are a little quieter however the blacks wobble less

[Muirium]

Now that's promising. Matias switches are a bit wobbly, in my (loose switch, no keyboard) experience of them.

Keep me in mind for some from that big bag!

[deeyay]

I think I tried My Dell AT102W without tactile leafs once and if I recall correctly they fellt close to MX Reds. Smooth and light. However I do not like linear switches.

I have the Black Alps tactile leafs in my Matias keyboard now and they are very light now with very little tactility. The keys also wobble like crazy compared to other boards.

[andrewjoy]

Now that's promising. Matias switches are a bit wobbly, in my (loose switch, no keyboard) experience of them.

Keep me in mind for some from that big bag!

keep in mind , they wobble less than matias but they still wobble way more than any MX

[Muirium]

Yeah, MX isn't all bad. Another switch I prefer to it in feel is [wiki]Mitsumi miniature mechanical[/wiki], which I just got a board of in MX compatible mount. It's a Topre kind of buttery tactile without a bump: hooray! But the rumours about them are right. Mitsumis bind like crazy when pressed off centre. You can even feel it on the regular alphas, let alone Tab and Caps Lock! You pretty much have to press right above the switch or you're getting a sudden pushback from a cap that just won't budge. Amusing that they even released switches with such a surprising fight in them!

I still like the buggers. Especially as they take all my best caps. Just need to figure out what to do with them. The board's a fullsize with Big Ass Enter, so I've modding ideas aplenty.

[Nuum]

Yeah, it really is a shame with those Mitsumi minature mechanical switches, amazing feel, lovely mechanism, but binding like crazy. Still have to try to lube them.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

There are full-size versions of those switches, though those are even more rare. The switch is the [wiki]Mitsumi standard mechanical[/wiki] but those are rare enough in linear form; this is the only known instance of the tactile version:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=19 ... #msg389989

[Magna224]

I've always been scared to take apart mistumis since I know nothing about them. I have a keypad with some greens.

[jacobolus]

Mitsumi “standard mechanical” switches are totally uninspiring IMO. I’ve never tried the mini version.

[Muirium]

The mini's are baffling. They're awesomely tactile — the closest thing I've found yet that comes to Topre for a butter smooth tactile force curve — but they bind badly when pressed anything but dead centre. The board I'm basing this on needs a good clean, so maybe there's hope for lube yet. Daniel gave me some loose, fresh switches and those feel much better behaved. But it's hard to tell without a plate.

[seebart]

When I opened it up I also reflected over that the internals of the keyboard really takes up the whole space above the F keys. No dead space like in the usual Dell variants.

I´d love to see pictures of that!

[Mal-2]

I've always wanted to know something about Swedish keyboards. Where is the "bork" key, and do you have to press it three times or only once?

[deeyay]

When I opened it up I also reflected over that the internals of the keyboard really takes up the whole space above the F keys. No dead space like in the usual Dell variants.

I´d love to see pictures of that!

I'll give you that tomorrow! It will be too dark to take photos when I come home from work today.

[deeyay]

I've always wanted to know something about Swedish keyboards. Where is the "bork" key, and do you have to press it three times or only once?

Lol it seems to be a well kept secret by those less computer knowledgeable for some reason. They manage to find it often with just a few presses or clicks and I never know how they do it nor can I figure out what they did.

[deeyay]

OK here comes a picture of the internals of the keyboard. Let me know if there is anything more specific you want to take a closer look at. Sorry for quality the light is not ideal as it's cloudy and i had to use my mobile phone as the memory card for my full frame camera has gotten corrupted.

[Mal-2]

OK here comes a picture of the internals of the keyboard. Let me know if there is anything more specific you want to take a closer look at. Sorry for quality the light is not ideal as it's cloudy and i had to use my mobile phone as the memory card for my full frame camera has gotten corrupted.

Actually, these are a lot less potatoe than I would have expected from the advance warning. Sure there's an astounding amount of barrel distortion, but even my point-and-shoot camera with active optics has that problem.

Still no "bork" key in sight. It must be an AltGr combination.

[deeyay]

OK here comes a picture of the internals of the keyboard. Let me know if there is anything more specific you want to take a closer look at. Sorry for quality the light is not ideal as it's cloudy and i had to use my mobile phone as the memory card for my full frame camera has gotten corrupted.

Actually, these are a lot less potatoe than I would have expected from the advance warning. Sure there's an astounding amount of barrel distortion, but even my point-and-shoot camera with active optics has that problem.

Still no "bork" key in sight. It must be an AltGr combination.

Yeah the camera in my new Meizu MX4 is actually very good for being a phone camera. Much better than on the Nexus 5 I have also.