Browsing a Polish bidding site, I came across a DTK Alps-mount keyboard with an interesting item description. It mentioned that the keyboard does not have discrete switches, but instead has a spring and two layers of foil underneath each key. This sounds like foam and foil to me, but I've never heard of an ALPS-mount foam and foil board, and the wiki didn't reveal anything for me either.
The seller makes some mistakes in the description, eg. they say that the keycaps are injection molded, therefore must be PBT, which is almost definitely not true, so I'm not sure how accurate the rest is. There was previously a picture detailing the underside of the plastic plate and the springs underneath each key, but it has since been removed.
I'm probably going to have a friend buy this for me because I'm quite curious about it and it seems to have some nice doubleshot "PBT" keycaps. But my main question is this: has a keyboard like this been encountered before?
Polish description:
Spoiler:
Początkowo myślałem że jest to zwyczajna klawiatura mechaniczna, lecz po zdjęciu przycisku zauważyłem brak oddzielnych przełączników.
Po rozkręceniu zobaczyłem mechanizmy przycisków ze sprężynkami i blaszkami oraz 2 warstwy folii.
Każdy przycisk wydaje przyjemny "klik" charakterystyczny dla klawiatur mechanicznych.
Klawisze są wykonane w technologii double-molding czyli tzw. podwójnie wstrzykiwany plastik PBT, przez co są nie do zajechania .
Machine-translated description supplemented with tips from a friend fluent in Polish:
Spoiler:
Initially I thought that this is a common mechanical keyboard, but after removing the key I noticed the lack of separate switches.
After opening it, I saw the mechanisms of each key was a spring and 2 layers of foil.
Each button gives off a nice "click" sound, characteristic of mechanical keyboards.
The keys are made of double-molding technology ie. double injected plastic PBT, which are durable .
"foil" is a mistranslation — it should be "membrane" or "[plastic] sheet" and there will be three, not two. Foam and foil doesn't have foil sheets, it has foam pads bearing foil discs. The wiki page is poorly illustrated, but you can use the pictures under [wiki]Alphameric foam and foil[/wiki] to give you a much better idea of what you would be seeing if it were indeed foam and foil.
APC semi-mechanical was my guess from the start (your description, Tai-Hao keycaps, which will be ABS not PBT, and overall design), but I found the auction page and you can see a) the distinctive switch design, and b) the FCC ID:
(The FCC ID isn't readable, but I can make out enough of it to confirm that it's what I expected to see.)
PLN 80 is around £14 (without shipping) — not sure how reasonable that is for a set of semi-compatible doubleshots, since the keycaps look to be in great condition (no yellowing or obvious shine) but you get bigass enter and 1 u backspace. They're nice keycaps, though.
Thank you very much for the links and information! That helps a lot. It's not as unique a keyboard as I first thought, so I'm not totally convinced about buying it anymore. It might be a worthwhile buy for the keycaps alone, however.
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