AEII Keycaps on Matias Tactile Pro: Should I try it?

[Muirium]

Ooh, some sun! Better take pics in the few minutes I've got…

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Pretty good nick, I think.

AEK II.jpg (254.92 KiB) Viewed 1284 times

Here's yesterday's handiwork: three converters for three different ports and protocols. Two of them work, so far:

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Three Converters 2.jpg (158.04 KiB) Viewed 1284 times

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The yellow one is (4 pin) ADB, running Hasu's ADB converter. The green one is (6 pin) PS/2, running Soarer's. I'm thinking of going to Hasu's TMK so I can have the same mouse keys, but can't figure out how to build it yet. Unimap doesn't seem to have it. The black one is (5 pin) NeXT, and it's the one that's not running yet, for similar reasons. Gotta build from source I guess.

Anyway, that's the finger burning all done at least.

[Muirium]

Oh yeah: forgot to show off when I finally got Hasu's toolchain hooked up and running on my M1, and brought this here tasty NeXT keyboard into the Apple Silicon era. (This was the missing piece.) Might well be the first time anyone's ever typed on it, as my little group buy for these NeXT boards some years back were all New Old Stock from a long-time NeXT service place. Kinda want to keep this looooong black spacebar shine free. But I must admit it's a boss keyboard this! A beaut on the desk, and types real nice now too. Thanks Hasu! Another bridge well built. And I've never seen a flashier Teensy while it's at it, either!

Secretarial Shift is quite something on this black board at night with its TWO green lock lights in tandem in the Shift keys! I've a Karabiner macro set to turn on Caps Lock with Shift + Shift, which I've been using for years, but recently modified it to disengage with a single Shift, typewriter style. I first learned to type as a kid on my mum's mechanical typewriter which did precisely this. It didn't light up all NeXT future retro, though! It did however click when it latched the platen up high, and went thunk when you released! Swings and roundabouts. Caps Lock should always be PROMINENT.

[LambdaCore]

I'll have to give the AEII keyboard a shot sometime then! I'll need to nab a quieter keyboard eventually anyways

[Muirium]

They're nice, especially if you're on the Mac as am I. Not as quiet as damped Topre, but few things are. Damped Alps certainly has vintage classic charm. It wants to be fancy, maybe a touch too much.

[The Laptop Lagger]

I thought about getting the AEIIK as they're pretty readily available and ADB converters aren't so expensive, but I've heard some iffy things about the dampened cream switches albeit great things about orange switches

I personally love my AEKII, have had it as a daily driver for half a year or so now and it's never let me down.
I quite like the satisfying "thock" noise of the Cream Damped switch and they're not mushy at all whilst still being rather quiet, unlike Matias' attempt which is slightly too mushy for my tastes.

[The Laptop Lagger]

Just be careful removing the caps from the Matias. I had to replace a switch that decided to come with one of the caps.

This has been the main issue with both Matias and Space Invaders for me! The switches seem VERY eager to come apart on both. On my Space Invader board they're usually easy to reassemble but one of my matias switches outright broke! That keyboard has been retired to a cardboard box ever since...

[Muirium]

In all my years, I've never had a real Alps switch pop open like that when pulling a cap. Just saying…

Space Invaders though? Goodness me, you'd better be ready to go hunting after flying springs! I've stripped and cleaned just two of those boards, yet must have had to chase dozens of the buggers. Even when you know the right technique to get the cap off right (don't just yank!) they've still a mind of their own.

[The Laptop Lagger]

Even when you know the right technique to get the cap off right (don't just yank!)

You'll have to teach me that technique one day! My NMB is NOS (not an "Inozenz" drop but shoutout to them anyway!) luckily so I haven't had to clean it yet but I dread the day that I will have to get those caps off.

[Bjerrk]

It's quite straightforward, you just have to pull very asymetrically. I think someone (TheInverseKey/VintageKeys or Chyros?) made a YouTube video demonstrating the technique.