long left shift, alt is moved to the left of the spacebar, numpad + is reduced in size to make way for a more useful key, and the enter is a medium-ass enter. In addition to all that long bracket isn't present and to compensate the entire alpha cluster is shortened slightly which doesn't really do anything to make the thing better but it's a neat detail. To prevent the right shift from getting shortened by the alpha-shortening they move the prt sc key down to the bottom row but that's fine honestly, means they didn't need multiple shift molds. This is for sure the most usable XT layout board I've even used.
proof that at least part of this was made by mitsumi, whether the entire keyboard module was or not I don't know.
interesting that there's a place ofr a speaker here even though the pads for the beeper are on the the side of the PCB. Other versions of this board don't even have a beeper (or NKRO for that matter) so why this case has the "speaker grill" all the way over here is a mystery. Even though the pads for the beeper are unpopulated the thing does beep if you install a beeper. I tested this out with a small speaker since I couldn't find any of my beepers but it does actually work and once I find my beeper stash I'll put one in as well as poke an off switch out the back or somewhere.
This dummy switch kinda sucks. It works as a stabilizer but it makes the enter key feel weird and especially now that I've lubed it the thing is a little sluggish. I'll eventually get a very light spring into the dummy switch but for now it's fine.
This keyboard is my only point of reference for DIN-compliant mitsumi switches and it's a mixed bag I guess. The keycaps are really good, they're thick, the legends look nice, and they sound nice, the board itself had NKRO and the layout solves basically every complaint I have with XT while still being unmistakably XT. On the other hand tops of the caps are way too wide and it makes typing on them weird, the switches aren't especially smooth and cleaning/lube hasn't improved them as much as I thought it would.
It was pretty dirty when I got it, all the keyboards from this seller have like dust ingress of the same sort so I kinda expected that. Was looking forward to seeing how these switches responded to waxboil so it's whatever.
Contrary to what some people would have you believe, waxboil is easy as 1-2-3. I boiled the bottom housings, top housings, and sliders in different batches, a few minutes of boil like you see in the pic. A strong boil like pictured is required and it makes stirring unnecessary which is what you want. I set the housings to the side to dry and changed out the water for the sliders. To the new water I added my wax, let that get to a decent boil because I got distracted peeling the stickers off of the caps. IDK why it had stickers as there weren't legends on them. I set the sliders aside to dry with the other parts and when they dried I did a test of a single loose switch to see how it was and while it wasn't anywhere near as bindy as before it was still just as rough. I lubed the slider channels in the bottom housing with dielectric bulb grease and that helped a lot with the feel. but even with lube that thick they still feel a little rough and you can still hear the roughness. I have a high tolerance for this sort of feeling and sound they would liekly drive an MX switch modder up the walls. I tried lubing the places where the top housing and slider meet but that doesn't have a consistent effect and neither did lubing the contact leaf so I didn't bother doing it to every switch. they're livable as they are now, which is more than could be said about the switches when I bought them so I'm calling it a win.
here's some pictures of the switch internals for anyone who is wondering:
standard switch, the spacebar switch was the same but with a heavier spring and different coloured slider/housing. As I understand it the black housings are smoother than the milky ones. my limited experience with the black housings (3 switches on this board) that does seem to be true but I admittedly have a small sample size.
and the LED switch. Like KAM LED switches they have almost everything they need to become latching switches except for a few latch parts.
and these motherfuckers are the worst. They're the clips that hold the stabs to the plate and they break if you so much as breath at them. I managed to glue them back together but it was dangerously close to getting glue on the stab wires and I don't trust them to not fail on me if I look at them later. Fuck these stabilizers.
that's not dirty, it just has a little bit of black plastic mixed in.
and here's the back of the dummy switch from the enter key. the missing corner is not damage, but rather an intentional adjustment of the switch to allow clearance for a diode that would otherwise be in the way.
and an after pic after all the cleaning was done:
and the label on the back.
no FCCid though so I can't look up who is responsible for this keyboard.
