NGS keyboard with Elecom rack-and-pinion switches

[citrojohn]

This keyboard isn't mine and neither are the photos, but I've got the owner's permission to post them having identified the switches for him on Reddit.

So, this is an NGS keyboard. I'd never heard of NGS, but they seem to have been around early enough to make some boards with Alps switches, and they're still making keyboards now (only domes, unfortunately). Going by the stray bits of Spanish on their website they seem to be Spanish-based!

VfQSEAK.jpg (973.72 KiB) Viewed 2011 times

And the board is Spanish-layout. Those stepped caps are a bit unusual, but not much else is special so far. But under the caps...

YmsdtcW.jpg (654 KiB) Viewed 2011 times

The 1.25u caps have longer pinions to match the cap. It looks as if the spacebar has several small pinions.

The caps have little teeth on them to mesh with the pinions. I suspect they must have been fiddly to put back on... though probably no worse than a scissor switch.

HWTWqz1.jpg (643.08 KiB) Viewed 2011 times

Essentially this is another means of stabilising the keys by restricting their ability to move off-centre, rather like scissor switches. But this is probably easier to scale up for a longer travel.

7TveDq1.jpg (586.72 KiB) Viewed 2011 times

To quote from the owner's description: "It's very smooth to type yet it's difficult to accidentally type other keys. It's also very confortable to move your fingers between keys, and you don't need to rise your fingers to do it. About key travel: it's about ~3mm. Compared to my laptop: 1mm and my standard keyboard: 4-5mm." I can imagine a small amount of friction from the pinions would have the effect of smoothing out the bump from the rubber dome. Possibly there's a little binding when the keys are pressed near one end, which would make an accidental off-centre press less likely to produce a typo.

I asked if the pinions got dirt in them: "And yes, dirt gets stuck in the pinions, and consequently, keys get stuck too. But it takes many, many years and it's 'easy' to clean."

The owner thinks the board was bought in 2007 - and the .eu domain wasn't approved until 2005, so that gives us a limit on the date. I'd surmise that this is someone's attempt at improving on scissor switches (perhaps Elecom's more likely than NGS) - but how it got between Japan and Spain is another question. I think it could have rivalled scissor switches if it had come along at the same time, despite the dirt issues.

My heartiest thanks to viladrau on Reddit for providing the photos and information on this fascinating keyboard!

[IKSLM]

Wondering how bad the keys feel when some stuff comes between the keycap and the roller.

[citrojohn]

Wondering how bad the keys feel when some stuff comes between the keycap and the roller.

Yes, it can't be nice - but then scissor switches aren't immune to stuff getting under the caps, and at least with this there isn't much that would break easily when you pulled the cap to get the dirt out. I pulled a cap on my laptop once and broke a pin off the cap... just as well it was only AltGr!

[andrewjoy]

Its not exclusive to this type of switch, you have to be super super careful if your removing a switch from something like a macbook unibody, so easy to break the pins on the scissor.

My Beloved but now old lenovo x61s ( still used all the time ) does not give a crap , you could remove the caps with a sledge hammer and not break them it had a worn out UK ISO on it when i got it, new old stock ANSI for it off ebay 12 quid , thank you very much , best scissor switch i have ever used , would take the pepsi challenge with your rack and pinion any day

[citrojohn]

Its not exclusive to this type of switch, you have to be super super careful if your removing a switch from something like a macbook unibody, so easy to break the pins on the scissor.

My Beloved but now old lenovo x61s ( still used all the time ) does not give a crap , you could remove the caps with a sledge hammer and not break them it had a worn out UK ISO on it when i got it, new old stock ANSI for it off ebay 12 quid , thank you very much , best scissor switch i have ever used , would take the pepsi challenge with your rack and pinion any day

We'll have to find one first! (or buy viladrau's.) I'm sure the ThinkPad's are better switches - not least because of all the development that's gone into them. The rack-and-pinion would probably need a similar amount of development, which it's not going to get now because scissor switches are good enough for most users (in the users' estimation, anyway). I just wonder whether the rack-and-pinion could have been an alternative to scissors if it had had that development...