"Switching" ALPS

[Alpinist]

Hi all,

New in the forum. My first keyboard was an ADB Keyboard with orange ALPS. Spoiled since...
I tried many other switches and I like a few but I guess I tend to lean towards ALPS.

While I have experience soldering, it is something I'd rather avoid in my small apartment. I'm quite familiar with disassembling ALPS for cleaning/maintaining, as per Chyros' video (thanks Thomas!) and I have the following question to see if I can get away with not soldering:

Can I take an (for example) Apple M0116 with PINK switches, open the switch, remove top housing, slider, "click leaf" and spring, (leaving the bottom housing and the contact leaf as they are soldered to the board) and then mount it again with the top housing, slider, "click leaf" and spring of an ORANGE switches? If I do that with every switch, could I transform a PINK board into an ORANGE one? I don't know if ALPS share bottom housing and contact leafs (or at least for some of the switches)

Now, my question involved quite a similar cousin's (PINK and ORANGE) and maybe it is possible... but... could we extrapolate this to other ALPS? Ideally modifying a PINK one into BLUE ones?
Maybe it might be more difficult with Ivory dampened ones because of the dampening sides of the slider? And I'm almost certain that you wouldn't' be able to do so with Monterey Blue ones as they seem to have different housing...

Anybody that can shed some light on this kind of "switch housing compatibility matrix"? I did a search first but couldn't find anything...

Apologies for the length of this first post and thanks in advance.

[fohat]

The very short answer is that yes, this is relatively easy and straightforward.

Orange and salmon are so close, however, that it would hardly be worth it, unless the originals are dirty or worn.

[Findecanor]

Swapping parts between tactile and clicky genuine "complicated" Alps should be possible, yes.
I have mixed and matched several combinations of tactile Black, clicky White and dampened Cream/Ivory.
I would keep use the top housing from the slider you use and also keep in mind slider orientation -- I suspect that there could be subtle differences with different housings and turn of the slider.

Linear Alps is not compatible with tactile/clicky, and Alternate Action (locking Caps Lock) is not either. Matias has a different housing that makes it harder to open.

SMK "Monterey Blue" is compatible only with the keycap mount. Internal parts, plate hole shape and pinout are different from Alps.

[Alpinist]

Thanks a lot fohat. I can then have my own M0116 Blue Alps if I find a good donor board!

I wasn't sure about transplanting clicky into non-clicky housings, or dampened into non-dampened housings.
Also I didn't know that all were sharing the same contact leaf and only the clicky one was changing. I knew they moved from long white switchplates to short ones but wasn't sure if it was always the same thickness among switches.

On the Orange vs Pink I find a quite noticeable difference. The Orange feels "faster", probably because of being smoother and not because lighter force actuation but I can't be sure. It also feels "bouncier" returning faster to initial position. This after many years exclusively using both back and forth,whithot knowing anything about switches and which one was older or newer, so I'd like to think that placebo effect was not in play there.

Edit: Thanks a lot Findecanor for elaborating on this even further. I think I will transform a pink M0116 into a blue one if I find the switches.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The only swap I've made (and then reverted) between different switch designs is putting Acer switch click leaves into Alps SKCM switches: the result is a tactile switch. Since the Acer leaf is too narrow, I don't know whether it will shuffle out of place or whether it would stay in the centre.

Click leaves in Alps SKCM and old Tai-Hao APC switches are interchangeable as I recall; most APC switches use narrow click leaves.

[//gainsborough]

Welcome to AlpschemySCIENCE (TM @subcat @macboarder)

One crucial note about swapping parts is that bottom housings and their original switchplate types need to stay together. For example, I do not think you can take a salmon alps switch and replace the short switchplate that comes inside of them with a long switchplate - I think that messes up actuation. Another community member can correct me if I'm wrong on that! Regardless, it sounds like that might not be a problem for you since you are leaving the bottom housings and switchplates in the board and are just replacing the innards.

Another thing I've confirmed for myself is that, in my opinion, long switchplates sound and feel better than short switchplates. It's entirely possible that it is placebo, but every time I compare long plate switches to short plate switches I always prefer the long plate switches more. So in your example, if you were to take the salmon sliders and springs out and replace them with orange sliders and springs, you'd end up with an SKCM orange alps switch but with a short switchplate. Orange alps were never made with short switchplates, so it very likely won't feel or sound exactly like SKCM orange.

I've click modded many switches in the way you are describing, and not once have I ever felt like it wasn't worth it! Enjoy the time you invest in your keyboards!

[E3E]

In order to test that placebo, it'd be a good idea to take a switch like blue Alps and have a few that are short housing bottoms and a few that are long, then shake them around until you can't tell which is which by eye any longer, then actually test them out and see if you can guess them consistently.

If so, then I would say, it's not a placebo. If you cannot, then it most definitely is.

[Alpinist]

Welcome to AlpschemySCIENCE (TM @subcat @macboarder)

Thank you! Glad to be here! My "alpine" login name is not a mere coincidence!

Regardless, it sounds like that might not be a problem for you since you are leaving the bottom housings and switchplates in the board and are just replacing the innards.

Another thing I've confirmed for myself is that, in my opinion, long switchplates sound and feel better than short switchplates. It's entirely possible that it is placebo, but every time I compare long plate switches to short plate switches I always prefer the long plate switches more. So in your example, if you were to take the salmon sliders and springs out and replace them with orange sliders and springs, you'd end up with an SKCM orange alps switch but with a short switchplate. Orange alps were never made with short switchplates, so it very likely won't feel or sound exactly like SKCM orange.

You are making a very good point I wasn't aware of... In that case, maybe what really would be worthwhile is to source an original ORANGE board if I want to transplant BLUE switches in it (as both have long switch plates) and then leave SALMON boards for transplanting white switches (being both short ones) whenever possible in order to keep the feeling as close as possible to the original (if not exactly the same in this case) without fully transplanting them by soldering?

(I'm considering Apple M0116/8s as good board donors as I like the compact layout. Besides I find NumPads preferable to just the NavPads from TKLs; hence my constant references to Orange/Salmon housings).

EDIT: Definitely E3E. I don't have the means to do so but if somebody ever did/does I would be interested into hearing the resulting findings.