deskthority

I recently was working on Honeywell 5921 terminal keyboard (workshop-f7/honeywell-5921-clean-up-and ... 19838.html ) and found rather unusual switches:

I've been searching for more info on them. The closest I've found so far is from an Oak Industries key switch patent from 1976 (filed 1974):
The full patent info is here:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3979571.pdf


There is one latching switch on the board (LOCK), the rest are non-latching. My best guess so far is that the switches are a variation on the switch in this patent - does anyone know more about these switches or have any other thoughts?

I just found two boxes of these Oak switches. They're slightly different from both yours and the one in the patent you listed.

The text on the switch says: US Patent 3,708,635.

This is really interesting! How do the switches feel?

They're linear switches. Light to the touch at first, then it gets stiffer the further you press the key. I have no idea when it actuates because I don't have anything that uses them. Only other common switches I have at the moment are Cherry MX Black and MX Grey that i just picked up today at the surplus store.

They're stiffer than the MX Black, but not as stiff as the MX Grey. Just started getting into this hobby, so I don't have any more useful comparisons. Sorry.