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Cherry MX vs Cherry MY keycaps compatibility

Posted: 26 Oct 2018, 01:13
by bronz
Can anyone confirm keycaps compatibility for Cherry MX and MY ?

I found this:
Keycap compatibility with Cherry MX
Cherry MY switches have chiefly been used in Cherry G81 series keyboards. The biggest reason for buying one of these keyboards might be to harvest the keycaps and put them on a modern board with Cherry MX switches.

Stabilisers are different for MX and MY switches. On MY switches, the stabilizer bar is directly attached to the switch, while in the MX series, each switch has a pair of individual stabilizer mounts.

On more recent MY boards, made after 2001, all keycaps with stabilizers, including the space bar, Enter, Backspace, numeric keypad Enter etc. have their stabilizing hinges integrated in the keycaps themselves. They are therefore normally not compatible with Cherry MX switches.

A modern, stabilized MY keycap has legs. It will not mount onto a MX switch if there is a mounting plate or stabilizer mounts are present. However, in the very rare case that a wide MX key is PCB-mounted and does not have any stabilizer mount, then the legs on the keycap could provide more stability when bottoming out.

Posted: 26 Oct 2018, 10:47
by hansichen
Generally this is true but I can't confirm the exact date where they changed the stabs.

Posted: 26 Oct 2018, 10:49
by Findecanor
That is from the Wiki. I wrote most of that section.
Edit: Sixty had added the date, back in 2011. He was known as a Cherry expert back then but has not been around much since.

The integrated stabiliser inserts are in newer thin-walled laser-etched PBT keys. If a Cherry MY keyboard has windows keys and "hellgrau" caps then the stabilised keys are almost guaranteed to have integrated stabiliser mounts.
Doubleshot keycaps, dye-sublimated keycaps and some laser-etched keycaps on grey-and-beige keyboards should be as on the closest model with MX switches. Although, there is a possibility that some unusual keyboard may be an exception ...

Have you found a MY keyboard you want to harvest keys from?

Posted: 26 Oct 2018, 11:32
by bronz
Findecanor wrote: That is from the Wiki. I wrote most of that section.
Edit: Sixty had added the date, back in 2011. He was known as a Cherry expert back then but has not been around much since.

The integrated stabiliser inserts are in newer thin-walled laser-etched PBT keys. If a Cherry MY keyboard has windows keys and "hellgrau" caps then the stabilised keys are almost guaranteed to have integrated stabiliser mounts.
Doubleshot keycaps, dye-sublimated keycaps and some laser-etched keycaps on grey-and-beige keyboards should be as on the closest model with MX switches. Although, there is a possibility that some unusual keyboard may be an exception ...

Have you found a MY keyboard you want to harvest keys from?

Yeah.
Some of the keycaps
https://ibb.co/kh2UbV

*updated

Posted: 26 Oct 2018, 13:02
by kbdfr
bronz wrote: […] Some of the keycaps
http://fs5.directupload.net/images/181026/9o4iy92s.png
404 Not Found

Posted: 26 Oct 2018, 15:16
by bronz
kbdfr wrote:
bronz wrote: […] Some of the keycaps
http://fs5.directupload.net/images/181026/9o4iy92s.png
404 Not Found
Updated:
https://ibb.co/kh2UbV

Posted: 26 Oct 2018, 15:40
by kbdfr
bronz wrote: […] https://ibb.co/kh2UbV
Those are all MX compatible.

Posted: 26 Oct 2018, 16:20
by Muirium
Image

They are indeed. Simple classic Cherry double shots. Just be aware that the bottom row of your MX keyboard may well need differently sized modifiers. You can either mix and match, or find a special update set like these:

group-buys-f50/gmk-hadapter-hadditional ... 14007.html

Posted: 26 Oct 2018, 17:13
by hansichen
The stabilizer stems on these caps are simetimes widened compared to normal mx stems. In that case you can put a piece of plastic wrap between the cap stem and the stabilizer of your board. Else they are fully mx compatible.

1,25u bottom row modifiers of MY boards are normally off centered and don't work with standard mx boards, but this looks like normal 1,5u and will work without issues.