deskthority

Hey everyone.

Recently I have bought myself a Matias Tactile Pro as I wanted to try out the Alps switches for the first time as they intrigued me. Upon recieving them I instantly liked them but I thought they felt a bit lighter than I had read. When typing fast I think they felt even lighter than my Cherry MX Blue swithes. The force I could feel a lot more while typing more slowly. However they always felt more tactile than the Cherrys.

Seing as I liked the Alps a lot I bought an old Dell AT102W keyboard to try out the Black Alps oposed to the White Alps on the Matias keyboard. Well turned out I did not really like the Black Alps as I thought they felt somewhat mushy and reminded me of rubberdome for some reason. Scratchy, non tactile and somewhat heavy feel. Too rough for my taste.

That's when I decided to open up all my switches and have a look and I soon got the terrific idea to move over the tactile metal leafs from the Matias keyboard over to the switches in the Dell AT102W keyboard. It worked wonders and now I have Black Alps that are clicky and even more tactile than the White Alps were on the Matias. They require more force to active but still not as heavy as the Buckling Spring. Just like a heavier White Alps with even more tactility. I must say it's about the nicest switch I have ever typed on seing how tactile they are now and the force needed is just right.

However there was a fair bit of dust and small debris inside the switch housings so I thoroughly cleaned all loose parts first before assembling them again.

So I could recommend this mod to anyone who would like some heavier White Alps. Not bottoming out is kind of impossible though. Each keypress is like a small chain braking under your fingers when typing. Very satisfying!

Here's a "in progress" picture from when I have just started to make the transfer.

Very interesting. Having been a fan of IBM Model M and Model F buckling springs and Topre switches, I have been a distant admirer of Matias and certain vintage Alps switches. Recently, I bought two KBP V60 Matias-switch keyboards, one with Matias Click and the other with Matias Quiet Click switches. I like both of them, perhaps favoring the Click switch somewhat, because the click is coincident and synergistic with the tactile bump to provide actuation feedback.

I've been harvesting vintage Alps keyboards including the Dell AT101W to get replacement keycaps. So far, I use the mods from the Dell, and I've found a beautiful set of dye-sub PBT alphanumerics from an IBM 5140 portable computer whose keyboard has Alps switches.

As for bottoming out, I've always done so with every keystroke, which is one reason I like IBM buckling spring, Topre, and Matias switches.

I actually just recently sold my Model M as I thought they were kind of too stiff for me. I like them a lot as they were very tactile but in the end they were just too stiff for my taste. These modded Black Alps are of course even stiffer in some sense but that they let go after the activation point makes them feel lighter anyway in the end.

I have a light AT102W on the way home too for more keycaps. As well as an old standard Apple M2980 (from '95 and they will have thick dyesub I believe) and another old Alps membrane keyboard with Alps keycaps in retro style. Want the possibility to mod more if I like but it's much harder with Alps than with Cherrys to find stuff.

Alps switches are more fun than Cherry!

deeyay wrote: Well turned out I did not really like the Black Alps as I thought they felt somewhat mushy and reminded me of rubberdome for some reason. Scratchy, non tactile and somewhat heavy feel. Too rough for my taste.

Sounds like the keyboard was heavily used / stored someplace dusty. There’s a huge variation in condition of >25-year-old keyboards, as you might expect.

I’ve had examples of all sorts of old switches that were very scratchy like that. I think it’s often possible to mostly clean the dust/grit out, but it takes some work, as you found out. I’ve still never managed to restore very scratchy switches to perfect condition; I think an ultrasonic cleaner is probably the ideal tool to use, but those can be a bit pricey.

Even just cleaning the switches out would make them a lot nicer, even if you stuck with the original tactile leaves. Those tactile leaves might also be a bit worn out. You can restore the snap to them with some very careful bending, but it’s tricky to get them consistent.

I agree with you that Matias tactile leaves are great though. I’d recommend anyone with Alps switches with worn-out tactile leaves try swapping them for Matias tactile or click leaves.

jacobolus wrote:

deeyay wrote: Well turned out I did not really like the Black Alps as I thought they felt somewhat mushy and reminded me of rubberdome for some reason. Scratchy, non tactile and somewhat heavy feel. Too rough for my taste.

Sounds like the keyboard was heavily used / stored someplace dusty. There’s a huge variation in condition of >25-year-old keyboards, as you might expect.

Correct. It was Very dusty on the whole outside when I picked it up. A layer of dust over everything that made it look a lot lighter in color than what it really is. As for usage it had been used for gaming as WASD was very worn and blank. A lot of other keys also had noticeable wear and tear so it had indeed been used earlier in its life.

So I was not very surprised to see the dusty internals of the switches even though it also kind of surprised me how so much debris can find its way into tight spaces such as that.

However after cleaning the parts seperately and inspecting them closely I could not see physical signs of wear anywhere. Not in the housings nor steams. Though the tactile metal leafs that I replaced might have been worn but I couldn't tell though.

When reassembling it all again I lubed the steams very gently on the sides to remove any possible friction. Not sure it was needed or not but thought I might as well do it when everyting has been taken apart.

I'll definitely compare the feeling with my NIB AT102W that will arrive sometime next week. Should be interesting.

Unfortunately something has happened with my Matias keyboard in this process and it is borked at the moment.

I noticed that while dissembling the switches on it two of them pulled up the whole metal contacts on the upper side of the switch so that they still satfirm in the housing. After that happened no keys will register when typing. Numlock and Caps works to toggle on/off as the indicators change. But no other keys on the board registers. Weirdly it kind of does because if text is marked and I press a button it deletes the marked text but nothing is written. So the computer feels the press but does not input.

Something else weird is that I can toggle the numpad with Any key on the board. Normal press does nothing, a light press in other words. If I put a lot of pressure on Any other key on the board it toggles the numpad on & off. Super weird.

No matter seems to have been shit behind the steering wheel. I had some switches still apart and the keyboard did Not like that. Some switches made random contact constantly while taken apart.