Suggested donor boards for Alps mods?

[___q]

Hi all,

I'm building up a 60% "soon" (a Duck Mini2, so whenever it gets here ) and am trying to decide whether to use Alps or Cherry switches.

I have a very clean set of keycaps from a Northgate OmniKey 102 (with this layout: http://www.northgate-keyboard-repair.com/102after.jpg) which would work great for the alphanumerics (and the sweet number-row escape key), but the mods are a little tricky.  I would need at least a matching Enter, RShift, and |\ key (I could live with the mislabeled ctrl/alt/caps lock), but may also consider just replacing all of the mods so that everything is labeled correctly.

What alps boards have ANSI mods, and nice (preferably ABS DS) keycaps?  I would also consider a dyesub PBT set, but only if I could also use the whole set (I like both materials, but not mixing them on the same board).

I would prefer boards which aren't too rare, as I'll probably end up buying an ebay board and harvesting the caps from it, and don't want to spend too much on a "collectable" board.

I would also prefer the classic black-on-beige color scheme, but if there's something really cool out there which I don't know about, I'm up for suggestions.

[fohat.digs]

If you succeed in this endeavor, please post your solution.

Alps-compatible key caps are an odd mixed bag, and those "out-lying" keys are going to be really hard, if not impossible.

The Northgate set is surely the best of the lot, but you will be hard pressed to complete it from elsewhere.

[Techno Trousers]

Pretty much the only ANSI Alps boards I know of are the AT101 series (Dell/SGI). The SGI boards have probably the best Alps caps ever, with dyesub PBT. I got a Focus FK-2001 that had double shot ABS caps, but it has the big ass enter.

Good luck with your project! Always nice to see Alps love.

[___q]

There also seems to be an omnikey 101 with an ansi layout (and it has the mods that I would want)... but it seems to be edging into "collectable" territory (and I will probably need to harvest stabs from the same keyboard that I take the caps from).

Maybe I'll keep my eye out for a good deal on one of the SGI boards, they do seem quite nice.  Thanks!

(I'm probably going to go with alps for the board regardless, since I have plenty of MX keyboards already, and the 102 that the caps are currently connected to has perfectly good (and blue!) switches (but some major case damage ))

I'll definitely post pictures when I get everything together!

What keycaps are these (http://geekhack.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=46060.0;attach=29005;image) (if the link doesn't work, it's the last image in this post: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46060.0)? They vaguely remind me of the AEK keycaps, but I thought those were all white.

[calavera]

That is the SGI key cap set.

[___q]

That is the SGI key cap set.

Oooh.  Ok then, I will keep my eye out for some of those in nice shape 

Thanks!

[mashby]

Any updates to your progress?

I just took receipt of my Duck Mini and I'm not on the same hunt as you.  )

[___q]

I actually ended up just buying an SGI granite and using those keycaps.  They're nice, but nothing super exciting.

I also got one of the fully-ansi set of northgate caps from a 101, but I haven't checked if the stabilizer spacings / caps lock / etc. match the SGI/Duck Mini 2 (replacing keycaps on alps keys is a pain compared to cherry).  I may give it a shot this evening or maybe tomorrow.


Semi-unrelated, but overall the duck mini 2 is great, it's awesome to have alps keys in a modern layout with good build quality.

[fohat.digs]

I sold an "Alps Electric" branded board here a couple of months ago with a nice straight-ANSI, double-shot cap set.

There was very little interest and I sold it a lot cheaper than I would have liked. That is the only one like it I have ever seen.

[___q]

I remember that board you sold.   Ehhhh, didn't you sell it for like $50?  For not much more than that you can get a northgate 101, which comes in a  "straight-ANSI" version with double-shots, and has impeccable build quality.

I didn't bother to try swapping out all the keys and check if the stabilizer distances are okay for shifts/spacebar/etc., because the duck mini needs one of the stepped caps locks (the slightly stepped ones like on the AT101 or the SGI granite), and I don't have a stepped caps lock which matches my northgate set (and I'm probably too lazy/cheap to track one down).