Neato. Is it possible these are the rarest ALPS switch?
It's probably quite close between Lime, Brown linear, and Cream tactile. Tactile browns are also pretty rare, but a fair amount of people actually have them - I think the amount of people with Lime boards can be counted on one, possibly two hands xD .
Great review!
Makes me want to try some Alps switches even more, if only I could decide which of the 50,000 variants I'd like to try first )
Start off with white. They're cheap, easy to get, and really nice - as always though, make sure it's in GREAT condition! Don't settle for anything less!
As far as I know, the documented cases of SKCM Lime are just enough for a full hand. Nubbinator, Jacobolus, whoever owns the DKSaver with SKCM Lime, Chyros, and myself are the only ones who've been seen with them. Daniel Beardsmore has also ordered some himself, so then I guess we do roll over onto two hands!
Not many documented Docutech owners, aha.
As far as documented cases of SKCL Brown, there's been a few on youtube and on other blog sites and forums.
I'd say cream tactile is a bit of an outlier. There are quite a few NeXT Non-ADB boards with this switch, but people seem to overlook them. They're a bit of an outlier in the sense that they might be the next rarest, but they are far common than SKCL Brown and SKCM Lime. I would say SKCL Brown and SKCM Lime are probably the rarest, withe pine SKCM Lime being on top there.
For full-board switches, I'd say the rarity is something like this:
SKCM Lime > SKCL Brown > SKCL Cream > SKCM Amber > SKCM Brown > SKCM Cream > SKCM Blue > SKCM Black [pine] > SKCL Green > SKCL Yellow > SKCM Orange > SKCM Salmon > SKCM White > SKCM Black [bamboo]
- SKCL Cream can only be found in Bondwell 8T Pro laptops, as far as we know, and those are quite a bit more rare than Apple IIc A2S4100s or IBM 5140s.
- SKCM Amber can only be found in those certain Apple IIC models.
- SKCM Brown can be found in the IBM 5140s, but is also found in models like the Xerox 6085 keyboard, the Docutech's predecessor, as well as some Texas Instruments boards and so on, so it's not as rare.
- SKCM Cream can always be found in NeXT non-ADB boards with AAE in the FCC ID, which aren't very rare. It's just a scarcely documented switch.
- SKCM Blue is all over the place, but it's just very sporadic.
- SKCM Black pine is not very common, but it can also be found in the other variant of NeXT non-ADB boards and the Silitek AT101, which makes it a bit more rare than Salmon and Orange imo.
- long plate unbranded SKCM White might be more rare than SKCM Blue. The alternate tactile leaf design (contact leaf style) SKCM Brown might be more rare than everything but SKCM Lime and SKCL Brown.
If you want to add SKCL Grey because it was included in the SGI button box, which had around 32 switches, then I think it'd be pretty rare. Not sure where to put it though.