Breaking in MX Blacks

[Atenacius]

I understand that when it comes to the Black switches, the vintage ones were superior. I was wondering, however, if it was possible that the switches on my Noppoo Choc Mini will eventually lighten up a little. I've noticed it happen on my Das with Blues. The letter keys are noticeably lighter than some of the keys in the numpad.

[noodles256]

smack your head on it

[audioave10]

I've had the Deck Legend "blacks" for over a year and haven't noticed anything really, but I mostly game on it and don't type everyday.
I would think that the "new" will wear a little eventually.

[whateverbro]

Put it under your bed for a month.

[litster]

Not sure if this is of any help at all, but I am in the process of of converting a Das2 with blue to black using blacks from a Wyse keyboard dated back to 1983 (not sure if it really is that old).  I just finished the letter and number cluster.  It is closer to my reds than the new blackwidow I tried at a store.  But defnitely they are still stiffer than the reds.

[Atenacius]

Thanks for the clarification. It's good to know that Cherry has stayed true to their 10+ year-old technology. I read a little more about sixty's claims and they all seem to be cosmetic and nothing about their performance being affected has been proven. I do hope however that my Black switches still lighten a little like my Blues did.

[REVENGE]

They won't lighten much. I've had a 20 year old vintage Cherry, a 10 year old Data911 Deck, and a 3 year old Cherry and they've all felt the same. Except the Cherries felt mushier because of significant PCB flex, but that has nothing to do with spring wear.

[sixty]

To be fair Sixty and the Koreans made some claim the springs were some special Stainless steel.

Or maybe Hanzo steel.

In any case the modern Cherry MX springs are remarkably rust resistant (so far).

The RipOruster.

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I measured old and new with the rip-o-meter before months ago. Both give the same result. Its not a question of resistance for old vs. new I think. Its more about friction. Its hard to explain.

[woody]

I measured old and new with the rip-o-meter before months ago. Both give the same result. Its not a question of resistance for old vs. new I think. Its more about friction. Its hard to explain.

Measuring the force at (around) activation gives only a single loose point. Plethora of curves might go through it.

[DrunkenDonut]

I have a wyse terminal board with blacks and they are smooooooooth! I should pop one out and have a real close look at it compared to my newish Filco with blacks.

edit: On second thought, it seems they're not too different. The old wyse has a few worn keys which are lighter to press though.

[ch_123]

That rumor of "Vintage Blacks are Better Than Currently Shipping MX Blacks" is a Korean keyboard and Sixty rumor (he has kind of gone Korean).

 
Is this in the same way that there's no difference between various generations of Model M, White Alps and Blue, etc etc etc?

I measured old and new with the rip-o-meter before months ago. Both give the same result. Its not a question of resistance for old vs. new I think. Its more about friction. Its hard to explain.

 
Yeah, force ratings are largely meaningless. They don't explain why, for example, a Black Cherry keyboard feels more tiring to type on than a buckling spring keyboard, even though the latter is nominally stiffer.

[IvanIvanovich]

Pretty much. The old ones feel smoother, just for that reason. They are old and have been used a lot. All of the friction has eliminated any of the rough spots that might exist on new stems so they no longer feel as stiff. Springs may compress slightly over long use also, further adding to the lighter feeling. Similar to an extremely heavily used brown switch board I came across where it seemed like the bumps had been almost completely worn away. It seemed much lighter too. I had the same impression on that Wyse board when I compared it to a g80-3000. What did you end up doing with it out of curiosity?

[The Solutor]

They are old and have been used a lot. All of the friction has eliminated any of the rough spots that might exist on new stems so they no longer feel as stiff.

This sounds reasonable, but you have to keep in mind, that in rubber domes, wearing of the stems make the friction higher.

[Tony]

I suppose the switch remains the same but the keycaps and edges are worn and thinner, so you feel that the switch is breaking in.

[woody]

Yeah, force ratings are largely meaningless. They don't explain why, for example, a Black Cherry keyboard feels more tiring to type on than a buckling spring keyboard, even though the latter is nominally stiffer.

Yup, Integrals 101.

[Atenacius]

Will the tactile bumps and audible click of Blues, also lessen with time? They get lighter but it'd be a shame for it to lose character

[alaricljs]

It's a piece of plastic.  Given enough actuations it will wear to the point where it doesn't function properly.  The question is how many?  Cherry Corp says quite a few.

[Atenacius]

Well obviously we're trying not to be too meta with this subject because everything degrades given enough time. It doesn't mean it's not worth asking.

I suppose it would stop functioning altogether before any drastic changes would occur

[alaricljs]

Well the only keys I've heard talk of wearing to the point of being different are the clears that are apparently popular right now for one reason or another. Also turns out that it's usually not so much the wear as it is the crap in the key from a KB that hasn't been cleaned. Those keyboards are POS boards that have been in use for quite some time so presumably you needn't worry so much.

[IvanIvanovich]

I suspect they all do. In normal use though I imagine it would take many many years for them to wear to such a level they were no longer distinguishable though. Everything wears out eventually. Anyone with 80's - 90's high use non-linears want to weigh in on that?

[ricercar]

Will the tactile bumps and audible click of Blues, also lessen with time? They get lighter but it'd be a shame for it to lose character

 
] have a Cherry blue board that's totally worn out in the clicky sense, but it still functions well electrically. Only two switches click like a new Cherry blue , the rest are sort of reminiscent of browns.  It's a very disappointing keyboard.

[Atenacius]

That's disappointing but if it's been used that much that it stops clicking, it's been a fun 5 years or so and now you have an excuse to buy another mechanical

[ricercar]

Unfortunately it Was sold to me already failed as a "clicky" Keyboard, so it was not me who got the fun five years.

Fortunately Cherry blacks age so much better ~my used black boards are Still a pleasure to type with.