Mimicking the G80-3000

[HungerMechanic]

Those old Cherry boards have their fans, and the G80-3000 has inspired a number of modern kits.

One of them, of course, is the fabulous JER-A06, which hasn't GBed recently:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=101401.0



and another is the new NCR80 / NCR-80, a new budget-kit:

These are pretty neat! What are your feelings on them as modern keyboards, and how they compare to the old Cherry ones?

[MIGHTY CHICKEN]

I love old boards and new ones that mimick old ones. Because they were designed in an era designed to last and weren't all disposable cheap plastic, they usually all have a nice unique look/feel to them. Especially when lots of these boards have funky layouts.

[HungerMechanic]

Although, some might say that the hollow, plateless Cherry boards were an exception to that rule.

People have said that the G80-style boards felt/sounded like cardboard boxes. I'm not sure how durable they really were - they weren't exactly built like Hall Effect keyboards.

But I see people taking them out of drawers from ancient server centers, and they still work.

[MIGHTY CHICKEN]

That is true, although I still would take them any day over a $5 membrane or razer

[Riverman]

I'd love to see an old Cherry G80 some time.  I have a new G80-3000, and even though it's very lightweight and can be flexed pretty easily, it's extremely nice to type on.  The PCB-mounted switches feel lighter than the same ones on a plate-mounted keyboard.

[HungerMechanic]

Hmmm. Those Ergo-Clears I had. Maybe I should have mounted them on something like a G80 instead of a Leopold.

[Riverman]

The one thing that's kept me from modding my G80 is that every switch has a diode soldered through it.  416 solder joints has always seemed like a lot to desolder. I don't think the older ones without n-key rollover have the in-switch diodes.