[IC] Bottom bump tactiles

[Rex]

Hello everyone, my name is Rex. I've been in the hobby for roughly 3 years now, and I've always liked tactile switches, but I was constantly looking for more pretravel before the tactile bump in my switches. I sort of always just put up with taller and taller bumps because there weren't any switches that did have low bumps. It was up until 3 months ago when I started to experiment and frankenswitch.
I promise you this is not a recolour.
I also need to preface that this my first project

This switch will feature a bottom-out tactile bump, with the tactile bump at roughly 1mm before bottoming out. It will have 0.5mm of lenience for actuation.
As you press down on the switch, it will feel like a linear switch.
Near the end, a tactile bump will be present. Then, it bottoms out.
Once it bottoms out, it will actuate. At any other point in the switch, it will not actuate.

There's nothing to really compare this to, but if you've tried ergo clears and holy pandas or any of their clones, these will feature a similiar progression, moving the tactile bump lower than ergo clears.

I'm still looking for a manufacturer, but being hopeful, I won't need to make this manufacturer go through the pain of making new molds for every part of the switch.
Blueprints for the stem:


Force curve representation (not indicative of actual product):


Example:


Top housing: PC
Bottom housing: Nylon
Stem: POM
Travel distance:3mm
Spring weights:53g, 63.5g
Type: Tactile
Price: TBD (I will see if I can make it <.50$)

I recognise this is a very ambitious project, and it's likely not going to go anywhere because MOQ for custom molds is very high and it's unlikely that manufacturers would do t his for me, . I am making a very early IC before I proceed and realise I've wasted a lot of time even if I do work things out. If by any chance this does go well, this will eventually cumulate to a group buy or if there's enough interest, I can sink money to make these long term, likely through vendors.

Filling out the google forms would be very much appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
https://forms.gle/TLhfcAQ1VdTZ8i5c8

UPDATE:
17/10/2023: BSUN has just given me a quote 5K USD for the molds and an MOQ of 50k. So I'll probably sink the money out of pocket and take 10 cents off each switch, cover the cost for the molds and the rest will go to vendors that support the project. Not having high hopes for <.50$ per switch but it'll have to come down to what BSUN quotes me and how much of a cut vendors want to take.

[pixelpusher]

It's interesting.  I can imagine the feel and it's satisfying.  I think the hardest part is going to be timing the actuation with the bump.  And actuating that far down is surely to cause issues for some typists.  But we have every switch under the sun available for people who don't like it.

[Rhienfo]

Very cool idea, would definitely pick up some to see how effective it is.

Would the housing have to change, I'd imagine they would since the legs would bottom out early if it was a standard housing. I think a good idea could be to sell the stems alongside the switches, maybe cut off the legs so they bottom out at the standard 4mm travel and then sell it alongside it.

Love seeing new things when it comes to switches, but not sure how feasible it will be (at least there will be attempt which is all that matters, even if it doesn't materialise.

[mvkb]

Super curious about this project, always felt like this type of switch was missing in the world.

As for manu's, any idea who you're gonna be chatting with?

[Rex]

As for manu's, any idea who you're gonna be chatting with?

Currently in the talks with tecsee, as my frankenswitch had >1mm of pretravel and had the same characteristics of bottoming out and actuation. Other manus that were of consideration were JWK, Outemu and Kailh.
JWK and Outemu both had parts from my frankenswitch, which meant it was more likely I could get away with making less fully custom parts.
Kailh has the MK dose, which has a very similiar bump to what is imagined here, less refined but they would have to make a new mold for it anyway because the MK doses have dual legs.

Would the housing have to change, I'd imagine they would since the legs would bottom out early if it was a standard housing.

Tecsee tops are like, surprisingly tall compared to standard top housings, which is why I used them in my frankenswitch and why I'm contacting them now. The legs aren't actually any much longer than standard legs, it's mostly the bump and dent position that's affected.

I think a good idea could be to sell the stems alongside the switches, maybe cut off the legs so they bottom out at the standard 4mm travel and then sell it alongside it.

Not sure how financially feasible this will be, but I will mention this idea when the project is more set in stone.

[stidal]

kind of a fun novel idea. please do not use tecsee if this ends up progressing

[GrumioThaSpoonGod]

kind of a fun novel idea. please do not use tecsee if this ends up progressing

Any reason why no tecsee?

[lakeboredom]

The whole reason I like ergo clears is being able to tickle the nipple. Not smack the bottom.
I feel like you've been swayed to the dark side...

Sent from my moto g power (2022) using Tapatalk

[thechemtrailkid]

I'm with you that I like pretravel but what I found was that I don't like not feeling resistance from the tactile element from the start; in other words, there's no sudden ramp up in resistance when the slide begins to encounter the tactile element. Have you tried any alps or alps clones? Linear alps kind of exhibit this and Matias linears really exhibit this but the tactile event is close to bottoming out that it is basically indistinguishable from bottoming out during normal typing

[welmerer]

bottom bump tactile goes so hard not gonna lie

[Rex]

kind of a fun novel idea. please do not use tecsee if this ends up progressing

Quotes are in from tecsee, they'll do it at an MOQ of a million so... I'll try to get it to a more reasonable number? but I'm also reaching out to bsun and see if they're willing to run this. If you have any suggestions of manus, feel free to reach out. My discord is Rexxamus (rexxify). If you can't find that, I'm pretty active on the r/switchmodders discord.

I'm with you that I like pretravel but what I found was that I don't like not feeling resistance from the tactile element from the start; in other words, there's no sudden ramp up in resistance when the slide begins to encounter the tactile element. Have you tried any alps or alps clones? Linear alps kind of exhibit this and Matias linears really exhibit this but the tactile event is close to bottoming out that it is basically indistinguishable from bottoming out during normal typing

I think part of what causes that merging in feel in the Alps linears are that it does ramp up, rather than having a sudden increase in tactile element. From my prototypes that mimic the force curve, it's more like a membrane with pretravel. I think it's distinguishable enough that it does prove to be quite prominent.

[pixelpusher]

A million?  Good god. 

[Kiririn]

A million switch MOQ is a lot... Assuming each person buys at least 200 that's going to be 5000 buyers.

[LogLab]

It's a really cool idea as a novelty, I'd definitely try that. You might want to get quotes on prices though first, it shouldn't be too hard to get a ballpark estimate.