As the title says, I have been thinking recently on possible ways to achieve the lovely tactility that alps switches provide while maintaining the ability to use the chunks of abs we spent 140$ on. Stem adapters work but obviously increase the height significantly while increasing stem wobble. Perhaps, just forcing the cherries to act like alps may be the solution.
"Switch films"
The idea came to me by thinking of a way to create leaves that would work on any LINEAR cherry switch, not just ones with specially modified housings, as molds would cost a load to create. Rather, this idea could make use of an already popularized form of switch modification: switch films. The idea would be to use a very thin steel sheet, ideally around 0.12mm, to create a switch film. The difference would be on the inside of the film, where the cross bar of the film would normally be. Instead of the bar, the entire section would be solid, covering the led shine through hole. this solid area serves to stiffen the switch film so it can support the main part of the aforementioned steel film. This main part would of course be the leaf! It would be bent down with a bump/tab like on normal cherry leaves in order to provide the tactility. I made a quick mock up of what the leaf could look like before it was bent in the left section of the picture below.
Problems
While in theory the tactile leaf would work well, there are a few key issue that arise upon further inspection. The primary issue with this design is that there would not be a lot of space for the leaf under full compression of the switch. This could be remedied by a more unique leaf design, likely with a modified style of bump. Another option could be modifying the bottom of the cherry switch to open up a little more space for the bump to recess when the switch is under full compression. This would be less ideal as it would require housing modification, both affecting a switch for future use and possibly causing more flex in the bottom housing. More cannot really be said on what is the best way to account for this issue until testing is done. Two additional problems arise that are inherent to the clicky leaf. The first stems from the problem that alps clicky leaves are attached to the bottom of the housing and are unbound on the upper section of the switch, similar to how a cherry leaf is shaped. With this film design, the leaf is bound on the upper section of the switch. A possible solution to this issue is merely creating a longer leaf and folding it twice more in order to mimic the alps click leaf (longer leaf film design shown as right sketch in picture below). To avoid the third bend causing issues, it could be bent past a 90 degree angle such that it would be held firm against the inner housing when the film is in place. Unfortunately that would mean that the switch housing could not be modified as the increased third bend relies on that inner housing to be held stable. To be clear, if the third bend is not modified in this way, switch housing modification would still be viable. The final issue stemming from the clicky leaf design is that it would only exacerbate the issue of space within the housing to a further degree.
Thank you for reading, I know there are a lot of issues in this design, but I believe the base idea is strong enough that clever design could result in a very fresh and worth while end product. EDIT: Forgot I can't upload pictures yet, I hope the descriptions are good enough that a rough idea of the design can be seen.
