Right in the middle, you are willing to tear apart a board for its guts and glory, yet you sometimes have sympathy.
I guess this is sort of true. I am rather ruthless to some keyboards while very sympathetic toward others, like most blue Alps boards and the Xeroxes. I also spare the AT101 because I find it to be a very nice board despite it boring me.
)
My Monterey K101 103 (as it says on the label) is the closest 101 Alps board that I feel like I could desolder, though I still wouldn't want to. It's just my least favorite.
That would be amazing if you could get a SKCM White.
Ah, SKCL Yellow makes sense. Favorite would be SKCM Blue but for budget reasons SKCM Orange is my daily. Orange is a seriously underrated switch imo. Next to the best!
My idea with the switch tester is that once I get enough switches I would send it on a tour. I think it would be a great for the community. The more interest their is in Alps the better. I mean, you are one of the very few who has tried SKCL Brown. If we (the community/people in this thread) worked together we could create the ultimate Alps switch tester. Just a thought.
I'd have to desolder the Acer 6011 I have. I'm not sure if I'd want to. On the other hand, I could just swap housings with a Salmon or something. We'll see. I'm not sure at this point, haha.
Yeah, SKCL Yellow indeed. My favorite is SKCM Blue, SKCM Neon Green, and SKCL Green in each respective category, that's for sure. Barring Neons, I'd pick SKCM Orange as my favorite tactile. Orange is very similar to feel, imo, to blue Alps, which makes it pretty amazing.
Yeah, I hear you on the switch tester bit, that's true. Yeah, SKCL browns and SKCM Neons are really really hard to find. Brown SKCL is just a random shot. Texas Instruments Low Profile boards have them, but they can also have SKCM Brown. I think they started with SKCL Brown though. Then there's a Packard Bell 84 key that seemed more common in Japan. SKCL Browns had a limited production that began AFTER SKCL Green but ended before production for SKCL Green ended. It's really strange. I guess they just wanted to test an alternative weight but it was likely unpopular compared to SKCL Green.
That looks like pretty good evidence to me. SKCM Neon Green is what SKCM Black is to Salmon expect with SKCM Browns. And like SKCM Black there is a 'early' version with slits.
Yeah, I really cannot see how they aren't related. If the SKCM Brown debuted in 1985 with the 6085, then I would not doubt if Xerox had a hand in it then as well, or maybe they just had such positive feedback toward it, that they asked Alps to make an equivalent or something as Alps began moving to short contact plates and more simple one-piece leaf springs. Who knows.
Seeing these, how could they not be related? No other tactile or click leaf for that matter, looks like these.
Notice the weird grey paint on the brown tactile leaf? Strange.
I think you’re right though that they are the same concept.
Practically, however, there is a much larger difference between brown and green tactile switches than there is between orange/salmon/black switches. The brown switches are significantly stiffer.
I don't find much of a difference between
pine SKCM Neon Greens and SKCM Brown. Brown ARE stiffer, but it is similar to how SKCM Salmon are stiffer than Orange, though a little ironic since they moved into a lighter switch. Most other switch relations are the other way around.
The thick plastic part of that SKCM Brown leaf is obviously a big reason why it feels so rigid. SKCM Neon Greens are a simplified and much more practical design.
