Alps Appreciation Thread

[Mattr567]

The Alps game isn't as brutal as Cherry can be, but if you're just trying to get by, it can still be pretty harsh. Especially when the piranhas start up a frenzy over blue alps.

I paid like $100 for my first Alps board, which was a Nan Tan/NTC 6151N with blue Alps that I got from someone off reddit. It was nice, but then I stupidly bricked it and ended up using its remains on the Infinity keyboard I had at the time.

I think Mattr is one of the luckiest in terms of finds online. $25 plus shipping is amazing for that Packard Bell. I might be pretty lucky too since I got my 4 DocuTechs for $80 plus shipping. They needed a good cleaning, but they were surprisingly not damaged in any way. If they were though, it would have given me a reason to desolder them. Instead, I just started becoming fascinated with them.

These last two Xerox boards though... 

Don't forget the Focus FK-727 with Cyan Omnom's I found! May not have been Alps but goddamn that thing was rare Also the Taobao goldmine I discovered

Your Docutech finds were great as well. Not common and usually go for $120+ each. You and that other guy are like the only ones who have 'em. The only way to get cheap 5140's is craigslist. Ebay people have sky high prices. The IIC less however.

I actually had a 5140 in my sights on craigslist a long time ago. Turned out I was too late, and the guy's friend threw the 5140 away He was going to give it away for free to me.

[alh84001]

Tall flat green ones are on the IBM F AT, but those are even more rare than the Omnikey.

I actually do have it. But I want a red and a blue LED to spruce things up a bit

Don't forget the Focus FK-727 with Cyan Omnom's I found! May not have been Alps but goddamn that thing was rare

That board, but with Alps switches and regular ANSI TKL layout would be my Alps endgame. Granted, these are significant modifications, but one can dream.

I actually had a 5140 in my sights on craigslist a long time ago. Turned out I was too late, and the guy's friend threw the 5140 away He was going to give it away for free to me.

You stumbled upon some much nicer sellers on craigslist than me then. I have one in my sights but it has a price tag twice for what they went recently on ebay (at least lowerpriced ones). Unfortunately, seller won't budge.

[alienman82]

removed.

[fohat.digs]

I actually do have it. But I want a red and a blue LED to spruce things up a bit

There are probably hundreds on ebay for cheap if you just knew the proper search terms.

[E3E]

Don't forget the Focus FK-727 with Cyan Omnom's I found! May not have been Alps but goddamn that thing was rare Also the Taobao goldmine I discovered

Yeah man, I've never seen another one of those. Even the Focus FK-555 had been seen more with cyan omrons have been seen more. I was considering buying that one off ya, but decided to let it go.

Your Docutech finds were great as well. Not common and usually go for $120+ each. You and that other guy are like the only ones who have 'em. The only way to get cheap 5140's is craigslist. Ebay people have sky high prices. The IIC less however.

I was lucky that none of my Xerox boards were broken or busted up, since it seems some of the people who've found them have gotten them in poor shape. Definitely happy I have a model from the first year of production, actually only a month after release.

I'd say the board I have that is probably the rarest is actually my FAME TH-5539. There are a LOT of variants of the TH-5539, but I still have yet to see another one like mine (and I don't mean the modding). Always keeping my eye out for one, but no one seems to have ever seen one. Even others with blue Alps were different.





The wiki on it even says "unknown model" haha.

I actually had a 5140 in my sights on craigslist a long time ago. Turned out I was too late, and the guy's friend threw the 5140 away He was going to give it away for free to me.

Ahh yeah, I remember that. My bombed finds were the Focus FK-2001 with blue alps from a local member, UnFocused (though, I understand his position too), and pretty much Packard Bell T9102 x2. Just missed getting it for $50 on eBay (but someone ended up bidding so the seller went back on it), and then the craigslist guy in your area that stopped responding to me.

[Mattr567]

Hah didn't know you were thinking about grabbing the 727. I guess if its not Alps its not for you lol.

Wonder where this will go
http://www.ebay.com/itm/322230933575

And I wonder what switches this guy has's. Google found nothing in the model number.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/282140231906

[alh84001]

And I wonder what switches this guy has's. Google found nothing in the model number.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/282140231906

Layout-wise it is very similar, but not identical, to this one
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Keyboard-PCB-white-ALPS-colored-keycaps-/182223058212

[emdude]

I'd be hesitant to say that the second board was Alps.  The Ctrl key and the profile looks very Cherry.

[alh84001]

Yes, it gives a cherry vibe to me too. But I'm retarded when it comes to identifying the switch based on keycaps, so I leave that to someone more knowledgeable.

[emdude]

Yeah, I would not rule out the possibility of Alps or some other switch either; the FAME TH-5539 had Cherry-profile key caps, after all.

[MandrewDavis]

The second board looks to very similar to the Chicony KB-5170, but the lock lights lead me to believe that it is a US variant of the Unitek K-158. So I'm guessing Cherry

[alh84001]

I just received Apple IIc keyboard assembly and wow, does it feel awesome. If blues are better then ambers, I'm afraid to try them out then

And ambers are not that heavy at all. Typing on them for a couple of minutes, I would say they are close to model M, and based on some comments, I was expecting something like space invaders or XT spacebar level of heaviness. And this only makes me want to get that 5140 even more

[klennkellon]

All of these blue Alps boards are making me cry from jealousy, please stop triggering me.

[alienman82]

removed.

[emdude]

All of these blue Alps boards are making me cry from jealousy, please stop triggering me.

I'm sure there are some people who wouldn't mind trading one for your Packard Bell.

[klennkellon]

All of these blue Alps boards are making me cry from jealousy, please stop triggering me.

I'm sure there are some people who wouldn't mind trading one for your Packard Bell.

Some day, I just like owning something so rare.

I personally want to just buy some SKCM Blues and solder them into the Alphas of my V80 and put the board in a good case. I'll call it the Queensaver.

[Aran.E99]

out of SKCM Blue and SKCM Green, what do you guys recommend? i know its gonna be a pain to get a board with these to the UK but i would like to get some opinions.

(yes, one is clicky and one is tactile so shhhhhhhhhhh)

i think this has been covered a lot here but i would like to know.

[MandrewDavis]

eBay can have high prices, but I got all my 5140 (6) there for $40-75 each

Triggered! Plz hide anything about brown alps for a while.

All of these blue Alps boards are making me cry from jealousy, please stop triggering me.

I'm sure there are some people who wouldn't mind trading one for your Packard Bell.

Some day, I just like owning something so rare.

I personally want to just buy some SKCM Blues and solder them into the Alphas of my V80 and put the board in a good case. I'll call it the Queensaver.

IIRC, the V80 PCB is compatible with Tex alu cases, just not sure what keyset would be worth of a QUEENSAVER.

How are the stock caps?

[chyros]

out of SKCM Blue and SKCM Green, what do you guys recommend? i know its gonna be a pain to get a board with these to the UK but i would like to get some opinions.

(yes, one is clicky and one is tactile so shhhhhhhhhhh)

i think this has been covered a lot here but i would like to know.

I still prefer blue, personally. The feeling is quite different, though. The greens have an unmistakable, unique "rounded" feeling.

[mike52787]

eBay can have high prices, but I got all my 5140 (6) there for $40-75 each

Triggered! Plz hide anything about

More

brown alps

for a while.

All of these blue Alps boards are making me cry from jealousy, please stop triggering me.

I'm sure there are some people who wouldn't mind trading one for your Packard Bell.

Some day, I just like owning something so rare.

I personally want to just buy some SKCM Blues and solder them into the Alphas of my V80 and put the board in a good case. I'll call it the Queensaver.

IIRC, the V80 PCB is compatible with Tex alu cases, just not sure what keyset would be worth of a QUEENSAVER.

How are the stock caps?

The caps on my v60 are ****ty, just pad printed abs. another issue with v60s and v80s is they have 1.25u mods, which are hard to find in alps.

[klennkellon]

AT-101w and windowed FK-2001s are a good source of bottom row keys, even if they aren't perfect matches for the rest of the caps.

[emdude]

They're still ABS though, if you're going to be putting together a board that nice, you gotta go PBT.

[E3E]

out of SKCM Blue and SKCM Green, what do you guys recommend? i know its gonna be a pain to get a board with these to the UK but i would like to get some opinions.

(yes, one is clicky and one is tactile so shhhhhhhhhhh)

i think this has been covered a lot here but i would like to know.

To be honest, SKCM Blue is just the most well-rounded switch that Alps has to offer. The others are just great selections in different areas, but blue owns the clicky side and is just overall very solid.

For typical tactiles, SKCM Cream or Orange is good. For the "topre" tactiles, both brown and green are similar, both are great, a bit stiff, but the bamboo ones are even more "rounded" and less tactile than the pines and SKCM Brown.

[MandrewDavis]

I found some pretty useful info regarding keycaps on a DT classified thread.

Color comparison:

Thicknesses:

[klennkellon]

They're still ABS though, if you're going to be putting together a board that nice, you gotta go PBT.

This is very true, but except for the spacebar the bottom row doesn't tend to get as shiny.

[emdude]

Yeah, you're right.  PBT alphanumerics with ABS modifiers would be a pretty good compromise, actually.

[Hypersphere]

Yeah, you're right.  PBT alphanumerics with ABS modifiers would be a pretty good compromise, actually.

This is what I have done on my contemporary V60 Matias boards and my Omnikey 101. IBM 5140 keyboards have excellent dye-sub PBT caps for alphanumerics, and I buy blank black ABS mods and spacebars from Matias. You can get 6.25x and 7.00x spacebars and 1.25x and 1.50x bottom-row caps from Matias in printed or blank black or white.

It would be great if someone would put together definitive information on sources of Alps-mount dye-sub PBT keycaps. Based on appearance and a pumice-like feel, I had thought that caps I had harvested from an old-logo Dell 101 and an Acer 6311 were dye-sub PBT, but the acetone test indicated that these caps were not PBT. Were any of these vintage caps made with some plastic other than ABS or PBT?

[mike52787]

Yeah, you're right.  PBT alphanumerics with ABS modifiers would be a pretty good compromise, actually.

This is what I have done on my contemporary V60 Matias boards and my Omnikey 101. IBM 5140 keyboards have excellent dye-sub PBT caps for alphanumerics, and I buy blank black ABS mods and spacebars from Matias. You can get 6.25x and 7.00x spacebars and 1.25x and 1.50x bottom-row caps from Matias in printed or blank black or white.

It would be great if someone would put together definitive information on sources of Alps-mount dye-sub PBT keycaps. Based on appearance and a pumice-like feel, I had thought that caps I had harvested from an old-logo Dell 101 and an Acer 6311 were dye-sub PBT, but the acetone test indicated that these caps were not PBT. Were any of these vintage caps made with some plastic other than ABS or PBT?

Old logo at101s are dyesub pbt. Other sources for dyesub pbt caps are SGI granite boards, Wang 724/725 series boards, and AEK/AEKII and some appledesign boards.

[Aran.E99]

out of SKCM Blue and SKCM Green, what do you guys recommend? i know its gonna be a pain to get a board with these to the UK but i would like to get some opinions.

(yes, one is clicky and one is tactile so shhhhhhhhhhh)

i think this has been covered a lot here but i would like to know.

To be honest, SKCM Blue is just the most well-rounded switch that Alps has to offer. The others are just great selections in different areas, but blue owns the clicky side and is just overall very solid.

For typical tactiles, SKCM Cream or Orange is good. For the "topre" tactiles, both brown and green are similar, both are great, a bit stiff, but the bamboo ones are even more "rounded" and less tactile than the pines and SKCM Brown.

thanks, i really might consider getting blues when my Model M sells. some cheeky guy on ebay is begging me to sell it for £30 because he is, and i quote, a 'fellow /r/mechanicalkeyboards user'... the audacity of some people...

[emdude]

Yeah, you're right.  PBT alphanumerics with ABS modifiers would be a pretty good compromise, actually.

This is what I have done on my contemporary V60 Matias boards and my Omnikey 101. IBM 5140 keyboards have excellent dye-sub PBT caps for alphanumerics, and I buy blank black ABS mods and spacebars from Matias. You can get 6.25x and 7.00x spacebars and 1.25x and 1.50x bottom-row caps from Matias in printed or blank black or white.

It would be great if someone would put together definitive information on sources of Alps-mount dye-sub PBT keycaps. Based on appearance and a pumice-like feel, I had thought that caps I had harvested from an old-logo Dell 101 and an Acer 6311 were dye-sub PBT, but the acetone test indicated that these caps were not PBT. Were any of these vintage caps made with some plastic other than ABS or PBT?

Old logo at101s are dyesub pbt. Other sources for dyesub pbt caps are SGI granite boards, Wang 724/725 series boards, and AEK/AEKII and some appledesign boards.

IIRC, not all old-logo AT101s are dyesubbed PBT.  Only the first-gen Alps-manufactured ones are.  Fortunately, they can be easily identified by their FCC ID.

[alienman82]

removed.

[E3E]

Yeah, you're right.  PBT alphanumerics with ABS modifiers would be a pretty good compromise, actually.

This is what I have done on my contemporary V60 Matias boards and my Omnikey 101. IBM 5140 keyboards have excellent dye-sub PBT caps for alphanumerics, and I buy blank black ABS mods and spacebars from Matias. You can get 6.25x and 7.00x spacebars and 1.25x and 1.50x bottom-row caps from Matias in printed or blank black or white.

It would be great if someone would put together definitive information on sources of Alps-mount dye-sub PBT keycaps. Based on appearance and a pumice-like feel, I had thought that caps I had harvested from an old-logo Dell 101 and an Acer 6311 were dye-sub PBT, but the acetone test indicated that these caps were not PBT. Were any of these vintage caps made with some plastic other than ABS or PBT?

Old logo at101s are dyesub pbt. Other sources for dyesub pbt caps are SGI granite boards, Wang 724/725 series boards, and AEK/AEKII and some appledesign boards.

IIRC, not all old-logo AT101s are dyesubbed PBT.  Only the first-gen Alps-manufactured ones are.  Fortunately, they can be easily identified by their FCC ID.

Not even. You just need to look at the country of manufacture. If it's made in the USA, it's going to have salmon Alps and PBT caps. None of the Taiwanese AT101s have PBT and the one Japanese one I've seen with a US layout had doubleshot ABS and black switches.

The earliest serial numbers of the US made ones also had double shot Alps-made key caps, but those are incredibly unlikely to find. No idea what switches they used, but likely SKCM black, I bet.

-

IBM Multistation new style (cylindrical) - Japanese layout

Wang 725

US-made Dell AT101

SGI Granite/AT101

IBM 5140

IBM P70 (thin)

C. Itoh Terminal Keyboard (LK201 Clone) sphericals

Xerox 6085 and DocuTech keyboards

Heath-branded Zenith ZKB-2 (usually has SKCL Yellow)

Earlier models of Zenith Z-150 keyboards

and probably a bit more!

[Hypersphere]

My Dell AT101 has FCC GYUM97SK and was made in Taiwan. It has black Alps switches. This indicates that it was made by Silitek. According to the DT wiki,

"The Dell AT101 series was introduced as an Alps Bigfoot keyboard, with Alps SKCM Salmon switches and thick dye-sublimated keycaps with dark blue legends."

"Around 1992, production transferred to Silitek. With this came thin keycaps and a move to Alps SKCM Black switches. The keycap printing method is not confirmed."

"The keys use plate-mounted tactile Alps SKCL/SKCM series switches (either salmon or black). The keycaps are reported to be ABS; while yellowed examples are very rare, an Alps-made AT101 has been found with all keycaps except space bar the original colour, suggesting the use of PBT for all keycaps except space bar."
https://deskthority.net/wiki/Dell_AT101

The printing on my Dell caps looks to me like dye-sub and the plastic has a pumice-like texture on the sides of the caps and has not yellowed, but the plastic softens in contact with acetone. Does anyone here know the printing method that was used on this generation of Dell AT101 caps?

[emdude]

Yeah, you're right.  PBT alphanumerics with ABS modifiers would be a pretty good compromise, actually.

This is what I have done on my contemporary V60 Matias boards and my Omnikey 101. IBM 5140 keyboards have excellent dye-sub PBT caps for alphanumerics, and I buy blank black ABS mods and spacebars from Matias. You can get 6.25x and 7.00x spacebars and 1.25x and 1.50x bottom-row caps from Matias in printed or blank black or white.

It would be great if someone would put together definitive information on sources of Alps-mount dye-sub PBT keycaps. Based on appearance and a pumice-like feel, I had thought that caps I had harvested from an old-logo Dell 101 and an Acer 6311 were dye-sub PBT, but the acetone test indicated that these caps were not PBT. Were any of these vintage caps made with some plastic other than ABS or PBT?

Old logo at101s are dyesub pbt. Other sources for dyesub pbt caps are SGI granite boards, Wang 724/725 series boards, and AEK/AEKII and some appledesign boards.

IIRC, not all old-logo AT101s are dyesubbed PBT.  Only the first-gen Alps-manufactured ones are.  Fortunately, they can be easily identified by their FCC ID.

Not even. You just need to look at the country of manufacture. If it's made in the USA, it's going to have salmon Alps and PBT caps. None of the Taiwanese AT101s have PBT and the one Japanese one I've seen with a US layout had doubleshot ABS and black switches.

The earliest serial numbers of the US made ones also had double shot Alps-made key caps, but those are incredibly unlikely to find. No idea what switches they used, but likely SKCM black, I bet.

Oh wow, thanks for the clarification then.

Hm, going by the DT wiki then, it is correct to assume that AT101s with FCC ID GYIAT101-102 also have PBT dye subs?  The wiki does not specify this, but it does have Salmon Alps and is made in the US.

[E3E]

Oh wow, thanks for the clarification then.

Hm, going by the DT wiki then, it is correct to assume that AT101s with FCC ID GYIAT101-102 also have PBT dye subs?  The wiki does not specify this, but it does have Salmon Alps and is made in the US.

Yep, those have PBT dyesubs as well; they're pretty much identical to the ones without the -102 bit. 

[Hypersphere]

I notice that the DT Wiki article does not say PBT dye-sub. It says "thick dye-sublimated keycaps". Usually, dye-sublimation is done with PBT plastic, but is it ever done with any other type of plastic? The DT wiki also says, when referring to the later-production thin keycaps, that "the keycap printing method is not confirmed". The printing seems excellent on my Dell keycaps, even if the caps are not made of PBT. They are not doubleshot, but I do not know what the printing method is.

BTW, I can also confirm that the 84-key black-label Zenith keyboards have dye-sub PBT caps. I just received one of these excellent keyboards this afternoon. It is very solidly built and the caps have that pumice-like feel that some PBT caps have. Usually I am not a fan of linear switches, but the green Alps in the Zenith are rather nice.

[E3E]

The Dell AT101 old logo from Taiwan uses some kind of printing method (ie not doubleshot) but uses ABS plastic. Similar to the Acer's key cap printing method, which some say is UV-printed, the ink on the Taiwanese old logo AT101s seems flush with the caps which is reminiscent of dye-subbing.

They also have nice texture too, but they are ABS. A good identifier is if the F and J keys have bars or dots. The dots are the authentic Dell AT101 PBT caps.

I should also clarify on some of the models listed earlier in terms of their homing keys:

scoops -IBM Multistation new style (cylindrical) - Japanese layout

scoops -Wang 725

dots - US-made Dell AT101

dots - SGI Granite/AT101

none - IBM 5140

bars - IBM P70 (thin)

scoops/deep dish - C. Itoh Terminal Keyboard (LK201 Clone) sphericals

none -Xerox 6085 and DocuTech keyboards

dots - Heath-branded Zenith ZKB-2 (usually has SKCL Yellow)

none - Earlier models of Zenith Z-150 keyboards

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is correct.


Also not listed are the various Apple keyboards

[emdude]

none - IBM 5140

I noticed this myself cleaning up the key caps, quite odd.

[chyros]

out of SKCM Blue and SKCM Green, what do you guys recommend? i know its gonna be a pain to get a board with these to the UK but i would like to get some opinions.

(yes, one is clicky and one is tactile so shhhhhhhhhhh)

i think this has been covered a lot here but i would like to know.

To be honest, SKCM Blue is just the most well-rounded switch that Alps has to offer. The others are just great selections in different areas, but blue owns the clicky side and is just overall very solid.

For typical tactiles, SKCM Cream or Orange is good. For the "topre" tactiles, both brown and green are similar, both are great, a bit stiff, but the bamboo ones are even more "rounded" and less tactile than the pines and SKCM Brown.

Yeah, that would be exactly my assessment as well. I think it's very hard to go wrong with blue. And orange is fantastic as well, under-appreciated compared to blue, but still, it's not clicky xD . Pine greens feel almost like salmons IMO, not quite the same, but not as distinctly different as the bamboo greens. Those guys are a whole different kettle of fish.

[mike52787]

damn, reassembling and lubing alps is boring.

[E3E]

out of SKCM Blue and SKCM Green, what do you guys recommend? i know its gonna be a pain to get a board with these to the UK but i would like to get some opinions.

(yes, one is clicky and one is tactile so shhhhhhhhhhh)

i think this has been covered a lot here but i would like to know.

To be honest, SKCM Blue is just the most well-rounded switch that Alps has to offer. The others are just great selections in different areas, but blue owns the clicky side and is just overall very solid.

For typical tactiles, SKCM Cream or Orange is good. For the "topre" tactiles, both brown and green are similar, both are great, a bit stiff, but the bamboo ones are even more "rounded" and less tactile than the pines and SKCM Brown.

Yeah, that would be exactly my assessment as well. I think it's very hard to go wrong with blue. And orange is fantastic as well, under-appreciated compared to blue, but still, it's not clicky xD . Pine greens feel almost like salmons IMO, not quite the same, but not as distinctly different as the bamboo greens. Those guys are a whole different kettle of fish.

The pine SKCM Green feel closest to SKCM Brown, in my opinion.  When I get that NIB Xerox 6085 with browns, I can do a direct comparison against its younger brethren to see just how different they feel, but comparing my FMJ Alps board (aluminum-cased 60% w/ carbon fiber plate) and a DocuTech doesn't seem too balanced. 
 
I can get what you're saying in terms of tactility. It's strong and similar to Salmon, but the Salmon reset immediately after the slider passes the tactile bump, while the leaves in both brown and green have more of a curve that extends far down into the travel. So it it feels like a chunkier switch because the tactile spring is pushing against that slider for most of the travel.

Salmons feel hollow in comparison, imo.

The top housings affecting tactility like that is really strange though. I put pines in bamboo housings and bamboo in pine housings and they felt identical to each other when swapped like that. The bamboos felt just like pines with pine tops from salmon Alps swapped on.

[chyros]

out of SKCM Blue and SKCM Green, what do you guys recommend? i know its gonna be a pain to get a board with these to the UK but i would like to get some opinions.

(yes, one is clicky and one is tactile so shhhhhhhhhhh)

i think this has been covered a lot here but i would like to know.

To be honest, SKCM Blue is just the most well-rounded switch that Alps has to offer. The others are just great selections in different areas, but blue owns the clicky side and is just overall very solid.

For typical tactiles, SKCM Cream or Orange is good. For the "topre" tactiles, both brown and green are similar, both are great, a bit stiff, but the bamboo ones are even more "rounded" and less tactile than the pines and SKCM Brown.

Yeah, that would be exactly my assessment as well. I think it's very hard to go wrong with blue. And orange is fantastic as well, under-appreciated compared to blue, but still, it's not clicky xD . Pine greens feel almost like salmons IMO, not quite the same, but not as distinctly different as the bamboo greens. Those guys are a whole different kettle of fish.

The pine SKCM Green feel closest to SKCM Brown, in my opinion.  When I get that NIB Xerox 6085 with browns, I can do a direct comparison against its younger brethren to see just how different they feel, but comparing my FMJ Alps board (aluminum-cased 60% w/ carbon fiber plate) and a DocuTech doesn't seem too balanced. 
 
I can get what you're saying in terms of tactility. It's strong and similar to Salmon, but the Salmon reset immediately after the slider passes the tactile bump, while the leaves in both brown and green have more of a curve that extends far down into the travel. So it it feels like a chunkier switch because the tactile spring is pushing against that slider for most of the travel.

Salmons feel hollow in comparison, imo.

The top housings affecting tactility like that is really strange though. I put pines in bamboo housings and bamboo in pine housings and they felt identical to each other when swapped like that. The bamboos felt just like pines with pine tops from salmon Alps swapped on.

Yeah, it makes sense what you're saying, reason I said salmon is probably because I don't have any brown boards yet xD . I only have three main colour Alps keyboards to go, I think xD. 

[Blaise170]

Sharp used scoops for the X68K

[E3E]

Yeah, it makes sense what you're saying, reason I said salmon is probably because I don't have any brown boards yet xD . I only have three main colour Alps keyboards to go, I think xD.

Haha, yeah. I understand that. The lineage of SKCM brown is really strange to think about. It was what seems to be the first tactile Alps switch and then it went on up to 1989 and its unique force curve was continued on with SKCM green which continued into the late 90s at least. Still curious to see how long DocuTech keyboards were actually produced. 1998 is our latest date as of yet.

Sharp used scoops for the X68K

Those were ABS, right?

[Hypersphere]

I have an IBM 5140 with SKCM brown Alps in the main typing area. When typing on that board, the brown Alps do not seem all that heavy and they have a most agreeable tactility. The same goes for my Magnavox Videowriter 250 with brown Alps.

However, I also have a custom 60% board with SKCM brown Alps mounted in a stainless steel plate. The Alps browns in the custom board feel extremely heavy (uncomfortably so), and the tactility is even more pronounced than it is in the IBM or Videowriter boards.

[E3E]

Yeah, I think the rigidity of the plate material does have an effect on tactility, and in my experience with Alps, it increased tactility. Like, in my 60% boards with carbon fiber plates, Ambers struck me as being far too tactile for my tastes, as did SKCM Brown initially until I adapted to them. Ambers felt better in the IIc than in the custom board.

I think a softer or more flexible plate material would be better for more tactile switches. Either steel as in vintages or aluminum.

My Orion has a stainless steel plate, but it doesn't really seem to do much to the SKCM blues.

As for feeling heavier than normal, maybe because of less flex, it's more fatiguing to your joints to type? Hmm.

[Aran.E99]

sorry guys for opening a discussion and not replying, i've not really been feeling it today.

thanks for the advice. i think i will try and get blues. only problem is that they are impossible to get in the UK.

[fohat.digs]

thanks for the advice. i think i will try and get blues. only problem is that they are impossible to get in the UK.

Some of us really like clicky switches. Personally, I think that the noise is generally irrelevant and actually more of a negative, but tactility is supremely important to me.

That said, I think that orange (or salmon) Alps are very very close to being "as good" as blue, and although lacking the click, they are still satisfyingly tactile.

An old Apple keyboard (AEK "1") is probably much easier and cheaper to acquire, and it is a very well-built keyboard with the best Alps key caps ever, in my opinion. If you can find an ADB converter, that is the easiest and best place to start.

[Aran.E99]

I used to have a IIgs with orange alps. I loved it but sold it because
!. Made some profit
2. Needed the teensy
3. No rollover.

[emdude]

I used to have a IIgs with orange alps. I loved it but sold it because
!. Made some profit
2. Needed the teensy
3. No rollover.

The M0116 has really crappy rollover too.  Unsuitable for stuff like gaming.