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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Mikhail on Fri, 19 June 2020, 05:45:34
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1 Do browns and clears have same stems but different springs?
2 Do blues and greens have same stems but different springs?
3 Do reds and browns have same springs?
4 Vintage blues lighter than new ones? (In my experience - yes)
5 Do vintage blues and vintage blacks have different housings, and housings of blues not smooth?
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1. No. The bumps are different. A Brown's stem with a Clear's spring is a less tactile switch, not a Clear.
2. Yes. The colour of the stem is different but shaped the same.
3. Yes.
4. Good question.. Vintage unused ("new-old-stock") blues are definitely smoother, but I'm not sure about the spring.
5. Not all vintage switches of the same type have had exactly the same plastic housing throughout the years. So there are vintage blue and black switches with slightly different housing. I dunno about the same generation though.
It has been said that blue and black switches have different leaf springs inside (press-fit into the housings), which would make a blue slider and spring feel different if transplanted into a Black switch's housing with leaf springs left inside (and vice versa), but I've not tried that myself.
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Thanks for answers!
3. It is strange. I got gaterons reds and browns and this true. But diagrams on the Cherry’s MX website shows browns bottom out heavier, and same as blues.
4. Compared springs side by side with linear stems)
5. I got cherry blues with 1990 keyboard, replace linear stems going super scratchy)
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5. I got cherry blues with 1990 keyboard, replace linear stems going super scratchy)
I think that makes senses if the leaf spring is heavier, yes.
But I think some linear stems that Cherry made in the last ten-twenty years are also scratchier than vintage. Cherry has then supposedly changed their tooling so even more recent switches would be smoother than those.
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I have swapped vint black stem into my vint blue housing before just to confirm how it works (so i would decide to keep the vint blue as reserves or not). As I recalled there was virtually no different as the black stem in blue housing was just smooth. I will do more testing later tonight since I still have all the parts, but I wonder how clean is your vint blue housing? Sometimes the contact leaf is dirty, which does not really show clearly using blue stem with clicky jacket but is more noticeable with linear stem.
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I have swapped vint black stem into my vint blue housing before just to confirm how it works (so i would decide to keep the vint blue as reserves or not). As I recalled there was virtually no different as the black stem in blue housing was just smooth. I will do more testing later tonight since I still have all the parts, but I wonder how clean is your vint blue housing? Sometimes the contact leaf is dirty, which does not really show clearly using blue stem with clicky jacket but is more noticeable with linear stem.
Now I checked the housing and the contact leaf - everything is clean.
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Now I checked the housing and the contact leaf - everything is clean.
I just swap mine again and yeah you are right there is scratchiness there. Welp i guess i have no more reason to keep those blues ^^
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Now I checked the housing and the contact leaf - everything is clean.
I just swap mine again and yeah you are right there is scratchiness there. Welp i guess i have no more reason to keep those blues ^^
Hmm... Now I put Gateron brown stems in this old blues housings. And it came more stiff and no pre-travel. Last I notice right now! So it is different leaf springs.
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Hmm... Now I put Gateron brown stems in this old blues housings. And it came more stiff and no pre-travel. Last I notice right now! So it is different leaf springs.
potentially. I have one well worn vint blue coming to me (i think well worn, we shall see) and i will be conducting the test again to see. I believe the plastic housing should be of the same, however the contact leaf seems to be different. I guess the leaf also contribute to the tactility of the switch.
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1. No. The bumps are different. A Brown's stem with a Clear's spring is a less tactile switch, not a Clear.
2. Yes. The colour of the stem is different but shaped the same.
3. Yes.
4. Good question.. Vintage unused ("new-old-stock") blues are definitely smoother, but I'm not sure about the spring.
5. Not all vintage switches of the same type have had exactly the same plastic housing throughout the years. So there are vintage blue and black switches with slightly different housing. I dunno about the same generation though.
It has been said that blue and black switches have different leaf springs inside (press-fit into the housings), which would make a blue slider and spring feel different if transplanted into a Black switch's housing with leaf springs left inside (and vice versa), but I've not tried that myself.
3. And blues too?