geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Chloe on Tue, 10 February 2009, 01:48:32
-
Forward Electronics (福華電子股份有限公司) of Taiwan were joint partners (http://www.alps.com/e/about_alps/profile/pro_history.html) with Alps Electric for thirty years ending in 2000 with transfer of shares. They started making keyboard switches in 1985 (http://www.fwd.com.tw/english/company/5.htm).
It looks like SKBL and SKBM keyboard switches were available between 2001 and 2004 (http://web.archive.org/web/20040407133111/www.fwd.com.tw/products/switch/keysw/KEY+SWITCH.htm), based on archives of Forward Electronics website. This page also confirms they were "Bigfoot" variety:
http://www.fwd.com.tw/english/Products3/switches/skbl.htm
3.5mm travel indicates they were simplified type. Original "complicated" ALPS have 4mm travel. SKBMFA is click/tactile and SKBMFB is tactile. SKBL could be linear; ALPS switches are lighter without click/tactile leaf.
According to two archived datasheets, SKBLFE (http://web.archive.org/web/20040809072417/www.fwd.com.tw/products/switch/keysw/SKBLFE.pdf) has yellow stem and SKBMF (http://web.archive.org/web/20040809083746/www.fwd.com.tw/products/switch/keysw/SKBMF.pdf) has white stem. Note the ALPS logo on upper and lower housing.
-
Strong find, Chole. I wish my Google-Fu was as strong as yours.
-
3.5mm travel indicates they were simplified type. Original "complicated" ALPS have 4mm travel. SKBMFA is click/tactile and SKBMFB is tactile. SKBL could be linear; ALPS switches are lighter without click/tactile leaf.
Agree that they were simplified because of *their life cycle*. Complicated ALPS was stated as 2 x10,000,000.
Could you point me a source for *4mm travel* of complicated ALPS?
both links SKBLFE (http://web.archive.org/web/20040809072417/www.fwd.com.tw/products/switch/keysw/SKBLFE.pdf) and SKBMF (http://web.archive.org/web/20040809083746/www.fwd.com.tw/products/switch/keysw/SKBMF.pdf) don't work for me. but I think I have a data sheet for SKBM somewhere in my hard drive.
-
G***t F***wall of C***a? Try here (http://lal.ath.cx/~lal/SKBLFE.pdf) and here (http://lal.ath.cx/~lal/SKBMF.pdf).
-
Check his profile, do you see "China" anywhere? JP = Japan. ;)
-
Oops, sorry. I was probably mislead by Sandy talking about his island in the "sea of China" or something like that. So I can say it loud that I'm glad he doesn't have to live in a country where human rights don't exist. Thanks for pointing this out, bhtooefr. :)
-
G***t F***wall of C***a
Pat, I would like to buy a vowel; an "I," please.
*G***t Fi**wall of C*i*a*
-
Agree that they were simplified because of *their life cycle*. Complicated ALPS was stated as 2 x10,000,000.
Could you point me a source for *4mm travel* of complicated ALPS?
Cream/damper and white/click have 4mm stem protrusion/travel. I don't have calipers but they were ~0.5mm longer than simplified stem.
I have only found this (http://smartdata.usbid.com/datasheets/usbid/2000/2000-q2/5454_31.pdf) ALPS datasheet, stem would be 3.8mm (not sure of tolerance).
-
Wow, I didn't ever expect to see any ALPS-related data sheets, given that ALPS Electric's own website design seemed (to me, anyway) to have stopped them being reached by the Wayback Machine.
Thank you Chloe!
-
thank lal, I saved both PDFs in my ALPS folder.
Also thanks Chloe for the ALPS data sheet.
According to the data sheet, travel is stated as 3.5mm for both SKCM and SKCL. life; 2 x 10,000,000 times. same as specs listed in APLS catalog '94 edition. ( Sorry but I don't have an active working scanner. I can't convert the catalog to PDF format. )
-
Thanks Sandy. So stem protrusion is not really an accurate measure of travel. I noticed that the stems are not flush with housing when fully depressed.