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Author Topic: Space invaders  (Read 2109 times)

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Offline False_Dmitry_II

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Space invaders
« on: Fri, 15 April 2011, 14:31:13 »
So I just got some. Right now I'm using the one that had the least issues (I still had to remove a few of the switches and clean them out or something to get them to work.)

So far, I like it. I don't own a cherry blue yet myself, but I felt/heard it side by side, and they really do feel and sound similar.

The only thing I don't like about this is the spacebar. It's far too heavy, and the angle that its at is stupid, I only end up hitting the edge of it. So, how do I remove it? Is it possible to flip it to face the other way?
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"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin (11 Nov. 1755)

Offline False_Dmitry_II

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Space invaders
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 16 April 2011, 02:06:53 »
Wow, I really don't see why eveyone keeps saying these switches are fragile. I mean, when starting to remove the rubber dampeners out of my AEKII I managed to tear an entire switch out. I haven't broken a single one of these yet.

I just went for it, and it was surprisingly easy to do. I think this spacebar is in fact the easiest key on the keyboard to remove. With just a little help from an xacto knife (on an upper switch housing), it was actually pretty easy to flip the spacebar around. I kinda wish they hadn't made it quite so tilted, as it now looks a bit silly, but all I touch now is the actual top/surface of the spacebar so it is an improvement. I also swapped the spring (which was significantly longer) with a spring from the pause key to make it lighter. Overall the spacebar is much better now.
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"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin (11 Nov. 1755)

Offline Oqsy

  • Posts: 861
Space invaders
« Reply #2 on: Sat, 16 April 2011, 03:43:55 »
I like NMB space invaders but have bent at least 10 leaves in switches from 3 different boards. Congratulations on your precision and luck ;)

I still want to get one of these up and running again, but they're on the bottom of a stack of projects and I keep putting it off.
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[sigpic]Currently in use: Rosewill RK9000 and CH DT225[/sigpic]
"Private misfortunes make for public welfare."

Offline False_Dmitry_II

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Space invaders
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 19 April 2011, 02:04:59 »
I'm being about as subtle as a guy with a screwdriver when it comes to how I'm doing these. So I just don't get it. I use a (old USB card/mobo lead) computer slot cover as my keypuller. The actual keycaps are on there sorta like the top part of model m keys, so if you want just those off for cleaning or something all you have to do is pry from the left or right sides and they will easily disengage. If you wanna pull the switch, leave the keycap on (the keycap adds a little more leverage), and do the same thing from the top. You'll be prying at the top of where the white click arm can travel through, and you'll hear the tabs pop out.
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"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin (11 Nov. 1755)

Offline Oqsy

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Space invaders
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 19 April 2011, 02:29:43 »
Maybe that's what I've been doing wrong all along... I always removed the keycap before opening the switches.
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[sigpic]Currently in use: Rosewill RK9000 and CH DT225[/sigpic]
"Private misfortunes make for public welfare."

Offline CurtisLeon

  • Posts: 24
Space invaders
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 19 April 2011, 02:41:42 »
Coming off endless amounts of ALPS this and that, my NMB is like a breath of fresh air. It's near impossible to not bottom out on ALPS, and they're generally very heavy on the hands. I love the keycaps, think they're PBT, and the split spacebar/backspace is cool too.
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Currently Using

Space Invaders: NMB RTRT8255CW+
Black ALPS: Dell AT101W
Foam & Foil: BTC 5339SX

In Storage

White ALPS (complicated): Focus FK-2001, Reveal KB-7061 (Chicony rebrand), PC Concepts KB-7000 (Chicony rebrand)
Orange ALPS: Apple Extended Keyboard (modded to ghetto Blue ALPS)
Peerless: Fujitsu FKB4700
Foam & Foil: LR 69497 (unknown make, terminal keyboard)

Offline False_Dmitry_II

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Space invaders
« Reply #6 on: Wed, 20 April 2011, 02:40:12 »
My spacebar is a solid single piece. Is yours like I described how mine was before I modded it?
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"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin (11 Nov. 1755)

Offline CurtisLeon

  • Posts: 24
Space invaders
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 20 April 2011, 21:24:27 »
I don't think so, although a picture would be nice.
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Currently Using

Space Invaders: NMB RTRT8255CW+
Black ALPS: Dell AT101W
Foam & Foil: BTC 5339SX

In Storage

White ALPS (complicated): Focus FK-2001, Reveal KB-7061 (Chicony rebrand), PC Concepts KB-7000 (Chicony rebrand)
Orange ALPS: Apple Extended Keyboard (modded to ghetto Blue ALPS)
Peerless: Fujitsu FKB4700
Foam & Foil: LR 69497 (unknown make, terminal keyboard)

Offline BucklingSpring

  • Posts: 1613
Space invaders
« Reply #8 on: Thu, 21 April 2011, 00:52:08 »
I always wondered what NMB designers were thinking when they made the spacebar on the NMB RT8200's.

I got mines NIB and never dared to mod them.
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In memory of smallfry 1996-2013
Boards I own, click ->
More
Ducky x2 (9008G2 Pro PBT/MX Green and Mini MX Red), Matias x2 (QP and Mini QP Dampened ALPS), Topre RealForce x4 (87U 55g/Digilog case, 103U-UW & 104UG High-Profile x2), Filco Majestouch x2 (TKL MX Blue & V2 AI 104 MX Blue), IBM-M x2 (BS & RD), Unicomp-M x5 (BS black on black x2, BS Ivory x2, QT Ultra-Classic), Deck x4 (Legend MX Black & MX Clear, Hassium & Francium w/ MX Brown), DAS III (MX Blue), KBT Pure Pro 60% (MX Red), NMB-RT8256CW+ x2 (black space invader), XArmor U9BL-S (MX Brown) given for free to someone I hate, CM X2 (Trigger/MX Green + Storm TKL/NovaTouch), TVS GOLD (MX Blue) and a many many more (NMB, DELL, MS, ATT, KeyTronic, Etc...)

Offline False_Dmitry_II

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  • Posts: 1107
Space invaders
« Reply #9 on: Thu, 21 April 2011, 02:26:48 »
Well, it was far too heavy on top of where my thumb was hitting being an edge. So it felt like I was stopped every time I had to use the spacebar. So since I otherwise really liked it, and had two more I just went for it.
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"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin (11 Nov. 1755)

Offline CurtisLeon

  • Posts: 24
Space invaders
« Reply #10 on: Thu, 21 April 2011, 04:08:12 »
Nope, I never had that problem. My spacebar actually feels lighter than the rest of the keys.
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Currently Using

Space Invaders: NMB RTRT8255CW+
Black ALPS: Dell AT101W
Foam & Foil: BTC 5339SX

In Storage

White ALPS (complicated): Focus FK-2001, Reveal KB-7061 (Chicony rebrand), PC Concepts KB-7000 (Chicony rebrand)
Orange ALPS: Apple Extended Keyboard (modded to ghetto Blue ALPS)
Peerless: Fujitsu FKB4700
Foam & Foil: LR 69497 (unknown make, terminal keyboard)

Offline Oqsy

  • Posts: 861
Space invaders
« Reply #11 on: Fri, 22 April 2011, 11:16:29 »
Mine was sharp and heavy. Sanded the leading edge and it was fine after that.
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[sigpic]Currently in use: Rosewill RK9000 and CH DT225[/sigpic]
"Private misfortunes make for public welfare."

Offline BucklingSpring

  • Posts: 1613
Space invaders
« Reply #12 on: Fri, 22 April 2011, 22:39:19 »
Quote from: Oqsy;335521
Mine was sharp and heavy. Sanded the leading edge and it was fine after that.


Same here. I don't have the guts to sand it. Plus the two I have are practically "NIB".
Logged
In memory of smallfry 1996-2013
Boards I own, click ->
More
Ducky x2 (9008G2 Pro PBT/MX Green and Mini MX Red), Matias x2 (QP and Mini QP Dampened ALPS), Topre RealForce x4 (87U 55g/Digilog case, 103U-UW & 104UG High-Profile x2), Filco Majestouch x2 (TKL MX Blue & V2 AI 104 MX Blue), IBM-M x2 (BS & RD), Unicomp-M x5 (BS black on black x2, BS Ivory x2, QT Ultra-Classic), Deck x4 (Legend MX Black & MX Clear, Hassium & Francium w/ MX Brown), DAS III (MX Blue), KBT Pure Pro 60% (MX Red), NMB-RT8256CW+ x2 (black space invader), XArmor U9BL-S (MX Brown) given for free to someone I hate, CM X2 (Trigger/MX Green + Storm TKL/NovaTouch), TVS GOLD (MX Blue) and a many many more (NMB, DELL, MS, ATT, KeyTronic, Etc...)

Offline False_Dmitry_II

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  • Posts: 1107
Space invaders
« Reply #13 on: Sat, 23 April 2011, 17:21:13 »
That's what I was going to do, but then I decided that it was too heavy anyway. So I was going to go ahead and see how easy it would be to flip it around instead and it turned out to be stupidly simple.

Does anyone want a picture set of the process? I was gonna be lazy and just use the worst of the bunch (cosmetically) as my main board because I was using it to test and didn't see the point of doing another right then. It is easily reversible, because the thing you have to cut to make it work this way has no impact at all if the spacebar is put back on the "correct" way. It's one of any of the upper housings of the switch that you have to cut. If you've ever popped off even a single key, you'll see the clip things on it. They're off towards the 'top' of the key, and to get it to go onto any switch you just have to cut a notch out of the upper housing so that it can latch on the exact same way when the key is rotated 180 degrees. I'll only do it if you are going to use it to do yourself, though.
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"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Ben Franklin (11 Nov. 1755)
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