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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: chyros on Sun, 12 July 2015, 12:29:41
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Today I picked up a Packard Bell keyboard with a BTC dome-with-slider design from the recycling centre. Over time, I've bought several dome-with-slider keyboards (I find them somewhat interesting) and most of them feel like slightly fancier or better, but otherwise not spectacularly great rubber domes. One is arguably even worse than vanilla rubber domes (which is a shame because the board it's on is otherwise really awesome).
These however, are really nice. They're very tactile and responsive, and have a nice medium-stiff weighting. The feel is pretty nice and clean, and quite smooth, and in fact it's better than one or two mechanicals I've tried.
The construction is also slightly more complex than a normal dome-over-membrane board. It's based on conductive domes over PCB (which appear to be partly glued to the board) and the spacebar has a separate, slightly stiffer dome. The sliders appear to have been lubed and are quite stable.
(http://i864.photobucket.com/albums/ab207/Chyrosran/WP_20150712_003_zpsfu2tu38x.jpg)
Has anybody else ever tried these? Anyone have any experience or more info about these? :)
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Yes.
I've owned 7939 and a few 51x9 boards, as well as 8120 (ergonomic, i.e., split). The ergo board was given away, and I'm currently using some (MX-compatible) keycaps harvested from the 7939 on my ErgoDox. They still have a nice texture.
The domes feel quite snappy indeed. The rebound is really strong. Not very quiet though.
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Jeure, (or somebody) posted up pics of a similar keyboard in the Vintage Rubber Dome thread. Should be on the last page.
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Dome with slider is one of the first keyboards I ever owned. Didn't much like it as it felt no different than a standard rubber dome to me.
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Dome with slider is one of the first keyboards I ever owned. Didn't much like it as it felt no different than a standard rubber dome to me.
Yeah it really depends, some of them feel very normal, others just rattle more, yet others just feel a little less mushy. These are really snappy though. Best RD board I've tried so far.
Maybe I should do a review about different types of dome with slider in the future? xD
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Jeure, (or somebody) posted up pics of a similar keyboard in the Vintage Rubber Dome thread. Should be on the last page.
Yep, sure did! Here's a link to my teardown image album (http://imgur.com/a/9rKz1) OP.
For a rubber dome I quite like it. How's the yellow spacebar dome? I got a grey one and it feels a lot like some of the Topre domes. I'm wondering since this uses a PCB if it's possible to make some springs that fit under the domes for increased resistance. It wouldn't work quite like a regular topre board (or at least you couldn't change the activation force). Something like "55g spacebar/35g numpad/45g everywhere else" is what I'm thinking, as the domes do vary in force across this board.
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How's the yellow spacebar dome?
It's just a stiffer version of the others. The board feels a lot like what I imagine Topre work feel like.
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I don't know much about these, but I picked up a nice NIB 5139-model recently. My favorite rubber dome so far. It makes for a good change when I want something tactile, yet lighter than my Model M.
I'm curious what system it was originally paired with. Were Bull computers ever sold in the US?
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That's a Zenith RD, right? I've seen a bunch of those hanging around on eBay recently.
Wasn't that a rebranded QuietKey? They came in several varieties. Is yours the NMB dome with slider design by any chance?
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BTC made a bunch of stuff that loads of companies rebranded. BTC are often easy to spot with their telltale 1.25 Esc key. Some series are much nicer than others, and some you need to know specific revisions as they could be foam and foil, discrete domes over PCB (the best) sheet domes over PCB, or sheet domes over membrane (which are quite terrible, and by far the worst of the MX compatible sliders models). Some models come with fairly decent quality DCS alike dyesub or doulbeshot keycaps, later models are lasered or pad printed.
BTC 5100 with discrete domes over PCB was one of my favorite keyboards I had before discovering Cherry MX.
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Hmmm, I see. Are the discrete dome ones very different from the sheet domes then?
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Yup. I wanted to use the dome sheet from 8110 to restore my 8120 (discrete domes over PCB), but it didn't work at all.
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I meant feel-wise, but I guess if they're not compatible they would feel different too, right?
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Mushier IME.
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Any links to where I could possibly purchase this type of rubber dome? , very interested, aware that this is an old topic lol
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They are very common, though which model numbers I couldn't tell you.
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They are very common, though which model numbers I couldn't tell you.
This page probably says it the best (not gonna chance it myself, BTC model numbers are too confusing): https://deskthority.net/wiki/BTC_51_series