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geekhack Community => Reviews => Topic started by: ThereminGoat on Sun, 11 October 2020, 11:16:13

Title: A Beginner's Guide to Force Curves
Post by: ThereminGoat on Sun, 11 October 2020, 11:16:13
Hey all,

Being that it is now the 8 month birthday of the website, I'm super excited to finally get to share one of the documents I've wanted to write the most since I started on the website. Following up the essential reading that is my 'Beginner's Guide to Switches', I present the 'Beginner's Guide to Force Curves'! If you haven't read either of these then you definitely need to get on them to up your switch knowledge.

Website: https://www.theremingoat.com/
Beginner's Guide to Switches: https://www.theremingoat.com/blog/beginners-guide
Beginner's Guide to Force Curves: https://www.theremingoat.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-force-curves

Thanks for all of the love and support thus far along, and I would always love to hear back from all of you!

Cheers,
Goat
Title: Re: A Beginner's Guide to Force Curves
Post by: Rob27shred on Sun, 11 October 2020, 12:50:52
Always working hard on your projects to bring us the most useful info, you sir are a blessing to the community! Keep the good work man! :thumb:
Title: Re: A Beginner's Guide to Force Curves
Post by: hvontres on Sun, 11 October 2020, 14:15:49
As an engineer, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for such an insightful write up on force curves and how springs work. I think this might help take some of the Myth and mystery of how a switch behaves and why "premium" brand springs may not alter the tactile feel of a switch. Extra bonus points for introducing free body diagrams :)

One thing that might help people would be to start with a linear switch and then add the added complexity of a tactile bump. That way, they would get a nice graphical representation of hooke's law before we need to tell them that real life is actually more complicated then that.

After reading this, I really wish aftermarket springs were sold either by rate or with a specified deflection at their "wieight".

Thank you again for a nice insightful writeup.