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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: TreyRust on Fri, 22 July 2011, 17:13:40
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Hey, This is Trey.
I've been putting off posting this, because I didn't really wanna register on a keyboard forum, with a rubber dome keyboard....
So, I ordered a model M as I figured that would be a good starting point, and a converter.
I was digging in the basement through my computer stuff, low and behold! I found a mechanical keyboard!
The converter got here today, and I'm typing this out on it!
Have any of you ever typed on green alps? I can't seem to find any info on them hardly, but what I have learned is they are closed to cherry mx reds.
I had to take it apart and flip a little switch that said "AT TX" on it.
Either way, I like how this thing feels. The only weird thing I've noticed is, when I hit a key. It has a little speaker that makes a chirp. when I had it apart, I noticed there is a little speaker in there. Not sure what I think, I guess its trying to give it a tactile feel, but its useless when listening to music.
Can't wait to get my model m!
Trey.
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Alps changes springs so be warned. The springs from my complicated whites on my numpad differs from that of AEKII dampened creams, and those are different from the ones on black simplified type 1s.
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It registered at exactly 10, on three keys that I tried.
Trey.
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Sounds like a very nice keyboard, can you post a photo, maybe with a couple keycaps removed?
Funny how so many old keyboards are better than the new ones that come with your computer.
One problem with old keyboards is shiny keys, buy now there's a cure, (http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?20243-It-s-magic) at least for space bars :-)
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I wonder what this sounds like on the Zenith. The Kinesis has a similar feature, and it sounds like a soft click, not bothersome at all... I keep it on because it's a nice feedback that helps avoid bottoming out.
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Heres a picture of the switch, not sure how to tell if they are complicated or not. So I hope I took a good enough picture:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]22365[/ATTACH]
A picture of the board itself, its quite yellow, compared to what it should be... but it works:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]22366[/ATTACH]
And here is a video of me typing on it, its rather embarrassing... I was typing dead slow because of the tricky numbers and capitalization on the test :(
Other than that, the lighting makes my hands look kinda scary...
[video=youtube;8UngRIFHA5w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UngRIFHA5w[/video]
That was with the speaker on, if you want, I'll upload a video comparing the sound with it on and off.
Trey.
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Nice video! And your typing is just fine by the way. The click sounds very similar to the Kinesis, maybe a little sharper sounding and possibly louder. And I'm seeing double shot keys in the photo!
GREAT FIND, congrats on this excellent keyboard!
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Seems to me like the only linear that has a chance of me liking it.
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Have one of these and it sucks (too stiff for me). It's Just chillaxin' in my closet :D
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That's an NMB rubber dome - quality varies. Dell RT7D5JTWs are quite excellent rubber domes (though a bit on the stiffer side), Compaq RT235BTW's are pretty bad, Apple's Design Keyboard is okay (though has the best keycaps out of NMB's rubber domes).
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A picture of the board itself, its quite yellow, compared to what it should be... but it works:
That can probably be fixed with some retrobright (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:9099).
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Are apple design keys compatible with anything? If they look like those, I'd guess not.
As far as the color goes, check out some of the ones with rit keycaps etc. I like the results quite alot.
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That can probably be fixed with some retrobright (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:9099).
Thanks! I'll have to do that soon, will post results.
Trey.
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Are apple design keys compatible with anything? If they look like those, I'd guess not.
As far as the color goes, check out some of the ones with rit keycaps etc. I like the results quite alot.
They're compatible with some NMB rubber domes. A number of those are quite decent, especially the RT7D5JTW model Dell Quietkey.
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Hmm, I didn't think that particular dell was an NMB. Interesting to know that. It will keep me from accidentally trying to get supposed-to-be-good rubber domes and having a repeat in there.
Also, whatever it is, webwit is wrong. I can't believe he was trying to argue how -+2-3 grams meant the world was coming to an end. Nobody can tell that close when typing at speed, which is all those numbers are there to provide.
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It's a "ZKB-2XT"
One question I have is, what is AT/XT? there was a switch inside in and I had to flip it to get it to work? It had those two options. I guess the XT at then end of the model number means its set like that by default?
Trey.