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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: lightsout714 on Fri, 27 January 2012, 18:10:53
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Was at frys today and typed on a Siig a bit. Like it a lot. Nice clicky stiff switch. I saw in the wiki before a section that had boards listed for every switch type but can't find it. I'm assuming complicated white as I didn't see any other whites but I just glanced over it.
Any reason why these switches aren't very popular? They were very nice to type on imo. Can anyone comment how this switch feels compared to BS?
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I don't think anyone makes complicated ALPS switches anymore, as they were actually made by ALPS before they exited the keyboard business, vs the newer "ALPS" switches which are made by several manufacturers with simplified internals.
I recently purchased a used 1991 Northgate Omnikey Ultra, which has some kind of ALPS switch (I haven't taken off a key to see which) which are nice, consistent across the board, no key wobble, with a heavy-ish keyfeel and a nice crisp click. In comparison, I bought a new F21-7D (admittedly the cheapest mechanical board I could find) with the intention of using the switches for a project and they just aren't consistent across the board in terms of the 'click'. There is also a lot of key wobble, but that may be keycap-related (the caps sucks on that board).
In think the reason modern "ALPS" switches aren't so popular is that there are lots of variations made by different manufacturers (with varying quality between them) and even within one board with the same switch, there can be a lot of variation. I think Cherry controls their product a lot more tightly.
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I gotcha thanks a lot for the info.