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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: PixelVandalism on Thu, 02 February 2012, 23:18:59

Title: So umm...
Post by: PixelVandalism on Thu, 02 February 2012, 23:18:59: After using my leopold, my friend goes and buys a keyboard if ebay, I made a thread to see if it was a decent board..
He got it today, we were in a skype call, he'd had it all of 2 minutes, when he asks if he can take keys off, I said that he should just take off normal ones because I didn't know what kind of stabilizers it had...
This is what happened....
[ATTACH=CONFIG]39404[/ATTACH]

I've never used or opened alps switches, only cherries, so I can't really help him.
He's broken the tactile leaf, is it possible to put the switch back together?
Title: So umm...
Post by: laffindude on Thu, 02 February 2012, 23:28:25: Alps requires a more delicate touch than Cherry MX.
The tactile leaf comes right out, so I doubt it is broken. As far as I can see from the blurry picture, he just pulled the casing apart and pulled out the stabilizer. He should gently try to wiggle out the stem from the spacebar and reassemble it. The 2 prongs on the tactile leaf goes toward the stem.
Title: So umm...
Post by: pitashen on Thu, 02 February 2012, 23:45:42: So ummm... you told him not to and he did it anyway...that is just great!
Title: So umm...
Post by: PixelVandalism on Thu, 02 February 2012, 23:51:48: Quote from: laffindude;507024
Alps requires a more delicate touch than Cherry MX.
The tactile leaf comes right out, so I doubt it is broken. As far as I can see from the blurry picture, he just pulled the casing apart and pulled out the stabilizer. He should gently try to wiggle out the stem from the spacebar and reassemble it. The 2 prongs on the tactile leaf goes toward the stem.

The tactile leaf snapped in half, the photo was before that happened.
He's tried re-assembling it, but it's quite hard to help when you don't really know what you're talking about and the other person knows even less.
Title: So umm...
Post by: laffindude on Thu, 02 February 2012, 23:53:47: The switch will still work without the tactile leaf. See if he can pull apart scroll lock or some other equally unused key and salvage the leaf from it.
Title: So umm...
Post by: PixelVandalism on Fri, 03 February 2012, 00:03:35: Well he just wants his keyboard to work, are there any videos on how to re-assemble an ALPS switch?
Title: So umm...
Post by: laffindude on Fri, 03 February 2012, 00:07:59: http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:7121
Title: So umm...
Post by: hoggy on Fri, 03 February 2012, 00:29:59: He's had it for, like no time, and he's got filth in it already? At least you won't want his old board...
Title: So umm...
Post by: PixelVandalism on Fri, 03 February 2012, 00:44:33: I don't see any filth. xD
No-one wants his old board.

Thanks for the link.
Title: So umm...
Post by: PixelVandalism on Tue, 07 February 2012, 00:37:32: I'd already voted in that poll.
I gave up on fixing it, he is sending it back today.
Title: So umm...
Post by: PixelVandalism on Tue, 07 February 2012, 00:46:48: After about 15 tries on that one switch I gave up.
I just forced the other one to close, because he was sending it back anyway at that point.
Title: So umm...
Post by: patrickgeekhack on Tue, 07 February 2012, 08:13:54: I am always afraid of simplified Alps, because it so easy to break them. I broke the scroll lock key on my ABS M1. Complicated Alps tend to be more forgiving.
Title: So umm...
Post by: RedTed on Tue, 07 February 2012, 10:19:05: My faulty memory tells me that the stabilizers in complicated blue ALPS Enter (big-ass enter) and spacebar keys were pesky to re-insert but could be done in only a few tries despite being quite fumblefingered.

So if he is 0 for 15, sending it back was probably a good idea.
Title: So umm...
Post by: PixelVandalism on Wed, 08 February 2012, 00:07:24: He tore off the spacebar, I found it easy to put the space bar on and off, just not re-assemble the switch.
Title: So umm...
Post by: PixelVandalism on Thu, 09 February 2012, 01:04:09: The metal contacts had been pushed flat when it was put in front of me to fix, so the switch probably had little chance from the start.