geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: FoxWolf1 on Sun, 19 February 2012, 08:01:38
-
So, earlier, I was browsing through patents for keyboard switch mechanisms (What? Stop looking at me like that; it's a perfectly normal way to pass the time...), and, as common sense would suggest, there seem to be plenty of switch types that have been patented but for which I can find no evidence of actual production. One, in particular, piqued my curiosity, despite not being particularly mechanical. It's a design by Topre, though much simpler than what is commonly referred to as a "Topre switch". The basic idea is that the rubber dome system could be improved by adding a second, smaller, inverted dome to the underside of each primary dome, with the contact at the lowest point of the second dome; that way, you get the entire travel of the smaller dome between activation and bottoming out. Anyway, I was wondering...have any keyboards actually used this technology?
If you click these words, the miniature demons that make the internet work will carry you to a file of relevance (http://www.google.com/patents?id=QGQsAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false)
-
Most rubber domes are a bit like this already, only not as pronounced as in the patent application. The inner dome is usually very shallow and contributes almost a linearly increasing resistance.