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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Carnage on Wed, 22 August 2012, 12:52:40
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So im currently using my blue alps again ((leading edge dc 2014)) and i just got my buckling spring about a week ago. Theres just something i cannot seem to break out of and leave these alps even though the keyboard has taken quiet a beating and, the u key dosent respond about 75% of the time i cant seem to be able to switch to cherry's ((ive tried blues and blacks)) or buckling springs. Does anybody else get this feeling with alps or is it just me? so i decided my next keyboard within the next week or 2 i want a pair another pair of blue alps maybe greens or whites but im not sure how do greens and whites stack up to blues?
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I have never had a blue Alps board, but the blue Montereys in the Chicony 5181 are really sweet.
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About to take the plunge and replace my aeii with blues and see how it goes.
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Yes switch over to the blues my friend >:D
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koralatov's fault, he sent me one with some uk replacement caps for my azert aeii. One click and I had to try them. I've only had a single switch so far in my hand but when I clicked it, it felt like what I expected blues to feel like before I tried them. If that makes any sence....
Anyway I think I'll be stocking up on a few more :)
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Very cool, Trust me i know the feeling of the first time you use alps i was using a cheap 10 dollar logitech rubber dome till i got my f21-7d ((its a generic alps i got for 40 on amazon)). Then after about 3 months i realized i loved them and got my leading edge DC-2014 ever since then i couldnt switch back. I ended up giving my f21 to a friend who ended up breaking it and i used the dc-2014 ((which im using now)) until its basically completly destroyed. the U key works about 75% of the time same with some others.
Then i decided its time for a new one and i got a unicomp ultra classic buckling spring with custom keycaps and its sad really i use it for 3 1/2 days then 1/2 a day of the dc-2014 even though i know it will be fully destroyed soon i just cant leave alps it seems like for anything else. Thats why i made this thread to see what other peoples opinions on the difference of alps blue, green, white, etc. I mean i spent 100 for the unicomp but for some reason its just not doing it like alps do for me.
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About to take the plunge and replace my aeii with blues and see how it goes.
downgrade alert!
@OP: i feel the same way about topre now... i just don't enjoy typing on much else compared to my 45g.
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I think it kind of stinks actually falling in love with one certain key. I mean i do enjoy typing on this buckling spring but its just theres something about alps that got me hooked and now i cant seem to enjoy others as much. Oh well i guess everyone has there own switch. So does anybody know how blues compare to whites or greens on the basis of: tactile, Sound ((loud clicky etc)), there g, and there overall feel?
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pretty much all tactile cherry switches have the bump further down on the keypress than most alps. i vastly prefer blues to white alps clones but that could also have to do with my sissy fingers -- blues feel much lighter. soundwise white alps are much more pleasing than blues.
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White was the replacement clicky switch for blue – neved used one. I find that my Fukka white simplified keyboard is less tactile, but therefore significantly smoother than my blue ALPS keyboard. All but the latest greens are linear switches. Pretty much every other colour is tactile only – the only clicky colours are blue, white, and the most recent greens.
It's not just colour and tactile vs click vs liner – many colours are shared between complicated (self-contained microswitch block, in long and short switchplate varieties), and the four varieties of simplified (open microswitch), namely Type I ("Fukka"), II ("XM"), III, and IV, the last one being a I/II hybrid that's better than Type II (less balky) but still a lot stiffer than Type I. I feel sure that old long switchplate tactile complicated switches are a lot smoother and softer than the short switchplate black tactile complicated switches in the Dell AT10* family that are spongey and frictioney. Those are more like Cherry clears in feel, but poorly tactile.
The only way to be sure what you've got is to open up a switch, but the simplified ones are a pain to reassemble -- with type IV at least, the two metal parts of the microswitch are held in place by grooves in the upper housing of the switch and it's really hard getting them to slide back into those grooves! Complicated switches have a plastic block that holds the microswitch components together even when you remove the upper housing, slider, return spring and tactile/click leaf. The length of that plastic containing block alone (the switchplate) is theorised to have a noticeable affect on how smooth the switch feels.
All this is largely undocumented. No rationales, no specifications, no schematics. I do wonder whether Types I to IV are even numbered in order of introduction by ALPS, as I have a huge PC/XT/AT switchable keyboard (no date) with Type IV simplifieds, long before I thought they'd been introduced! I have another, similar keyboard, but PC/AT only, that has blue complicated switches.
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have white, blue ALPS and feel the same way :cool:
white ALPS are pretty nice, but blue ALPS are hard to beat- so i'm with ya.
wish there was enough ALPS users that we could do a GB on keys. think they tried before, but it bombed.
So im currently using my blue alps again ((leading edge dc 2014)) and i just got my buckling spring about a week ago. Theres just something i cannot seem to break out of and leave these alps even though the keyboard has taken quiet a beating and, the u key dosent respond about 75% of the time i cant seem to be able to switch to cherry's ((ive tried blues and blacks)) or buckling springs. Does anybody else get this feeling with alps or is it just me? so i decided my next keyboard within the next week or 2 i want a pair another pair of blue alps maybe greens or whites but im not sure how do greens and whites stack up to blues?
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I have some ALPS as well, I really like mine. What are you going to do with the Leading Edge? You may want to just desolder the faulty U and clean the inside with some compressed air. I got to try Blue ALPS last weekend, they were grand! I'm so disappointed that I can't have any.
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Also love the buttery feel of my Blue Alps most of all. The high tactile point combined with a smooth keystroke sold me. I have a AT101W filled with Blue Alps but if I ever get my hands on a Zero or Leopold Lite I may have to transfer them to something more portable.]
All the other tactile clicky actual Alps I have tried have been too heavy for my wimpy fingers, while the blues are just right. The Duck XM Greens are also an acceptable weight, but feel somewhat cheap compared to the blue classics.
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All the other tactile clicky actual Alps I have tried have been too heavy for my wimpy fingers, while the blues are just right.
I feel exactly the same way ^^ I prefer the blue ones over white because of the stiffness of the whites. Overall the whites are still nice but the blues are more comfortable to me. I've replaced the blacks in my at102w with blues.
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I am also a big fan of ALPS. I preffer whites to blues however. Can't wait for my Siig minitouch to arrive in the mail!!
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re: vintage orig. alps
blues are always *perfect*
some (older) whites are same as blue
blacks are garbage pretty mediocre
creams were REALLY well-built. Jobs must've payed extra for the good plastic. Oh, I'm totally stoked for Matias' new dampened ALPS switch.
tactile browns are my all-time favorite though. tactile curve is smooth and gradual, much better than the itty bitty bump on the MX brown.
What I'd like to know is how the early tactile alps (browns) differ from the later tactile bigfoot alps... material quality, cost cutting, etc.. Also in the 90's didn't they move to Taipei or something?
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As I said, colour means nothing by itself. Blue switches came in complicated (definitely long switchplate) and Type II simplified at least (in later Focus keyboards), ditto green (where green is clicky OR linear). White sliders are found in complicated and Type I, II and IV simplified – not sure on Type III, they may have been grey or black? Black sliders could be short switchplate complicated, Type I or Type II amongst others. Your "some (older) whites" are probably long switchplate complicateds, as opposed to simplified switches. (I thought my PC/XT-PC/AT keyboard with whites was going to be my chance to compare blue and white, but it turned out to be Type IV simplified).
(I find the black ALPS switches in the Dell AT10* series to be quite a lot like Cherry MX clears.)
Definitely looking forward to the new Tactile Pro :-)