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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: meltie on Sun, 06 July 2008, 18:19:12
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Hi,
does anyone know a Qtronix Scorpius 305 keyboard? I'd like to know what kind of switches it uses. There is one on ebay Germany and I would buy it if it is any good. Does anyone know it? The auction is at (there is a photo of the board):
http://cgi.ebay.de/19-Tastatur-Deutsch-QTRONIX-DIN-PS2-Gebraucht_W0QQitemZ140246757171QQihZ004QQcategoryZ115443QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Thanks for your replies.
meltie
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i've used one that had blue cherries.
no guarantees that they're all the same, though. ask the seller to pull a keycap off and take a picture.
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Thanks for your reply.
I've tried to ask sellers to pull of a key several times, but got mostly negative replies (don't want to do it for fear of damaging the keyboard, flame me because they don't understand why and think I want to pull their leg, board is already packed, no reply at all and so on).
So I thought I ask here. I will buy it since it is not expensive and see for myself though.
meltie
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So, more than a year since this thing arrived have passed and now I finally found the time to take a closer look at it.
The keyboard is in US-Layout with a tall enter key. The board has a compact layout almost like the g80/81-1800, but the case is a different one, the corners are not rounded like with the Cherrys. And the status LEDs are on the left side. It's got a DIN connector and works as badly with my USB-Adapter as any other Cherry I own :-)
Pulled a key to look for the switches - and broke the switch. Arrgh. And it's the dot key. Why didn't I try a key I never use? Well, I'll try to fix it.
The Switches look like Cherry whites or clears, feels more like clears. Actually it feels quite nice to type on. But somehow the sound is different then my other clears, more metallic and slightly annoying. But maybe I'm generally annoyed at the moment because of the broken switch.
I'll take a picture when I'm not annoyed anymore.
Bye,
meltie
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In Qtronix boards you'll mainly find Cherry clones with white stem. They're supposed to be similar to blues.
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These Cherry lookalikes, also listed in the wiki, have been called "Taiwan's white axis" (the result of a machine translation, I think). Shame you broke the switch - how'd you manage that? Real Cherry switches have proven quite robust here.
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Must be this fake white ones, the spring looks just like the one in the picture and other Qtronix are listed as fake whites.
It must have been cracked before, I removed several more and they are all okay. I can even use the dot now, but the key just stays down.
There are pieces broken off the black upper part of the switches' case so it would not stay fixed on the base unit anymore, and one of the little "legs" of the slider also broke off (does anybody understand what I'm trying to say? It would be hard enough to explain in my first language without pointing it out, and I don't know the proper terms in english).
I might have a dead MX which I can strip for parts. Is there a way to remove just the upper case part from the base unit and the slider part, not the whole switch? I don't know about soldering and lack the equipment. And if it is, will it fit on my new fakes?
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I doubt you can swap in parts without desoldering the switch. The copies looked pretty different internally.
You might be able to swap parts with Scroll Lock.
Okay, so no chance to get this thing fully working with MX parts.
While nobody needs Scroll Lock or Caps Lock, anyway) , I'm not much of a tinkerer and doubt I can manage to swap parts if soldering is required. I think I'll only be able to do it without soldering if someone supplies me with a detailed manual :-)
Maybe I'll find someone more skilled who would like to own a fake Cherry Qtronix.
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Okay, so no chance to get this thing fully working with MX parts.
While nobody needs Scroll Lock or Caps Lock, anyway) , I'm not much of a tinkerer and doubt I can manage to swap parts if soldering is required. I think I'll only be able to do it without soldering if someone supplies me with a detailed manual :-)
Maybe I'll find someone more skilled who would like to own a fake Cherry Qtronix.
If the switches are plate mounted then you will not be able to replace internals without desoldering. Otherwise if you are giving up on it I will gladly take it off your hands.
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I know how to solder too.
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Okay, I'm going to give it to sixty after the holidays. He's from Germany, too, so shipping will be bearable. He will play around with it :-)