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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Demetrium on Tue, 19 August 2014, 12:19:21
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I just found one of these laying around in a cabinet at work. From what I gather these can have white or black Alps. This is my first time seeing an old board like this --- can you take the caps off with a traditional puller? Anything I should know?
I can't mess around with it right now, but I'm looking forward to checking it out a bit more later in the day.
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They can have blue alps too (super rare from what I understand). Most likely they're white complicated alps. Yes you can use a standard wire puller.
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Alps keycaps are usually harder to remove. I recommend pulling straight up.
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If ALPS caps break it's forever broken and ruins the entire switch since it mostly was designed by some kinds of autistic pinguin eaters.
You gotta pull UP and straight UP, if you break the stem it'll be forever broken and lost
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If ALPS caps break it's forever broken and ruins the entire switch since it mostly was designed by some kinds of autistic pinguin eaters.
You gotta pull UP and straight UP, if you break the stem it'll be forever broken and lost
That's a little pessamistic. C'mon this is Geekhack, where everything is fixable!
I heard you can desolder the switch, open it up, and push the stem-part out from the back. Shouldn't be too hard.
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If ALPS caps break it's forever broken and ruins the entire switch since it mostly was designed by some kinds of autistic pinguin eaters.
You gotta pull UP and straight UP, if you break the stem it'll be forever broken and lost
That's a little pessamistic. C'mon this is Geekhack, where everything is fixable!
I heard you can desolder the switch, open it up, and push the stem-part out from the back. Shouldn't be too hard.
Yea but the issue is, once the stem is broken it simply cannot be fixed back to its original integritty. Even if you manage to remove the small little plastic stem (male) from the ALPS stem (female), even using hot glue it'll still be lame to put back in, cause it'll either wobble or next time you'll try to remove the cap it'll rebreak.
It's just a shame ALPS breaks fairly easy versus others. If you fix it the keycap is still ruined!
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Yea but the issue is, once the stem is broken it simply cannot be fixed back to its original integritty. Even if you manage to remove the small little plastic stem (male) from the ALPS stem (female), even using hot glue it'll still be lame to put back in, cause it'll either wobble or next time you'll try to remove the cap it'll rebreak.
It's just a shame ALPS breaks fairly easy versus others. If you fix it the keycap is still ruined!
I have removed all the keycaps from ~30 Alps keyboards and never broken a keycap. I think you’re exaggerating greatly here.
The easiest home method for removing Alps keycaps is to use a couple of butter knives or similar smooth flat pieces of metal. Slip one under each side of the keycap and pry upward. (Some types of keypullers also work, but those little plastic ones aren’t going to be effective.)
If you happen to break a keycap, make a post in classifieds and someone can probably give you one or sell you one for cheap. If it’s one of the Tai Hao caps used in a Focus keyboard, those are pretty common and not especially desirable, so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to find an extra.
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I just found one of these laying around in a cabinet at work. From what I gather these can have white or black Alps.
If it has windows keys, then it’s probably simplified Alps switches or some Alps clone. If it doesn’t have windows keys, it’s probably complicated white Alps, but it could also be complicated blue Alps switches if it’s a very old one, or it could even be an Omron Alps clone (I’ve never tried that type of Omron switch, so I have no idea whether it’s any good, but it would be interesting to try).
The most common type seem to be the ones without windows keys with complicated white Alps switches.
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Yea but the issue is, once the stem is broken it simply cannot be fixed back to its original integritty. Even if you manage to remove the small little plastic stem (male) from the ALPS stem (female), even using hot glue it'll still be lame to put back in, cause it'll either wobble or next time you'll try to remove the cap it'll rebreak.
It's just a shame ALPS breaks fairly easy versus others. If you fix it the keycap is still ruined!
I have removed all the keycaps from ~30 Alps keyboards and never broken a keycap. I think you’re exaggerating greatly here.
The easiest home method for removing Alps keycaps is to use a couple of butter knives or similar smooth flat pieces of metal. Slip one under each side of the keycap and pry upward. (Some types of keypullers also work, but those little plastic ones aren’t going to be effective.)
If you happen to break a keycap, make a post in classifieds and someone can probably give you one or sell you one for cheap. If it’s one of the Tai Hao caps used in a Focus keyboard, those are pretty common and not especially desirable, so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to find an extra.
Yea i'm exagerating a little bit but the sad thing with ALPS is and will always be that the caps can break much more often that other stems (versus MX or Topre or BS for example) due to the keycap having a little piece inserted inside the stem.
I know you can find extras but it ruins the fun, breaking your caps...
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The most common type seem to be the ones without windows keys with complicated white Alps switches.
This one doesn't have Windows keys so I'm willing to bet it's whites. I'll take a look in about an hour or so once I get home.
I have removed all the keycaps from ~30 Alps keyboards and never broken a keycap. I think you’re exaggerating greatly here.
The easiest home method for removing Alps keycaps is to use a couple of butter knives or similar smooth flat pieces of metal. Slip one under each side of the keycap and pry upward. (Some types of keypullers also work, but those little plastic ones aren’t going to be effective.)
If you happen to break a keycap, make a post in classifieds and someone can probably give you one or sell you one for cheap. If it’s one of the Tai Hao caps used in a Focus keyboard, those are pretty common and not especially desirable, so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to find an extra.
Thanks for the tip! I only have a pair of the crappy key pullers (the thicker ring-style plastic one) so I'll prolly try the butter knife technique.
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Those plastic ones are crap.
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OK, so you guys were right, these keycaps are a pain in the ass to get off. I was actually mistaken earlier since I only got a quick glance --- this is one of the models with the Windows keys. I pried off one of the caps and it doesn't say Alps on it like I think I've seen in some pictures; they're black/white with "2F71" lettering on them. I guess this makes them complicated Alps?
The board itself seems like it's in more or less OK condition. There's some really bad yellowing, a missing leg, no cover, and the backspace sometimes sticks, but beyond that it's OK. Always fun to try out a new type of switch (for free, anyway). Now I just need to get used to this god-forsaken two-row enter and moved backspace. Thanks for the help earlier in the thread!
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Now I just need to get used to this god-forsaken two-row enter and moved backspace.
aka "Bigass Enter" and "small Backspace"
Totally awful. I can more or less live with the Bigass Enter, but the small Backspace kills me. I suppose that I always hit the left side of the long one.
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http://deskthority.net/wiki/Alps.tw_Type_T1
I think they are hua-jie switches. (alps clone).
Totally awful. I can more or less live with the bigass Enter, but the small Backspace kills me.
it's really hard to get used to.
I managed to get by with one at work by slowing down a little and focusing on not making any mistakes.
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The evidence is in favour of them being type OA2:
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Focus_FK-2001
I imagine they're just the predecessor of T1. Dating evidence for T1, OA2 etc is still extremely sketchy, as it is for all the other similar clones.
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Can we have some pictures?
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The caps are kinda hard to get off. They really do stick to the stem. I always just saw side to side carefully without much force. The older the focus the better! The newer one I weighed was 2 lb 13oz while my '88 was well over 3lb.
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Yea but the issue is, once the stem is broken it simply cannot be fixed back to its original integritty. Even if you manage to remove the small little plastic stem (male) from the ALPS stem (female), even using hot glue it'll still be lame to put back in, cause it'll either wobble or next time you'll try to remove the cap it'll rebreak.
TIP: Methyl-Ethyl Ketone (Butanone)
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Can we have some pictures?
Sure, I'm on the road for a few days but I'll take some when I get home. Get ready for some yellow plastic!