geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: VCheeZ on Wed, 05 August 2009, 18:47:03
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I have seen lots of e-bay auctions for the Cherry MY7000 and MY1900 boards...what kind of switches do they use? I am wanting to pick up a small box of boards to experiment on...what kind of quality are these? Are they G81 series? Thanks for any info!
Example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Cherry-MY-7000-Card-PIN-POS-Keyboard-PS2-MY7000-USB_W0QQitemZ180391422292QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2a002aa954&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
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They are part of the G81 series, therefore they use MY switches. Check the Geekhack Wiki for some more info on MY switches (http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Cherry+switches#MY).
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What is the general opinion of these "MY" switches? Worth having or no? Cherry's website has them at 50 million just like the full-mechanical switches...
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I have an old G81-3000 and a G81-3010 lying around and I don't like them. They use this linear "FTSC technology" / MY switch and there are a few problems with those.
For starters, they are stiff because there are two springs in each key: a regular coil spring to push the plunger back up, and a leaf spring to hit the membrane contact before the plunger bottoms out.
The main problem with my old keyboards is that the keys wobble and are squeaky. The latter is not so much a problem with sound rather than keyfeel: due to friction between the key housing and the plunger, keys may lock up when not pressed dead-on. Pressing with a little more force will then produce a faint scraping sound and force the key to depress or even bottom out.
Unless you can lubricate the key housing, they are hence a nuisance. I tried it on a few keys with regular oil but it makes a little mess (and a splashy sound). Some kind of grease may have a better effect, but it is a pain to remove the key housing from the membrane plate.
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While I haven't experienced squeaking or hanging on G81s (and I have a few), I'd agree that they're not the most exciting thing to type on. The old ones were yet stiffer but at least this made the friction less noticeable, so the newer ones feel somewhat rough. You have to get used to these and acquire a soft touch, otherwise you may tend to bang on them.
Some of these MY1900s seem to have two-shot molded keycaps though (watch out for G81-1900H... model numbers).
The stiffness comes from a quickly rising force btw. Basically the helix spring that makes up for the bulk part of key force is too short.
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Due to this post I have pulled those Cherry's out of storage and tried them for a little time.
Now I must confess I was wrong about the cause of the friction. As it turns out, the keycaps on the G81-3000 are of a different material than the G81-3010. The former uses dyed keys while the latter use two-shot molded caps.
I don't know why, but the dyed keys seem to have a different texture causing more friction. As such, when the keys do lock up they give an annoying feeling when your finger slips over them.
The molded caps on the other hand are rather smooth and the keyboard seems to be bearable to type on.
Anyway, YMMV.
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So notsomuch a typing board....what about gaming?
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So notsomuch a typing board....what about gaming?
Should work pretty decently for that, similar to MX blacks. The less wide 1900 board (basically a 1800 with mag stripe reader) may be preferable.
As always with used cash register boards, one should know how to perform a thorough cleaning. They usually had a hard life. Disassembly at least should be quite easy.
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Should work pretty decently for that, similar to MX blacks. The less wide 1900 board (basically a 1800 with mag stripe reader) may be preferable.
As always with used cash register boards, one should know how to perform a thorough cleaning. They usually had a hard life. Disassembly at least should be quite easy.
Good to hear...because I just bought a a load of them :D
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From eBay, I got a G81-7000LPCUS just for keys.
I found a decade-old tub of Oxi-Clean™ (RIP Billy) and thusly cleaned them, inspired by effervescent denture tabs (http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=6856).
I'm confused: are the labels actually lasered but then coated?
(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=4032&stc=1&d=1251232394)
(http://t.oomuch.info/src/1251231874659.jpg)
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I'm confused: are the labels actually lasered but then coated?
That's what it looks like. It probably feels better than if they didn't coat them. You can feel the laser etching on the Dell AT-101W, Compaq MX-11800 and the Cherry G80-3000 (black key etching).
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Thats really weird. I have had a bunch of Cherry lasered boards and none of them ever was coated. Very interesting.
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Thats really weird. I have had a bunch of Cherry lasered boards and none of them ever was coated. Very interesting.
My MX-11800 wasn't coated either. The black key laser etching is completely different process, so that doesn't count.
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hi it's vince with shamwow
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hi it's vince with shamwow
lol, "you'll love my nuts". You know he was arrested recently, i think he was caught while getting a bj from a hooker or something ;)
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Pour some in a bag with the keys. Worked well on M keys, and the AT101W set I tried.
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Don't let that other guy in, Billy, that Shamwow is the work of the Devil!
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Don't let Vince in, Billy, that Shamwow is the work of the Devil!
lol, "you'll love my nuts". You know he was arrested recently, i think he was caught while getting a bj from a hooker or something ;)
No, you misheard, it was much worse, he was selling bootleg copies of this show: