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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: microsoft windows on Mon, 24 August 2009, 07:56:20

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: microsoft windows on Mon, 24 August 2009, 07:56:20

I got 3 them from work the other day and noticed they have a steel plate reënforcing the construction and some sort of white linear sliders. Anyone know more about them>

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: skriefal on Mon, 24 August 2009, 08:54:11

Every one I've seen is a (decent) rubber dome board.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: microsoft windows on Mon, 24 August 2009, 11:52:01

Is there any special name for the keyswitches though? They have some sort of slider between the key and the rubber dome. Doesn't look like anything I've seen but I might be wrong.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: keyb_gr on Mon, 24 August 2009, 13:14:56

Sounds similar to my Packard Bell / BTC 5131C. A number of better rubber domes are like that, this way the key can stop hard which tends to feel more precise (gives some non-zero initial force). I think such mechanisms are not that uncommon even today, but materials tend to be crappy so they don't live very long even if basic construction is OK.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: cmr on Mon, 24 August 2009, 14:23:47

i think we call this "plunger over rubber dome"

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: ch_123 on Mon, 24 August 2009, 17:23:17

I took one apart before dumping it... It looked like they adapted the AT101W tooling to produce a rubber dome keyboard.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: Mr.6502 on Mon, 24 August 2009, 18:39:44

I have 3 QuietKeys at home and the office.  Two of them are very comfortable to use and are built well (the keys move on square sliders, they have a metal plate backing, and they have two no-mark, no-slip, rubber tread strips under their front edges) and the third feels awful.

The two good ones I have are both by Silitek (which I learned right here on geekhack :-D).  The third is from a different manufacturer, whose name I forget, that made a quietkey that is quiet, but also stiff, spungy, and overall not very comfortable.

Just out of curiosity, what models are yours MS?

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: quadibloc on Tue, 25 August 2009, 08:23:56

An HP KB-0316 (electrically dead) that I picked up in a thrift shop had a plunger over rubber dome construction.

And a Mitsumi KPQ-E99YC that I bought for 99 cents yesterday, which felt like it used some kind of mechanical switch, turned out to use plungers under individual rubber cones for the keys.

I had been looking for another keyboard using some type of imitation ALPS to add to the one broken one I had for use in an attempt at keyboard customization, and so I was keeping my eye out for old keyboards in thrift shops with non-mushy feel...

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: clickclack on Tue, 25 August 2009, 16:20:29

I am a little confused with this thread...

I have around 20 Dell quietkeys, and all of them are rubber domes. Are you guys saying some are switches or dual rubber domes?

I have seen variations in the Dell quietkeys, but they have only been the actual membranes and the rubber domes themselves. Like a different membrane layout, or different colored domes or seperated domes as opposed to being in a sheet.

I have a few key boards (not Dell) that have this odd rubber dome/sheet just under the keycaps. But I have not yet taken them apart, I will very soon though ;)

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: itlnstln on Tue, 25 August 2009, 16:25:10

I think the deal is that, around here, we usually discuss the Dell AT-101W.  The Quietkeys (of this vintage) use a very similar, if not exact, design as the AT-101W.  All of the Quietkeys that I know of are rubber dome.  I think this was just to distinguish the rubber dome keyboard from the mechanical one.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: quadibloc on Wed, 30 December 2009, 12:32:51

I have a keyboard from Seanix that is like the newer made-in-China Dell QuietKey keyboards: the keycap has a hollow square plunger which goes down to a rubber dome.

I just recently found an older made-in-Thailand QuietKey being tossed out (to add to my two made-in-China Dell QuietKeys similarly recovered) - it seems to be like an old Compaq board, made in Thailand, that I purchased a month or two ago at a thrift shop, although I haven't opened it up to see the (thin) metal back yet.

Here, it almost looks like it has ALPS switches, except what would be the "switch" is just molded into a solid sheet of plastic - so the plunger is going down to a rubber dome, I think, not a spring and a mechanical switch.

Both are rubber domes, I think, but with fancy construction so the keys go straight down and don't wobble.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: keyb_gr on Wed, 30 December 2009, 13:42:12

I'd guess the Thailand-made boards were OEM'd by NMB, the older Dells (around 2002) definitely were.

Here's a low-wobble construction without an extra slider (http://www.ciao.de/opinion_images_view.php/OpinionId/8478818/Img/164739412) - reports here indicate that things may loosen up with some wear though.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: microsoft windows on Wed, 30 December 2009, 14:00:31

Those keyboards with just the key on top of the dome tend to be of very low quality and perform poorly after a few years of use. However, the original Quietkeys perform wonderfully after more than a decade of hard use and wear that caused the keys to go shiney.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: Oqsy on Sat, 17 July 2010, 13:31:44

digging up a dead one... does anyone know what the key caps are made of?  I have one of these that I'd like to do up in custom colors with a rit dye job, but I don't want to melt the caps if they're known to be a plastic with a lower melting point.  

My exact board is:  RT7D5JTW, made in Thailand, Dell part number 00463CD.  This board is the plastic slider (alps-ish) over rubber domes.  It really doesn't feel bad to type on, and my friend has no interest in mechanical boards anyway.  He saw my RIT job on my Model M and wanted something unique for his computer as well, so I offered to dye him one to his specifications.  If he wanted one of my mechanical boards I'd probably charge him a little since I don't want to part with any of my babies, but I'll give him this one for free if dying it doesn't kill the caps.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: ch_123 on Sat, 17 July 2010, 13:38:02

AFAIK, the caps were similar to AT101W ones. They may have been pad printed instead of lasered though.

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: Oqsy on Sat, 17 July 2010, 13:42:16

I just did a boil test on the scroll lock.  3 minutes rolling boil and it did NOT melt.  This doesn't mean it will take the dye well, but I'm hopeful it will work out ok since I'm going for light colors anyway :D  Thanks for the reply ch

Title: What type of keyswitch does a Dell QuietKey have?
Post by: Oqsy on Sat, 17 July 2010, 14:32:02

Scratch that.  The entire batch is in the trash now.  All the keys that were even slightly larger than an alpha melted up like cellophane.  All modifier keys, space bar, etc... deformed beyond rescue.  Dell QuietKey key caps are now *officially NOT safe* for rit dye :D