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geekhack Community => Reviews => Topic started by: chyros on Sat, 16 May 2015, 18:38:08
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My latest video review! This time it's a really old one XD .
embed:
video link:
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I've become a big fan of the Space Invader switches. I have an NMB with the click (though not very tactile), but you can remove the clicker piece and have linears like yours.
Very stable keys and the keycaps aren't half bad.
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I've become a big fan of the Space Invader switches. I have an NMB with the click (though not very tactile), but you can remove the clicker piece and have linears like yours.
Very stable keys and the keycaps aren't half bad.
I'd love to try clicky Space Invaders sometime. From what I've seen in videos they have a quite pleasant clicky sound, and I'm quite interested in what the tactility would be like.
These Space Invaders are definitely a lot of fun. Not all that common though, from what I've gathered, right?
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enjoyed your video, excellent job :thumb:
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I'd love to try clicky Space Invaders sometime. From what I've seen in videos they have a quite pleasant clicky sound, and I'm quite interested in what the tactility would be like.
These Space Invaders are definitely a lot of fun. Not all that common though, from what I've gathered, right?
Not very common indeed, though enough of the NMB boards pop up on eBay.
The "click" in the clicky (but not tactile) Space Invaders switches is really nice. The switch itself feels pretty linear still, but you can feel a subtle click as the clicking mechanism changes direction. It's basically just a piece that's like little arm that follows a < shaped track on the back of the plunger. When it hits the point of the < it clicks, but doesn't really affect the travel. The piece can easily be removed (and fortunately, replaced).
The sound it makes it nice and subtle. It isn't the crunchy kind of click that you'd get from MX Blue or Alps boards (especially), but rather just little "click" noises when you type.
It's actually a really good design. Maybe one day, someone will put them back into production.
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Hm. What’s the history of that board? The NIB white space invader switches I’ve tried were a bit smoother than any MX black switches (other than MX switches which were hand-lubricated by enthusiasts), though not as smooth as green Alps.
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Hm. What�s the history of that board? The NIB white space invader switches I�ve tried were a bit smoother than any MX black switches (other than MX switches which were hand-lubricated by enthusiasts), though not as smooth as green Alps.
There's quite a long story behind it actually xD . You know how I said they're not fun to disassemble? Well, I've disassembled all the switches on the board several times xD .
I picked it up from a recycling centre for 50 pence. It was quite dirty so I gave the caps a good clean. Then I found that the switches were a little rough, so I cleaned them out, and that helped a bit, but it was still not great. So I took off the sliders and washed them gently, then put them back up. That didn't really help either, probably because the sliders were quite dry at this point. I tried several amounts of WD40, from very little to very much, but none of them really helped all that much. So I washed the caps I tested that on AGAIN and applied a very small amount of a dry lube to it. That finally did the trick. So I took all the switches apart again and very gently lubed them. Note that it hasn't impacted the sound of the switches - this is what the board natively sounded like.
It's possible these are not in a good enough condition to be representative state for white Space Invaders, but it was the best I could make out of it. I think overall it should be pretty close to what it originally was.
The "click" in the clicky (but not tactile) Space Invaders switches is really nice. The switch itself feels pretty linear still, but you can feel a subtle click as the clicking mechanism changes direction. It's basically just a piece that's like little arm that follows a < shaped track on the back of the plunger. When it hits the point of the < it clicks, but doesn't really affect the travel. The piece can easily be removed (and fortunately, replaced).
Cool, thanks for the info! I couldn't find any good pics of the clicker mechanism, just the arm, so I had no idea. Hope I get one soon!
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I picked it up from a recycling centre for 50 pence. It was quite dirty so I gave the caps a good clean. Then I found that the switches were a little rough, so I cleaned them out, and that helped a bit, but it was still not great. So I took off the sliders and washed them gently, then put them back up. That didn't really help either, probably because the sliders were quite dry at this point. I tried several amounts of WD40, from very little to very much, but none of them really helped all that much. So I washed the caps I tested that on AGAIN and applied a very small amount of a dry lube to it. That finally did the trick. So I took all the switches apart again and very gently lubed them. Note that it hasn't impacted the sound of the switches - this is what the board natively sounded like. It's possible these are not in a good enough condition to be representative state for white Space Invaders, but it was the best I could make out of it. I think overall it should be pretty close to what it originally was.
If it’s scratchier than a relatively modern MX black board, then as far as smoothness is concerned it’s pretty far from the original. NIB white space invaders are much smoother than recent MX black switches, and a bit smoother than “vintage” MX black or modern Gateron black switches. They’re less smooth however than green Alps or red Matias switches.
You should see if someone near you has a very good condition white space invader board you can try as a reference if you want to accurately judge the effectiveness of your cleaning method.
Getting scratchiness out of old keyswitches is really hard, and I haven’t really found a suitable method for handling the worst ones, though admittedly I haven’t put *too* much effort in. The problem is that little bits of dust/dirt/grit work their way into all the little corners, and stick pretty well to the plastic. In the worst cases the plastic itself might be abraded from use of the switches while they were full of grit, in which event fixing the problem might be nearly impossible.
Just a hand wash and the addition of some lube doesn’t cut it to clean scratchy switches. I think the most promising approach is to completely disassemble the switch and use an ultrasonic cleaner on at least all the plastic parts, then reassemble them with some added lubricant. I don’t have access to an ultrasonic cleaner though so I haven’t tried it. If you don’t have an ultrasonic cleaner, you might try fully disassembling the switches and then carefully swabbing the plastic parts out with an alcohol-soaked cotton swab, I’ve had some mild success with that method on a handful of loose switches (it’s labor intensive to disassemble and hand-clean each switch, so I haven’t done this for a full keyboard).
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I do have an ultrasonic cleaner actually, we have a pretty nifty one in our lab. However, I'm not going to bother disassembling them yet AGAIN xD . If I do get a newer Hi-Tek board I'll do a comparison for sure, but I promised myself not to buy any keyboards anymore except for a Focus 5001 or 9000 ;) . So I'd have to wait until I find one at one of the recycling centres I go to (or at the uni).