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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: asgeirtj on Sun, 18 October 2015, 17:07:19
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So I'm wondering about the difference in spring weights
Korean measurement is bottom down force, regular measurement is actuation force.
http://www.originativeco.com/products/springs?variant=7096477061
Originative offers korean measured springs in 50g-55g-58g-62g-67g (and 80g, not interested in that though) (I take it that originative's, winkeyless.kr and Gon's springs are the same but I'm not 100%)
Sprit offers korean measured springs in 50g-55g-60g-62g-65g-68g (and higher, but I'm not interested in heavier springs than that)
I sometime heard though that sprit's springs are heavier, that 62g feels like 63,5g for example or something like that, can anyone chime in on that?
And lastly we have mechanicalkeyboards.com offerings whic are measured at actuation:
35g-45g-60g-62g-67g
However I suspect that the actuation force measurement is suddenly switched to korean measurement at 60g+, at least when I read this paragraph on the site:
These springs are custom-made and each compression force has its special properties: the 35g requires an extremely light touch and has a similar response to Topre; the 40g come a hair lighter than Red and Brown switches to better suit faster typists; 45g is comparable to Red and Brown; 60g comes close to Black, which gives you a tactile response and a slightly lighter compression force than Clears; the 62g is an immensely popular weight that proves particularly useful for Ergo Clear mods; the 67g comes close to Extra Ergo Clears and is a touch heavier than standard Clears; the 80g features the Green and Grey weight and proves most useful for intentional typists
But the 60-62-67 are not gold spring even though have the one-off gold offering in 62g which is surely korean measured.
So my question is how do these line up in stiffness? Could anyone line it up for me like this? This is just a random guess as an example:
standard 35g (actuation measured) < Korean 50g < sprit 50g < korean 55g < sprit 55g < korean 58g < sprit 60g < standard 45g < korean 62g < sprit 62g < sprit 65g < korean 67g < sprit 68g
(I didn't include 60g-62-67g from mechanicalkeyboards.com as I'm not sure if they are korean or standard measured)
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Since MK claim their 67g is heavier than stock Clear, I think they're all measured to actuation. The fact that the 62g is popular is probably due to people thinking it's Korean weight and 62g Korean IS popular for ErgoClears. The MK 62g probably feels VERY close to stock Clear strength.
I have some Originative 62g and Sprit 62g and will try to measure them when I find time, but I have not been able to notice a difference between them when they're in use. I can tell the difference between 62g and 67g, but these are closer than that, so I'm not sure it REALLY matters.
Also, actuation measured is not really valuable for spring measurements, since the slider influences the force. Even with a linear slider, there will be a difference between a spring measured outside the switch and inside due to the leaf spring tension and angle of the slider where it makes contact. Linear sliders will reduce the measured force, tactile will increase it. So the Korean bottom-out measurement is more meaningful.
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Wow it's weird that MK has those popular weights (in korean measure) 60g,62g, and 65g but those are in activation force so they are super heavy lol. Even the 62g is the only one sold out so I imagine a lot of people got snuffed since they probably thought they were buying the most popular ergo clear weight. Also the description for the springs on originative's site is actuation force which is surely wrong. Springs are really confusing lol.
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Also, actuation measured is not really valuable for spring measurements, since the slider influences the force. Even with a linear slider, there will be a difference between a spring measured outside the switch and inside due to the leaf spring tension and angle of the slider where it makes contact. Linear sliders will reduce the measured force, tactile will increase it. So the Korean bottom-out measurement is more meaningful.
Why wouldn't measuring inside the switch be best of all.
After all, that is where it is used.
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Also, actuation measured is not really valuable for spring measurements, since the slider influences the force. Even with a linear slider, there will be a difference between a spring measured outside the switch and inside due to the leaf spring tension and angle of the slider where it makes contact. Linear sliders will reduce the measured force, tactile will increase it. So the Korean bottom-out measurement is more meaningful.
Why wouldn't measuring inside the switch be best of all.
After all, that is where it is used.
You'd need to quote forces for all switch types per manufacturer per spring weight. Gaterons have slightly stronger leafs and subtly different slider angles, so they'd measure differently than MX. I'm sure Kailh are different, too.
I'd rather have a single actual measure of the force of ONLY the spring, since we're differentuating the springs themselves, not the switches.