geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: LiquidEvilGaming on Sat, 23 April 2016, 14:23:50
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Starting to seek out some vintage ALPS boards finally and i would ideally like to swap some of the ones with ABS caps out with newer TaiHao doubleshots however i constantly read horror stories of old ALPS Switches breaking or the stem from the cap breaking off into the switch.
Am i just reading too many horror stories? Or is it really that common an occurrence?
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Wire puller is a must, as uneven force distribution is what leads to broken stem.
I can pull caps really quickly, and with brute force. The only thing I'm a bit concerned with is the stress it puts on the PCB through hole connections.
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There's no reason to fear it at all. I've pulled thousands of Alps caps by now and I've never broken a single one.
All you need to do is do it properly. Use a keypuller, preferably a wire puller, and pull straight up. The first time you pull the keys they'll take a bit more force, but they can handle it. Just don't use a knife or screwdriver or anything like that, use a proper tool.
The only problem with Alps caps breaking is when they get hit from the side, for example when they're being shipped - in that case Alps caps can sometimes snap clean off.
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Good to know as i'd really love to toss some TaiHao doubleshots on the Black Dell AT101W and give it a fair shake.
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Good to know as i'd really love to toss some TaiHao doubleshots on the Black Dell AT101W and give it a fair shake.
Those are great, but you can occasionally find an FK-2001 in good condition for around the same price as those keycap sets. You get a new keyboard with white ALPS and a full set of doubleshot keycaps!
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Good to know as i'd really love to toss some TaiHao doubleshots on the Black Dell AT101W and give it a fair shake.
Those are great, but you can occasionally find an FK-2001 in good condition for around the same price as those keycap sets. You get a new keyboard with white ALPS and a full set of doubleshot keycaps!
True, but FK-2001 caps won't fit an AT101W ;) . They're good caps though, and cheap!
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There's no reason to fear it at all. I've pulled thousands of Alps caps by now and I've never broken a single one.
All you need to do is do it properly. Use a keypuller, preferably a wire puller, and pull straight up. The first time you pull the keys they'll take a bit more force, but they can handle it. Just don't use a knife or screwdriver or anything like that, use a proper tool.
The only problem with Alps caps breaking is when they get hit from the side, for example when they're being shipped - in that case Alps caps can sometimes snap clean off.
Does this apply to the larger keys e.g. Shift too?
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The only way that I've broken some Alps keycaps (believe me, I have) is by using one of those cheap plastic "ring pullers". Wire pullers are a must for Alps in most cases. But I DO have a certain ring puller that works well for Alps... It's just that my other ones don't clip onto the keycap good enough, which allows one side to slip, and therefore a bunch of unwanted force is applied to a side of the keycap—snapping the keycap off of its stem.
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I have also removed thousands and could count the ones I have broken on one hand.
That said, you do need to use care and give a firm but gentle pull. Occasionally you do encounter a particularly tight one.
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Good to know as i'd really love to toss some TaiHao doubleshots on the Black Dell AT101W and give it a fair shake.
Those are great, but you can occasionally find an FK-2001 in good condition for around the same price as those keycap sets. You get a new keyboard with white ALPS and a full set of doubleshot keycaps!
True, but FK-2001 caps won't fit an AT101W ;) . They're good caps though, and cheap!
Oh yeah, forgot about the bigass enter.
Maybe he'll find one like the one I had, which had a big-ass Enter, but placed the "\" key where the Windows keys would go, but had a normal sized shift key. then he'd only have to worry about the enter.
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Good to know as i'd really love to toss some TaiHao doubleshots on the Black Dell AT101W and give it a fair shake.
Those are great, but you can occasionally find an FK-2001 in good condition for around the same price as those keycap sets. You get a new keyboard with white ALPS and a full set of doubleshot keycaps!
True, but FK-2001 caps won't fit an AT101W ;) . They're good caps though, and cheap!
Oh yeah, forgot about the bigass enter.
Maybe he'll find one like the one I had, which had a big-ass Enter, but placed the "\" key where the Windows keys would go, but had a normal sized shift key. then he'd only have to worry about the enter.
Well most FK-2001s don't have windows keys and the wrong size of modifiers, and the pipe key will be the wrong profile - indeed you'll need one with a non-split shift layout.