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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Hypersphere on Fri, 14 April 2017, 08:34:57
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During the past few weeks, I have been typing almost exclusively on my custom Alps64 60%, and I am starting to think that I might be approaching endgame.
Specifications:
Alps64 PCB
HHKB Layout
Stainless Steel Plate, AEK Cut
Hybrid SKCM Brown / Blue Switches
IBM 5140 Dye-sublimated PBT Alphanumeric Keycaps
Matias Black Black Mods and Spacebar
SP Red Esc
TEX CNC Anodized Black Aluminum Case
Underside metal badge
Conical feet
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See below for a brief video with an audio clip. The typing is:
098098098
poipoipoi
lkjlkjlkj
,n,mn,mn
Backspace (Backslash) x 3
Backslash (Backspace) x 3
Enter x3
Right Shift x 3
Right Control (Fn) x 3
Spacebar x 3
The keyboard initially had SKCM brown Alps, which have a unique tautness and emphatic tactility. I admire these switches, but I found them fatiguing in long typing sessions, so I decided to hybridize them. I kept the bottom housings with their switch plates and contact leaves. The top housings, sliders, springs, and click leaves are SKCM blue Alps. This effectively makes the switches SKCM blue Alps, but I like to acknowledge their heritage.
The only disappointing thing about this board is the sound. A stainless steel plate and shallow aluminum case provide virtually no soundboard or resonant chamber, so the blue Alps switches lose the bass quality and special timbre that they exhibit in some full-size cases.
Approaching endgame? Yes, approaching, but not there yet!