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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: buckyballs on Sun, 29 April 2018, 10:16:34
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I saw this ad locally and got quite curious. What switch type are these? I've heard that Apple makes good keyboards, but is this board any good?
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If that is like the one that I had, it is truly dreadful.
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Looks like a Apple A1016 to me. Rubber dome.
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That one is horrible.
Apple has not made a mechanical keyboard since 1995. The one you posted is from the second Jobs era.
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Looks like a Apple A1016 to me. Rubber dome.
The side profile picture looked kinda of mechanical, so I was wondering maybe if I offered the seller five bucks I might end up with a nice alps board?
Sorry but I always thought a rubber dome involves, well, rubber. And the side profile didn't look like rubber to me.
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They don't look anything like Alps. It's a pretty common slider over rubber dome design. The sliders you see push the rubber dome onto the membrane. Your average rubber dome uses the same design, except that the slider is integrated into the key. If for some reason you still don't believe us, here is video proof:
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They don't look anything like Alps. It's a pretty common slider over rubber dome design. The sliders you see push the rubber dome onto the membrane. Your average rubber dome uses the same design, except that the slider is integrated into the key. If for some reason you still don't believe us, here is video proof:
Wow, this video makes me want to buy the keyboard and restore it, if only for the experience!
But seriously, the video reminds me of the IBM Model M...also a kind of weird hybrid where there are mechanical keys on top but a membrane underneath...
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But seriously, the video reminds me of the IBM Model M...also a kind of weird hybrid where there are mechanical keys on top but a membrane underneath...
It's not mechanical at all though. Those are rubber domes...
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Calling the sliders mechanical is incorrect. You might as well call all rubber domes mechanical since they use the exact same mechanism.
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It's a dome with slider of an especially horrific type iirc. Mid 2000's apple domes are a special kind of bad.
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where there are mechanical keys on top
What are ... 'mechanical keys'?
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where there are mechanical keys on top
What are ... 'mechanical keys'?
Keys that follow the laws of classical mechanics. Ergo, all keys are mechanical.
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where there are mechanical keys on top
What are ... 'mechanical keys'?
Keys that follow the laws of classical mechanics. Ergo, all keys are mechanical.
I'm starting to understand. A mechanical keyboard is not one that follows mechanical laws, but one that uses springs? I think all kb that are classified as Mechanical have springs. This Apple keyboard, by virtue of using rubber domes to pop up that plastic slider after you depress the switches, is not mechanical because it doesn't use springs.
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I'm starting to understand. A mechanical keyboard is not one that follows mechanical laws, but one that uses springs? I think all kb that are classified as Mechanical have springs. This Apple keyboard, by virtue of using rubber domes to pop up that plastic slider after you depress the switches, is not mechanical because it doesn't use springs.
OK in all seriousness nobody seems to really agree on what the definition of 'mechanical keyboard' is. Besides 'not rubber dome over membrane' I guess. Because back in the day when most of these technologies were invented they weren't called 'mechanical keyboards' at all...they were just called 'keyboards'. Yet there's a huge variety of different mechanisms that can make a keyboard work. Some are good and others not, but they're all 'mechanical' in some sense of the word.
It was only after cheap rubber dome over membrane keyboards started taking over the industry that the distinction started to be made. Because while rubber dome over membranes keyboards are very cheap to manufacture they also have a lot of properties that keyboard enthusiasts don't like. Not the least of which is the fact that they don't actuate until you've bottomed out the keys, while most 'mechanical' keyboard actuate midway through the keystroke.
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where there are mechanical keys on top
What are ... 'mechanical keys'?
Keys that follow the laws of classical mechanics. Ergo, all keys are mechanical.
-Ergo- DOX.. !!