Dell AT101W Spacebar Mod?

[mrsone]

Hello, everyone. I recently purchased a Dell AT101W to try the ALPS switches. I am enjoying the ALPS switch so far, but I am not enjoying the keyboard so much. This is due to the spacebar being extremely rattly on my particular unit. All the other keys are very crisp and a pleasure to type on, but the spacbar is not as crisp due to the rattling under the key.

For all the modders out there, is there any way to mod the board so that the spacebar is not so rattly? Please let me know, because although I love the keyboard, the spacebar is making me think about getting another ALPS board and switching it out.

Thanks!

[dec.net]

Was sort of wondering about the same thing on a AT102W. Too be honest, I didn't enjoy the switch feeling too much even after ghetto-click-modding it (rather uneven between keys and a lot of friction in general - might try to teflon-coat the moving parts in the future), so I just let it sit idly in my cupboard.
I guess the problem is caused by the metal stabilizer bars having a bit of room to wiggle around in their guidance "rail" (I mean the litte bit of white plastic inside the space bar key). On my board, it's only the right side stabilizer that seems to rattle, as proven by gently shaking either sides of the space bar. Now, I think it might be possible to twist (and thereby put pre-tension on) the stabilizer to a point where it stays in contact with the guidance rail all the time on both sides. Otherwise a bit of lithium grease applied to the guidance rails could fix the problem as well, by dampening the movement of the stabilizer a bit. In fact, you'd probably want to try the grease method first, as it's a lot easier to remove than having to straighten out bits of metal wire.
Try it for a while though before calling it solved, if the stabilizer moves the grease out of the way bit by bit, you'll have the same rattle after a few hours of typing. Since I don't like my board so much in the first place and don't have too much to lose, I'll see if the twisting method does actually help.

Chris

[dec.net]

I'm now -after twisting the stabilizer, which didn't do anything to the sound - fairly certain that it's the small white hinge points on the board that create a large part of the rattly sound - I accidentially ripped both of them out of their place trying to reinstall the key (always move the key over to the other side first before trying to force the guidance cylinders into the barrels ), which made the sound a lot worse (after putting them back of course). This raised my suspicions that these things might have a tendency to come loose, so I held some tweezers to the hinge point while pushing the space bar - no more sound. So I'm gooing them in with some kit (have a suspicion that regular glue might not stick too well on this type of hard plastic used for bearings) which is drying right now.

Edit: I think it's dry enough to use now, and in combination with some grease on the white rails on the space bar, it really made a difference. Tell me about your results when you get to doing it!

Chris

[mrsone]

Thanks for your reply. I did test your observations and found that the right stabilizer in my spacebar is the rattly one. I have also asked a lot of other people on this forum and elsewhere that own this keyboard and they all confirmed that it is a quirk with this keyboard model. So I think I will hold onto it and try to mod it before getting rid of it.

I also tested some of the other keys that use stabilizers and I found that my backspace key and the enter key on the number pad also have a little amount of rattle to them as well. I removed the enter key on my number pad, and when I replaced it I did notice it was a little more rattly than before. The little white guidance rails must be the issue, but on the smaller keys I guess it causes less of a problem.

So to be sure, what was the kind of glue that you used on the plastic guides? I want to be sure that I get it right before I try to mod the board in any way. I was thinking that maybe I should just put a dot of super glue on the stabilizers to make sure they are held stable then add some lithium grease?

Glad to hear that your mod worked. It gives me some hope.

[dec.net]

The kind of glue I used was some really sticky, black elastic stuff that is actually intended as a sealant for automotive gaskets. The exact type ("Sikaflex") might be hard to come by in the US but I'm sure you can find something else that is similar in any automotive or hardware store. Well, since the amount you need is very small anyway and so are probably the forces involved, ordinary superglue might work as well...

The one negative thing about this mod is however that the key feels a bit slower with a dampened movement in general - it feels solid, but definitely not "crisp" in the way the other keys behave.

Chris

[mrsone]

Thanks for the additional information. I will have to keep this in mind. I may just try it on the right stabilizer and see how that works.