Unicomp SpaceSaver spacebar click

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Just purchased a Unicomp SpaceSaver. Not bad, asked to have the Unicomp logo removed (too garish) which makes it look just that little bit nicer. Surprisingly stiff, although subjectively it feels like after a little bit of use it softens up. First time I've ever used a buckling spring, and it's nice.

The one thing that does feel really wrong -- the spacebar hardly clicks. It's fully functional, but the click is barely audible. On a keyboard whre its esy to mis out ltters by nt pressng hrd enough, it's discomforting to have a key that never sounds out that it was pressed (when I have to try hard to pay attention to keys that weren't actuated).

Not just that, but the spacebar is typically a very loud key, yet on this keyboard it sounds strangely muffled and quiet, sounding like you never actually hit space at all, leaving weird breaks in the typing sound.

Now, I have no plans to take the key apart, as I break anything and everything, but I'm just curious what might account for that, as it's really quite annoying to have the spacebar be so lacking in both sound and feel.

(Also, I've given the keyboard away to my father, and had back the Cherry brown Majestouch that proved far too soft a touch. Extra incentive not to go and break it! Just need to find a lucky soul to become the FILCO's new owner ... ;-)

[ch_123]

Remove the key and resit it.

The keys on BS keyboards often come loose whilst in travel, has happend to one or two of the buckling springs I've got. Unlike other keyboards, you've have to go out of your way to break a buckling spring keycap or the spring.

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

I have found that the spacebar on my Model M is quieter than the rest of the keys, but it still has the clickiness to it, it is just slightly muffled.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

It still has the three LED symbols, but they're now nicely aligned below the LEDs where they should be. Looks very smart. Someone here made a UNICOMP logo in IBM's font for the legend, which I do think looks fantastic -- UNICOMP should see about getting that used for real, as their logo is desperate! (Granted, not likely to happen)

And yes, I considered reassembling the key, but it's a brand new keyboard and I tend to break things.

I do like my Cherry blue, I do (decided to keep it after all, instead of swap it for the SpaceSaver), but the clicks are just a little too tinny and rattly (somehow the key caps rattle more on a blue than on a brown) and my Tulip ALPS sounds better. (You may recall my concern that clicky would drown out music -- in fact, I tried my father's Cherry brown when I got it back, briefly, and was annoyed that my music drowned it out and, like my scissor, I couldn't hear myself typing, while that the Cherry blue is a perfect volume and pitch of sound for that

At work, my desk has a high degree of reverb, which gives my Cherry brown FILCO a very resounding metallic clatter that's actually a sharper, clearer, deeper and more satisfying sound than a buckling spring.

Yet, I think given time I could really get to like how the keys on a buckling spring have feeling and need a good pounding.

I can see how this keyboard stuff gets addictive ;-)

[ch_123]

Removing a spacebar != disassembling the keyboard

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Yes I know. Normal keys can be taken off with a key puller. I tried my old trick of jamming a long flat object under a FILCO key and prising it off, but FILCO keycaps are all but glued on, and I now have a broken clicker where I've damaged the switch. It still works, but feels and sounds strange. (I really should leave well alone, or, now that I have one, use a bleeding keypuller!)

The spacebar is a complicated key and the last thing I want to do is find another innovative way of damaging it!

As I said, I've given the keyboard away, but I was just curious whether this is a fault (it's been shipped over 3000 miles and this is known to unsettle buckling springs) or, as someone has already mentioned, the key is just quieter. Left ctrl is also a bit quiet, so I guess it's a mixture of bothl

Generally if it's fiddly I am best not touching it :-) And if it ain't broke ...

[ch_123]

Cherry/Alps/Topres are very finnicky and need an awful lot of care to remove them. Buckling springs you just yank them up and out, nothing to it.

As has been pointed out, they don't tend to click as loudly as the other keys, but if it's almost silent and feels different, then you should reseat the key.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Watching a video on YouTube it does seem that the spacebar design is surprisingly quiet. Don't get me wrong, it does click, but unlike a normal keyboard where space is the loudest key, the spacebar on a Unicomp is quite quiet, so much that it sounds like it's not actuating at all, as the click is rather faint.

[kishy]

I've actually noticed on every BS board I have that the spacebar makes a noticeably different sound. If you press it slowly until the click, then do the same with another smaller key, there's a real difference in sound. The spacebar is indeed quieter. The tactile point is also less noticeable, but definitely still there.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Easy problem to solve.  Get a Model F AT.

In that recording, the spacebar definitely exhibits the same property -- it's a dull, deep thud instead of a high, sharp, metallic twang.

I guess it's not something that most people notice, and I confess I didn't until I bought a BS keyboard and then noticed that the spacebar is prominently different in sound.

I spent some time earlier typing on my previous keyboard (the scissor that I'd given away), and it really is horrid compared to a Cherry Worse, the new owner has already managed to get some really gungy substance right inside the scissor mechanism for down arrow and the key is very stiff now. I've left the keycap off for now; that will annoy him, but it's easier to type on the exposed rubberdome than it is the keycap because it's so gummed up. (I didn't have the tools available to completely dismantle the key and clean it -- the gunge is right inside the rear left scissor hinge.)