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Author Topic: Focus Electronic FK-2001  (Read 2907 times)

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Offline Demetrium

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Focus Electronic FK-2001
« on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 12:19:21 »
I just found one of these laying around in a cabinet at work. From what I gather these can have white or black Alps. This is my first time seeing an old board like this --- can you take the caps off with a traditional puller? Anything I should know?

I can't mess around with it right now, but I'm looking forward to checking it out a bit more later in the day.

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Offline jameslr

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 12:20:23 »
They can have blue alps too (super rare from what I understand). Most likely they're white complicated alps. Yes you can use a standard wire puller.
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Offline dorkvader

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:14:23 »
Alps keycaps are usually harder to remove. I recommend pulling straight up.
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Offline Quardah

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:18:55 »
If ALPS caps break it's forever broken and ruins the entire switch since it mostly was designed by some kinds of autistic pinguin eaters.

You gotta pull UP and straight UP, if you break the stem it'll be forever broken and lost
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Offline dorkvader

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:26:04 »
Quote from: Quardah on Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:18:55
If ALPS caps break it's forever broken and ruins the entire switch since it mostly was designed by some kinds of autistic pinguin eaters.

You gotta pull UP and straight UP, if you break the stem it'll be forever broken and lost
That's a little pessamistic. C'mon this is Geekhack, where everything is fixable!

I heard you can desolder the switch, open it up, and push the stem-part out from the back. Shouldn't be too hard.
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Offline Quardah

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:31:03 »
Quote from: dorkvader on Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:26:04
Quote from: Quardah on Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:18:55
If ALPS caps break it's forever broken and ruins the entire switch since it mostly was designed by some kinds of autistic pinguin eaters.

You gotta pull UP and straight UP, if you break the stem it'll be forever broken and lost
That's a little pessamistic. C'mon this is Geekhack, where everything is fixable!

I heard you can desolder the switch, open it up, and push the stem-part out from the back. Shouldn't be too hard.

Yea but the issue is, once the stem is broken it simply cannot be fixed back to its original integritty. Even if you manage to remove the small little plastic stem (male) from the ALPS stem (female), even using hot glue it'll still be lame to put back in, cause it'll either wobble or next time you'll try to remove the cap it'll rebreak.

It's just a shame ALPS breaks fairly easy versus others. If you fix it the keycap is still ruined!
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Offline jacobolus

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 14:48:34 »
Quote from: Quardah on Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:31:03
Yea but the issue is, once the stem is broken it simply cannot be fixed back to its original integritty. Even if you manage to remove the small little plastic stem (male) from the ALPS stem (female), even using hot glue it'll still be lame to put back in, cause it'll either wobble or next time you'll try to remove the cap it'll rebreak.

It's just a shame ALPS breaks fairly easy versus others. If you fix it the keycap is still ruined!
I have removed all the keycaps from ~30 Alps keyboards and never broken a keycap. I think you’re exaggerating greatly here.

The easiest home method for removing Alps keycaps is to use a couple of butter knives or similar smooth flat pieces of metal. Slip one under each side of the keycap and pry upward. (Some types of keypullers also work, but those little plastic ones aren’t going to be effective.)

If you happen to break a keycap, make a post in classifieds and someone can probably give you one or sell you one for cheap. If it’s one of the Tai Hao caps used in a Focus keyboard, those are pretty common and not especially desirable, so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to find an extra.
« Last Edit: Tue, 19 August 2014, 14:53:07 by jacobolus »
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Offline jacobolus

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 14:56:52 »
Quote from: Demetrium on Tue, 19 August 2014, 12:19:21
I just found one of these laying around in a cabinet at work. From what I gather these can have white or black Alps.
If it has windows keys, then it’s probably simplified Alps switches or some Alps clone. If it doesn’t have windows keys, it’s probably complicated white Alps, but it could also be complicated blue Alps switches if it’s a very old one, or it could even be an Omron Alps clone (I’ve never tried that type of Omron switch, so I have no idea whether it’s any good, but it would be interesting to try).

The most common type seem to be the ones without windows keys with complicated white Alps switches.
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Offline Quardah

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #8 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 15:00:03 »
Quote from: jacobolus on Tue, 19 August 2014, 14:48:34
Quote from: Quardah on Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:31:03
Yea but the issue is, once the stem is broken it simply cannot be fixed back to its original integritty. Even if you manage to remove the small little plastic stem (male) from the ALPS stem (female), even using hot glue it'll still be lame to put back in, cause it'll either wobble or next time you'll try to remove the cap it'll rebreak.

It's just a shame ALPS breaks fairly easy versus others. If you fix it the keycap is still ruined!
I have removed all the keycaps from ~30 Alps keyboards and never broken a keycap. I think you’re exaggerating greatly here.

The easiest home method for removing Alps keycaps is to use a couple of butter knives or similar smooth flat pieces of metal. Slip one under each side of the keycap and pry upward. (Some types of keypullers also work, but those little plastic ones aren’t going to be effective.)

If you happen to break a keycap, make a post in classifieds and someone can probably give you one or sell you one for cheap. If it’s one of the Tai Hao caps used in a Focus keyboard, those are pretty common and not especially desirable, so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to find an extra.

Yea i'm exagerating a little bit but the sad thing with ALPS is and will always be that the caps can break much more often that other stems (versus MX or Topre or BS for example) due to the keycap having a little piece inserted inside the stem.

I know you can find extras but it ruins the fun, breaking your caps...
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Offline Demetrium

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #9 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 15:30:28 »
Quote from: jacobolus on Tue, 19 August 2014, 14:56:52
The most common type seem to be the ones without windows keys with complicated white Alps switches.

This one doesn't have Windows keys so I'm willing to bet it's whites. I'll take a look in about an hour or so once I get home.

Quote from: jacobolus on Tue, 19 August 2014, 14:48:34
I have removed all the keycaps from ~30 Alps keyboards and never broken a keycap. I think you’re exaggerating greatly here.

The easiest home method for removing Alps keycaps is to use a couple of butter knives or similar smooth flat pieces of metal. Slip one under each side of the keycap and pry upward. (Some types of keypullers also work, but those little plastic ones aren’t going to be effective.)

If you happen to break a keycap, make a post in classifieds and someone can probably give you one or sell you one for cheap. If it’s one of the Tai Hao caps used in a Focus keyboard, those are pretty common and not especially desirable, so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to find an extra.

Thanks for the tip! I only have a pair of the crappy key pullers (the thicker ring-style plastic one) so I'll prolly try the butter knife technique.

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Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #10 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 16:34:57 »
Those plastic ones are crap.
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Offline Demetrium

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #11 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 17:16:48 »
OK, so you guys were right, these keycaps are a pain in the ass to get off. I was actually mistaken earlier since I only got a quick glance --- this is one of the models with the Windows keys. I pried off one of the caps and it doesn't say Alps on it like I think I've seen in some pictures; they're black/white with "2F71" lettering on them. I guess this makes them complicated Alps?

The board itself seems like it's in more or less OK condition. There's some really bad yellowing, a missing leg, no cover, and the backspace sometimes sticks, but beyond that it's OK. Always fun to try out a new type of switch (for free, anyway). Now I just need to get used to this god-forsaken two-row enter and moved backspace. Thanks for the help earlier in the thread!
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Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #12 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 17:32:31 »
Quote from: Demetrium on Tue, 19 August 2014, 17:16:48
Now I just need to get used to this god-forsaken two-row enter and moved backspace.

aka "Bigass Enter" and "small Backspace"

Totally awful. I can more or less live with the Bigass Enter, but the small Backspace kills me. I suppose that I always hit the left side of the long one.

« Last Edit: Tue, 19 August 2014, 18:43:20 by fohat.digs »
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"Starting in 2011, the deficits again started to shrink. During Obama’s term  the deficit was reduced by $900 Billion  before finally in 2015 the GOP managed to wrangle a “reconciliation” bill out of Obama where he again cut corporate taxes, as well as made permanent some of George W. Bush’s original tax cuts. This is the year everything reversed. Before this, under Clinton, Bush and Obama the deficit in almost every year was gradually decreasing. The balance we had of taxes and the economy was bringing the deficit down, the money coming in was slowly catching up with the money going out until 2015. Trump’s subsequent tax cut has continued the new trend even after the rest of Bush’s cuts have since expired. Obama had an average GDP of 2.3%, with 11.6 million jobs created and unemployment peaking at 10% in 2009, then falling to 4.3% in 2016. If we had continued on that downward deficit track, we would have again reached balance and another surplus in 2017-2018.
– Frank V Walton 2025-07-01

Offline dorkvader

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #13 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 17:40:53 »
http://deskthority.net/wiki/Alps.tw_Type_T1

I think they are hua-jie switches. (alps clone).

Quote from: fohat.digs on Tue, 19 August 2014, 17:32:31
Totally awful. I can more or less live with the bigass Enter, but the small Backspace kills me.

it's really hard to get used to.

I managed to get by with one at work by slowing down a little and focusing on not making any mistakes.
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Offline Daniel Beardsmore

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #14 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 18:38:58 »
The evidence is in favour of them being type OA2:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Focus_FK-2001

I imagine they're just the predecessor of T1. Dating evidence for T1, OA2 etc is still extremely sketchy, as it is for all the other similar clones.
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Offline Firebolt1914

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #15 on: Tue, 19 August 2014, 20:39:19 »
Can we have some pictures?
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Offline Magna224

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #16 on: Wed, 20 August 2014, 01:01:26 »
The caps are kinda hard to get off. They really do stick to the stem. I always just saw side to side carefully without much force. The older the focus the better! The newer one I weighed was 2 lb 13oz while my '88 was well over 3lb.
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Offline niubio

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #17 on: Wed, 20 August 2014, 06:59:37 »
Quote from: Quardah on Tue, 19 August 2014, 13:31:03
Yea but the issue is, once the stem is broken it simply cannot be fixed back to its original integritty. Even if you manage to remove the small little plastic stem (male) from the ALPS stem (female), even using hot glue it'll still be lame to put back in, cause it'll either wobble or next time you'll try to remove the cap it'll rebreak.

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Offline Demetrium

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Re: Focus Electronic FK-2001
« Reply #18 on: Wed, 20 August 2014, 08:17:52 »
Quote from: Firebolt1914 on Tue, 19 August 2014, 20:39:19
Can we have some pictures?

Sure, I'm on the road for a few days but I'll take some when I get home. Get ready for some yellow plastic!
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