Green alps mod

[mike52787]

Ive been fooling around with my bag of skcl green alps and a few white alps switches, and ive had a revelation. green linear alps feels amaaaaazzzziiiiinnnngggg with white alps click leaves installed. Just thought I would throw this out there.

[klennkellon]

Do they feel the same as regular White ALPS?

[chyros]

I'm guessing they'd feel a little bit like blue Alps? Which are indeed amazing so that'd make sense xD .

[mike52787]

Not sure what they feel like as ive never tried blue alps. they are heavier and feel slightly different because of the different switch plate and spring in green alps. I really like it.

[merlin64]

I'm still waiting for someone to design an ALPS pcb that uses LED lighting so I can use my green alps!

[mike52787]

I'm still waiting for someone to design an ALPS pcb that uses LED lighting so I can use my green alps!

Just hand wire it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[klennkellon]

I'm still waiting for someone to design an ALPS pcb that uses LED lighting so I can use my green alps!

I just want a plain TKL ALPS PCB so I can solder a buncha orange ALPS on it and make it my daily driver for the rest of my life.

[merlin64]

You could buy a KBP TKL with the Matias Alps switches or even the Fuhua switches for cheap and just desolder it

[Keycap]

I'm guessing they'd feel a little bit like blue Alps? Which are indeed amazing so that'd make sense xD .

I've come to find that Blue Alps are super smooth because of the slider material. So one could possibly make ghetto Blue Alps with a Green/Orange/Brown/ slider and a click leaf

I've tried it with the Orange Alps casing/slider and White Alps click leaf, it's much better than stock White Alps in my experience, even lighter.

[mike52787]

I'm guessing they'd feel a little bit like blue Alps? Which are indeed amazing so that'd make sense xD .

I've come to find that Blue Alps are super smooth because of the slider material. So one could possibly make ghetto Blue Alps with a Green/Orange/Brown/ slider and a click leaf

I've tried it with the Orange Alps casing/slider and White Alps click leaf, it's much better than stock White Alps in my experience, even lighter.

The only thing with my ghetto modded green alps are they are alot heavier than white alps. I got some dust in the switches while assembling them and theyre not the smoothest in the world, but with some lubing and a bit of work these can feel amazing. I prefer heavy switches, but thats just me.

[chyros]

I'm guessing they'd feel a little bit like blue Alps? Which are indeed amazing so that'd make sense xD .

I've come to find that Blue Alps are super smooth because of the slider material. So one could possibly make ghetto Blue Alps with a Green/Orange/Brown/ slider and a click leaf

I've tried it with the Orange Alps casing/slider and White Alps click leaf, it's much better than stock White Alps in my experience, even lighter.

I'm quite sure it's not as simple as that, but the older the components you have in your switch, the better it will probably turn out to be, yes .

[jacobolus]

Umm... SKCL switches have an LED hole in the top housing. How exactly do you fit the click leaf in there?

[mike52787]

I used the top housings from the skcm white switches too.

[Keycap]

I'm guessing they'd feel a little bit like blue Alps? Which are indeed amazing so that'd make sense xD .

I've come to find that Blue Alps are super smooth because of the slider material. So one could possibly make ghetto Blue Alps with a Green/Orange/Brown/ slider and a click leaf

I've tried it with the Orange Alps casing/slider and White Alps click leaf, it's much better than stock White Alps in my experience, even lighter.

I'm quite sure it's not as simple as that, but the older the components you have in your switch, the better it will probably turn out to be, yes .

I'm pretty sure that the smoothness is due to the slider material but I may be wrong. When I tried clicky Orange Alps, they legitimately sounded (and felt) much better than White Alps. Comparing the sound to that of genuine Blue Alps results in a very similar sound overall. Here's a quick sound comparison video that I threw together comparing the clicky Orange Alps to White Alps (I apologize for the low video quality):

I'm not guaranteeing that clicky Orange Alps are identical to Blue Alps, but they certainly seem like the next best thing. I must also note that the Orange Alps in the video are quite old due to the lack of Alps logo on the casing and the long grey switchplate, so yeah, results may vary with this mod (depending on the age of the switches used).

[chyros]

I'm guessing they'd feel a little bit like blue Alps? Which are indeed amazing so that'd make sense xD .

I've come to find that Blue Alps are super smooth because of the slider material. So one could possibly make ghetto Blue Alps with a Green/Orange/Brown/ slider and a click leaf

I've tried it with the Orange Alps casing/slider and White Alps click leaf, it's much better than stock White Alps in my experience, even lighter.

I'm quite sure it's not as simple as that, but the older the components you have in your switch, the better it will probably turn out to be, yes .

I'm pretty sure that the smoothness is due to the slider material but I may be wrong. When I tried clicky Orange Alps, they legitimately sounded (and felt) much better than White Alps. Comparing the sound to that of genuine Blue Alps results in a very similar sound overall. Here's a quick sound comparison video that I threw together comparing the clicky Orange Alps to White Alps (I apologize for the low video quality):

I'm not guaranteeing that clicky Orange Alps are identical to Blue Alps, but they certainly seem like the next best thing. I must also note that the Orange Alps in the video are quite old due to the lack of Alps logo on the casing and the long grey switchplate, so yeah, results may vary with this mod (depending on the age of the switches used).

Don't forget that the cases of those two keyboards are different. The sliders are just one of many things that changed between first and second-gen Alps, too.

[Keycap]

I'm guessing they'd feel a little bit like blue Alps? Which are indeed amazing so that'd make sense xD .

I've come to find that Blue Alps are super smooth because of the slider material. So one could possibly make ghetto Blue Alps with a Green/Orange/Brown/ slider and a click leaf

I've tried it with the Orange Alps casing/slider and White Alps click leaf, it's much better than stock White Alps in my experience, even lighter.

I'm quite sure it's not as simple as that, but the older the components you have in your switch, the better it will probably turn out to be, yes .

I'm pretty sure that the smoothness is due to the slider material but I may be wrong. When I tried clicky Orange Alps, they legitimately sounded (and felt) much better than White Alps. Comparing the sound to that of genuine Blue Alps results in a very similar sound overall. Here's a quick sound comparison video that I threw together comparing the clicky Orange Alps to White Alps (I apologize for the low video quality):

I'm not guaranteeing that clicky Orange Alps are identical to Blue Alps, but they certainly seem like the next best thing. I must also note that the Orange Alps in the video are quite old due to the lack of Alps logo on the casing and the long grey switchplate, so yeah, results may vary with this mod (depending on the age of the switches used).

Don't forget that the cases of those two keyboards are different. The sliders are just one of many things that changed between first and second-gen Alps, too.

Yeah, to be fair, I should have installed the switches in the same board. But we all know how time-consuming Alps are to desolder, and the case construction between the two boards is very comparable. I did use the same exact keycaps with the same profile though. Sound acoustics between the two are not too different other than the Apple (keyboard w/ Orange Alps) being extremely pingy. However, I will update the video soon with a proper comparison between the two switches using the same board.

As for the contrast between the first and second gen, yes there are many differences. Most likely the shorter switchplates make switches stiffer, which would make sense as Salmon Alps are heavier than Orange Alps, White Alps are heavier than Blue Alps, Yellow Alps are heavier than Green Alps etc.
So I'm assuming that the differences involve slider material, spring material, switchplate type, and (possibly) thickness/material of tactile and click leafs?

[fohat.digs]

Off-topic to the green Alps title, but I have at least a full keyboard's worth each of orange and white of nearly the same vintage (Apple/Northgate).

I wanted to replicate the blue feel, and better, because my blue Alps are original lightly cleaned but never disassembled. My original thought was to take the oranges apart to thoroughly clean and adjust them + do the click mod by bending tabs, and I have held back waiting to hear about a proper lubricant (leaning towards a spray-on that dries to the surface).

Perhaps it would be preferable just to make orange/white Frankenswitches and not have to bend anything.

[chyros]

I'm guessing they'd feel a little bit like blue Alps? Which are indeed amazing so that'd make sense xD .

I've come to find that Blue Alps are super smooth because of the slider material. So one could possibly make ghetto Blue Alps with a Green/Orange/Brown/ slider and a click leaf

I've tried it with the Orange Alps casing/slider and White Alps click leaf, it's much better than stock White Alps in my experience, even lighter.

I'm quite sure it's not as simple as that, but the older the components you have in your switch, the better it will probably turn out to be, yes .

I'm pretty sure that the smoothness is due to the slider material but I may be wrong. When I tried clicky Orange Alps, they legitimately sounded (and felt) much better than White Alps. Comparing the sound to that of genuine Blue Alps results in a very similar sound overall. Here's a quick sound comparison video that I threw together comparing the clicky Orange Alps to White Alps (I apologize for the low video quality):

I'm not guaranteeing that clicky Orange Alps are identical to Blue Alps, but they certainly seem like the next best thing. I must also note that the Orange Alps in the video are quite old due to the lack of Alps logo on the casing and the long grey switchplate, so yeah, results may vary with this mod (depending on the age of the switches used).

Don't forget that the cases of those two keyboards are different. The sliders are just one of many things that changed between first and second-gen Alps, too.

Yeah, to be fair, I should have installed the switches in the same board. But we all know how time-consuming Alps are to desolder, and the case construction between the two boards is very comparable. I did use the same exact keycaps with the same profile though. Sound acoustics between the two are not too different other than the Apple (keyboard w/ Orange Alps) being extremely pingy. However, I will update the video soon with a proper comparison between the two switches using the same board.

As for the contrast between the first and second gen, yes there are many differences. Most likely the shorter switchplates make switches stiffer, which would make sense as Salmon Alps are heavier than Orange Alps, White Alps are heavier than Blue Alps, Yellow Alps are heavier than Green Alps etc.
So I'm assuming that the differences involve slider material, spring material, switchplate type, and (possibly) thickness/material of tactile and click leafs?

Yes, but I don't think the switchplate height makes a difference in weighting as the contact leaf imparts very little force. That is probably due to the spring, which also changed between generations. The switchplate is one of the main reasons first-gen switches sound much bassier, though.

[Hypersphere]

Recognizing the taboo of reviving a necropost, because of the relevance of the topic, this seemed the logical place to mention my recent Alps modding efforts.

Recently, I received a Northgate Omnikey 101 with SKCM White Alps. I noticed that it did not sound as good as my other Omnikeys, and it turned out that the newest one had Bamboo (no slits) switches. So, I decided to mod the switches with Pine switch housings from an AEK with Orange Alps. While I was at it, I swapped in the Orange sliders and springs as well. The result was very nice indeed. Here is a link to audio clips in a video:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=45456.msg2308489#msg2308489

Today, I have been cleaning up a Zenith 163-73 with Yellow Alps. I tried a click mod of one of the switches with an Orange Alps top housing and a click leaf from a Matias Click switch. I liked the result very much, and I think I will click mod all the switches in the Zenith board. As far as I can tell, the Matias click leaf is identical to a White Alps click leaf -- is anyone here aware of differences between them?

mike52787 is kindly sending me some Pine White Alps, so I might use the top housings and click leaves from them for click-modding the Yellow Alps. I think I will keep the original springs and sliders in the Yellow Alps switches.