Ideas on where to get a couple of replacement keycaps for an Omnikey 101?

[ekeppel]

Hi Everyone,

Well, I just bought another alps board, an Omnikey 101.  Unfortunately, it is missing a couple of keycaps (backslash and right shift).   This board has nice doubleshot caps, so I would like to keep the stock keys, if possible.   I should mention that the shift key and stabilizer are not actually missing from this board, but the shift is missing one of the arms to hold the stabilizer, so that's why it needs replacement.  I wonder if it is possible to just get the little arm inserts?  hmm...

Anyway the easiest route would be to find a couple of replacements from a donor.  Can anyone recommend a place to get ones that will match the existing keys?

I haven't received the keyboard yet, but here's a photo:



I thought these all had white alps and just noticed the odd looking switches.  What are these?  Is that just a secondary keycap or something that pops off?

Thanks for any light that you guys can shed on this for me. :-)

Eric

[Puddsy]

Piecemeal ALPS caps are really hard to find. Check PMK, but that's probably the only option.

[ekeppel]

Thanks for your input.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that keycaps aren't super easy to find.  Maybe Bob over at Northgate Repair will have something.  I'll have to check with him tomorrow.

I do have a Lite-On SK-0002 that I could get a shift key from.  I'm typing on it right now in fact, and I do believe I heard it cry out plaintively as I wrote that last sentence, lol.    Fortunately for it, it also has the supersized enter key, so no 1.5W backslash.  I'll move on to another donor.

Another possiblity is to steal a complete keyset from another Alps board with the same layout.  I think I've seen Omnikeys with Dell AT101W keycaps on them, but that's quite a step down in quality and appearance in my opinion.   

I guess I'll find out more when this Omnikey arrives, but I am still curious to know what's going on with the switches for those two missing keys on the board.  They have a funny appearance, and it almost looks like half of the switch housing is missing, yet the profile is pretty uniform and matches on both keys.  I'm really not sure what it is I'm looking at though.  It's a rather low-res photo.   

Still at just under $37 shipped, I think it was worth buying this 101.  Hopefully I can get it cleaned up and restored with a little work and hunting of parts.  It would be a shame to see it sit unused.

Eric

[Minnie2]

This may be an old keyboard switch.

[opensecret]

Did you get that board yet?  I've got multiple Omnikeys (typing on an Ultra now), and when I've pulled caps, there's always a white Alps underneath.  I haven't seen anything that looks like your picture.

[ekeppel]

Hi, yes I did receive it a while back, and am typing on it right now in fact.  I just completely forgot to update this post, lol!

It turns out that they are actually white Alps as expected.  It just so happens that those two keys were absolutely *destroyed*.  The odd look seen in the photo was due to the top half of the switch housings being broken in two, and the lower portion is missing on each.  Of course most of the interior parts including the tactile leaf, spring, and slider were gone as well.

I contacted Bob at Northgate Repair and he is sending me a couple of switches and some miscellaneous bits to get the keyboard back up to spec. 

In the meantime, I relocated a couple of switches to make the keyboard usable until parts arrive in the mail.

[opensecret]

Bob Tibbetts is a great resource on Northgate (and Alps) boards -- glad he's able to help.