heavier-than-usual salmon Alps switch for a spacebar?

[jacobolus]

I have an Apple keyboard here where all the switches look identical from the outside, but the spacebar has a heavier spring... so that’s yet another minor variant to worry about, bah.

Anyone else notice that on other keyboards? I don’t think I can recall any of the orange Alps boards I’ve seen having that particular feature.

[And before anyone asks, I opened up the switches, and verified that the springs are quite obviously intentionally different.]

[Daniel Beardsmore]

On some keyboards, Alps painted the top of the slider black to indicate that it was fitted with a stiffer spring. I am not aware that this is particularly common. Some keyboards (those from Zenith for example) did use a different switch for space bar.

I cannot really tell that the (apparent) MX green under my Filco spacebar is any stiffer than MX blue (there seems to be a slight difference if I use my finger to test the keys), nor do I notice any difference with keyboards that do just use the same switch for space bar.

I assume in your case that the space bar switch was not visibly marked as being different; it may be that Alps had a production process that no longer relied on visual marking and that no-one else has ever noticed.

I assume such switches were never catalogue products, either, but simply custom batches built on request.

[jacobolus]

No, there’s no marking. It’s entirely undistinguishable from a lighter switch, unless you try pressing it and notice that it’s stiffer.