New Cherry MC Switch?

[nar]

Over at reddit, someone mentioned that they talked with a cherry sales rep at a convention in Australia and they mentioned that Cherry is making a new key switch for next year with "software controlled torque".

Anyone heard anything about this?

[Djuzuh]

Sounds awesome. And damn pricey.

[naranja]

also very curious about this! From comments:

Unlike their current switches which all have set torque(pressure needed to push keys) the new ones will be able to be adjusted by software in real time. so you could set your A S W D keys to me much softer then the keys around it to prevent accidental presses then change them to the same torque later when you want type without having to physically remove and change the switches.

How does that work? Are there springs inside the switches still

Honestly have no clue. Sales rep wouldn't tell me anything since they are still in development stage. Expecting magnets and solenoids to provide magnetic resistance. But just a guess.

Any other input on this? I'm really doubting magnets/solenoids because that would seem ridiculously expensive.

[Djuzuh]

I can't think of any other way to do it. It seems the most plausible explanation

Maybe precompress a spring can do it accurately too ?

[godly_music]

Sounds extremely gimmicky and prone to breakage. The simpler, the better, in my opinion. Just stick with a resistance you like, etc.

[cactux]

Over at reddit, someone mentioned that they talked with a cherry sales rep at a convention in Australia and they mentioned that Cherry is making a new key switch for next year with "software controlled torque".

Anyone heard anything about this?

why are you talking about torque?
torque is rotational force, and the switches actuate by an axial force.

IMO what they may try to do is control the actuation force required to activate the switch, as well as the actuation travel. This will make happy everybody

[limmy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:4StrokeEngine_Ortho_3D_Small.gif

Maybe upward force is controlled by rotational force like in an combustion engine?

The idea of software controlled force sounds interesting, but sounds very expensive. Moreover, a lot of moving parts in a small switch sounds like trouble to me.

[7bit]

I see. By an electric impulse, the switch is switched from blue to brown.

:-)

edit: I bet they introduced that on 1 April 2012.

[mkawa]

there are materials that that change mechanical resistance when current is applied, but they're all very expensive now. this sounds kind of far fetched, or meant for very expensive applications

[funxion]

I think you guys are thinking too much into it...

I'm pretty sure Cherry wouldn't invest time and money into developing a switch that wouldn't sell...

The cheapest route would be a spring within a chamber that compresses and expands with minor mechanical input via scripted software.

[Djuzuh]

reddit is moderated on a subreddit basis.

And the only moderator of r/keyboards does nothing at all it seems.