Alcatel MFII Keyboard

[RimenX]

Hi guys, what is your opinion on Alcatel MFII Keyboard? There is not much information about it on web, I found only that this keyboard is build on acer switches. If anyone know something about it post in this theard. Thanks for reply!

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Never used that specific keyboard, but the switches are ..... interesting.

The one thing about them that is really nice, is that—like with Fujitsu Peerless—they have a fairly delicate and unimposing click (at least, they do in the basic Acer 6311/6312 of which the MFII is a variant). They are the opposite end of the clicky scale from buckling spring and simplified Alps/Matias click switches.

On the other hand, it does take a fair amount of effort to force that gentle little click out — it's a switch for people with strong fingers.

[genkidama]

So what kind of switches are these acer switches? Like heavy blacks?

I only knew Alcatel as a cellphone company for low budget phones. So I'm curious about this keyboard as I never heard of something like this.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

It's a clicky membrane switch.

Summary:

Alps-mount sliders. Alps-style click leaf, though a different shape.

Under the slider is a spring, which sits on a pivoting arm. The bottom of this arm has a nub that presses down on the membrane sheets.

If you pull a keycap, you see what looks like a switch (like Alps or Cherry), but it's just a support shell for the slider that snaps into the keyboard case itself. The shell is open at the bottom.

Somewhere there's probably a decent, comprehensive set of photos of one. My photos of the Acer boards are woefully incomplete — it's somewhere on my list to finish that off.

[ComradeSniper]

Somewhere there's probably a decent, comprehensive set of photos of one. My photos of the Acer boards are woefully incomplete — it's somewhere on my list to finish that off.

If there is interest I can pull mine apart.

[CPTBadAss]

Somewhere there's probably a decent, comprehensive set of photos of one. My photos of the Acer boards are woefully incomplete — it's somewhere on my list to finish that off.

If there is interest I can pull mine apart.

I'm interested

[ComradeSniper]

Alright, here it is. Please excuse the dirtyness.



The sticker on the back



Upon removing a few screws and undoing some tabs along the sides of the case, it splits in half, revealing the plastic-plate mounted switches. The plate isn't held in by anything; it's just sitting there.



A close up of the controller -- looks generic to me, which is no surprise given that this is a membrane keyboard.



Removing the plate and flipping it over, we find the membrane sheets held in place by a steel plate which is screwed into the plastic plate.



After removing the steel backplate:



The switches push into the membrane sheet to actuate.




I couldn't figure out how to remove a switch from the plate or I would've taken pictures of that too. The Deskthority wiki has some pics of a disassembled Acer switch, though.

This was all I could think of, feel free to ask if there's something else you want pics of. I imagine the Alcatel board is very internally similar to this one.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I couldn't figure out how to remove a switch from the plate or I would've taken pictures of that too.

It is a bit of a pain to get the "switches" out, yes. I think there's two or four tabs that have to be squeezed in from the top — it's been a while since I did this. Disassembling the switches is tricky too — IIRC, you have to carefully bend the click leaf around a small plastic protrusion somewhere.

It is a tad overengineered for what it does.

[genkidama]

Thanks for the pics ComradeSniper! Looks very neat, I wonder how the feel is.
This keyboard is not for sale anymore, is it?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Opinion varies, as with any switch. For me they're fairly comparable with stiff Alps clones (Xiang Min, Hua-Jie) — typing requires a fair amount of effort and you get missed keystrokes. Not a keyboard of choice for me.

[osi]

Always good to see different keyboards. Thanks for the pics