What kind of switch is this?

[supamesican]

Found an old compaq keyboard at the local retirement home thrift shop, for $1.50, felt heavier than a rubber dome and they keys were noticeably different. Took a key off and found this, hopefully it uploads right..

[Daniel Beardsmore]

http://deskthority.net/wiki/NMB_dome_with_slider

Rubber dome with a slider over the top.

[JackMills]

I have the same on a Compaq. If you disassemble you'll see the rubber dome beneath.

Edit: Daniel beat me to it, his link shows what's beneath. Looks exactly like what I saw when I disassembled mine.

[supamesican]

Oh well, at least its feels better than a normal rubber dome.

[JackMills]

It does feel better, that's why I opened it up. Had to know what it was, bit disappointed about the dome. It's still being used.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Domes are not inherently bad — it depends how much the manufacturer was willing to invest in the design and production.

Mechanical switches can also be terrible if made cheaply. It's just that dome tends to go hand-in-hand with maximum cost-cutting measures.

[JackMills]

I know, the disappointment was more because I didn't expect it as it differed from the rubber domes that I knew. I hoped for something special, I guess supamesican had the same hope. But it is indeed a better rubber dome then the others that I have or use.

[supamesican]

Yeah it was kinda disappointing, but they feel a lot nicer than normal rubber domes(even ripster said so on imgur http://imgur.com/a/ko54H), they sound nicer, and just better switches to standard domes. Until I get my unicomp(or find a different mechanical switch at a swap meet or thrift store) I'll be happy enough with this. Especially for $1.50, its hands down the best non mechanical board I've used.

[terrpn]

isn't that basically the same as the Dell Quiet Key?

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Well, yes, the NMB version of the QuietKey used those switches; whether they have the same spec or feel, I don't know.

I had the Silitek QuietKey and that was really nice, but it wore out and I finally ended up breaking the membrane cleaning it — IIRC it had conductive domes that needed frequent cleaning.