Author Topic: Cherry Keyboards?  (Read 3754 times)

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Offline TheAngelicWolf

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Cherry Keyboards?
« on: Sun, 02 November 2014, 16:37:22 »
Soooo.....during my eBay expedition, I found a few Cherry branded keyboards. A few of them were claiming to have mechanical switches at ridiculously low prices. Do you guys think what I saw was realistic? I think it was a little too good to be true.  :blank:
I thought signatures belonged on paper?

Offline SpAmRaY

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 02 November 2014, 16:42:23 »
Model numbers would help tremendously.

Offline Photekq

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 02 November 2014, 16:44:17 »
Model numbers would help tremendously.
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Offline IvanIvanovich

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 02 November 2014, 16:52:01 »
I've found Cherry G80-****H models, the ones with MX and doubleshots for as low as $15 NIB and $5 used so...

Offline DrHubblePhD

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 02 November 2014, 17:08:39 »
I've found Cherry G80-****H models, the ones with MX and doubleshots for as low as $15 NIB and $5 used so...

You wouldn't want to link those would you?

Offline Puddsy

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 02 November 2014, 18:12:48 »
I've found Cherry G80-****H models, the ones with MX and doubleshots for as low as $15 NIB and $5 used so...

You wouldn't want to link those would you?

he probably bought them

you get good at looking for these things after a while
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Offline Muzi

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #6 on: Mon, 03 November 2014, 17:45:45 »
Model numbers would help

Offline TheAngelicWolf

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #7 on: Mon, 03 November 2014, 20:51:07 »
Model numbers would help tremendously.
Ok, I'll try and find it again...
I thought signatures belonged on paper?

Offline dorkvader

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #8 on: Mon, 03 November 2014, 21:02:15 »
« Last Edit: Mon, 03 November 2014, 21:04:55 by dorkvader »

Offline TheAngelicWolf

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I thought signatures belonged on paper?


Offline dorkvader

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #11 on: Mon, 03 November 2014, 22:47:48 »
it doesn't say it in the auction but cherry MY are mechanical by many definitions, they just are horrible to type on, making them pretty cheap.

You can in most cases tell what switches a cherry KB has by the model number. G81 is MY. G80 is MX (the one everyone wants) G84 is ML (low profile, used in some laptops back in the day)

Others like G86 and G83 are various rubber domes.

It is possible to find cheap cherry G80 keyboards with MX switches. Many are G80-8200 and G80-8113 point-of-sale keyboards.

Offline Oobly

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #12 on: Tue, 04 November 2014, 01:54:23 »
A lot of those have other switches than Cherry MX.. Chery ML and MY are quite common, for instance. Also, most of the newer Cherry MX boards (G80-3000 series for instance) are fairly cheaply made in terms of being just a PCB with switches in a plastic case. No plate, poor PCB support, thin keycaps and not very solid. Some come with PBT keycaps, but they're thin, light and the legends are lasered, not dyesub. If you add a backplate for support they can be acceptable to use, though. But if you also want to put better keycaps on, etc, it's better to have a more solid board as a starting point.

I think some of the POS boards have plates, though, and probably feel better to use than the modern G80-3000 series.

I recently bought 2 new Cherry G80-3000 boards for the switches alone (Clears) since they cost less than buying the same number of switches separately would. As a bonus I got some thin PBT caps and PCB mount stabilisers ;)
Buying more keycaps,
it really hacks my wallet,
but I must have them.

Offline IvanIvanovich

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #13 on: Tue, 04 November 2014, 10:28:22 »
True, the current MY are very terrible feeling... but the older types that look like this

or this

are considerably better. Sure they are still no MX, but they are nicer than a good deal of domes or things like Fujitsu leaf springs for example.

The majority of G80 are PCB mount. There are only a few MX models that came as plate mount most of which are very vintage and less likely to come across. The easiest plate G80 to find would be the newest G80-3850.
Even the nicest old PCB mount boards are going to be considerably different feeling if you are used to plate. Too many people do tend to equate light with cheap... of course not having a huge sheet of metal inside is going to make it feel different. Some of us think it's a good feeling.

Offline dorkvader

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #14 on: Tue, 04 November 2014, 13:32:48 »
are considerably better. Sure they are still no MX, but they are nicer than a good deal of domes or things like Fujitsu leaf springs for example.
I don't know. Fujitsu leaf springs (first gen) are some of the best linear switches I've tried. Almost as good as hall effect.

Offline TheAngelicWolf

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I thought signatures belonged on paper?

Offline IvanIvanovich

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #16 on: Tue, 04 November 2014, 17:37:00 »
I have a Tandy still from around '85 which was my first ever computer. It has Fujitsu leaf springs and I think they are just about the worst keyboard I have ever felt other than those terrible flat membrane sheet things.

Offline Puddsy

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #17 on: Tue, 04 November 2014, 17:53:23 »
are considerably better. Sure they are still no MX, but they are nicer than a good deal of domes or things like Fujitsu leaf springs for example.
I don't know. Fujitsu leaf springs (first gen) are some of the best linear switches I've tried. Almost as good as hall effect.

ahem

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Offline mozaiq

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #18 on: Wed, 05 November 2014, 15:46:29 »
I think it is not that unusual to find cheap Cherry boards. I just bought 3 Cherry G80 for 20€ including shipping at ebay. On one of the I was the only one placing a bid. You might have to wait a bit but eventually you will find a cheap board this way. I guess they are simply not that sought besides some specific rare versions.

Offline TheAngelicWolf

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #19 on: Wed, 05 November 2014, 20:25:01 »
I think it is not that unusual to find cheap Cherry boards. I just bought 3 Cherry G80 for 20€ including shipping at ebay. On one of the I was the only one placing a bid. You might have to wait a bit but eventually you will find a cheap board this way. I guess they are simply not that sought besides some specific rare versions.
You are one lucky person.
I thought signatures belonged on paper?

Offline mozaiq

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #20 on: Thu, 06 November 2014, 01:52:37 »
Are they really so much more rare/expensive in the US? I mean I am living in Germany so I only monitor the german part of Ebay, but here a G80-1800 or G80-3000 with MX blacks rarely sell for more than 15€ from what I have seen in the past. Maybe that is different for other switches since I haven't seen any in the past days iirc. Although I have to admit that many of these auctions are poorly described, so if don't search directly for "Cherry G80", they probably won't even show up in the results.

Offline TheAngelicWolf

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Re: Cherry Keyboards?
« Reply #21 on: Mon, 10 November 2014, 23:57:52 »
Are they really so much more rare/expensive in the US? I mean I am living in Germany so I only monitor the german part of Ebay, but here a G80-1800 or G80-3000 with MX blacks rarely sell for more than 15€ from what I have seen in the past. Maybe that is different for other switches since I haven't seen any in the past days iirc. Although I have to admit that many of these auctions are poorly described, so if don't search directly for "Cherry G80", they probably won't even show up in the results.
I suppose so, people are really going crazy over them on ebay.
I thought signatures belonged on paper?