[The Squeezed Springs Mod]: Eliminates switch pings | Bonus: Buckling Overdrive

[KHAANNN]

Symptoms: Odd switches that ping/tingle when depressed, audibly - Flimsy clicky switches - Applies to Cherry MX Green/Black/Clear's
Cause (Theory): Some switches have their springs holding onto the enclosure poles, roughly 50% of the switches have springs that hold onto the enclosure naturally, the pingy switches almost always have loose springs, springs that move freely inside, likely this free movement is causing the flimsiness and the free-movement/shaking, therefore the ping / continuing resonance, red/blue/brown's are mostly immune to the issue, as they have weaker yet high coiled springs

The Mod [Pole]: Open the switch, squeeze one end as much as you can, if you squeeze too much, it won't be possible to insert it to the pole, therefore calibrate the modification amount, insert that end to the switch enclosure/pole with the help of a small flat screwdriver (many things will aid, yet it's nearly impossible to do without tools). It doesn't matter much how much you mess up the spring, the pole corrects the damage, yet it will be really hard to insert if you squeeze too much

The Mod [Stem]: The stem part is much harder than the pole part, especially for 2-part stems like the Cherry MX Green, you have to squeeze the spring just a little bit, so it becomes slightly oval, parallel to the stem, if you mutilate the upper part of the spring, it might touch the 2-part stem and mess the click-action, this never happened to me. 1-part stems like clears/blacks don't have this risk - In the end, the spring shouldn't move freely in the stem, it should make the stem angle ~10degrees with the spring, as in the picture

Why it Works: The mod prevents the spring movement, reduces the flimsiness, prevents the ping, increases the stress between the stem and the enclosure slightly, causes a more pronounced click in greens, a stronger spring, the strength increase varies
Risks: ~5% of the switches end up messed, ~5% remain flimsy as you decide to go easy on them during the modding, sometimes you touch the plates when trying to put the spring in, this messes the click, makes it unique, sometimes makes it TOO strong, which is comparatively bad, ~5% of the switches ping nevertheless, might be debounce from the plates instead of a spring ping, all the switches and springs survive the mod, unless you lose a spring, you can put the uniquely messed switches to the F keys, since they are not used much
Suggestions: Audition switches and select similar ones for similar tasks, select strong ones for characters, reliable ones for modifiers, a very reliable yet not so strong one for the spacebar, very very reliable ones for the arrow keys, arrow key imperfections are the worst

[Bonus] Buckling Spring Overdrive: I mark the switches depending on how the mod went, when the modification gets messy, I mark them with an "X", I noticed that some of the switches that get marked with an X produce unique spring sounds, distinct clinking and tickling, very strong/pronounced ones, similar to buckling springs, so the theory is that, if you mess/bend the springs just right enough, it would make a nice buckling spring mod with cherry mx green's. I haven't done this myself, yet from the X'ed and XX'ed switches I got, I can say that it's definitely possible. Similar to stupid cherry mx whites that sometimes click and sometimes don't, these highly messed cherry mx green's will click and tick randomly at extreme levels, could be really pleasurable for an experimental board

I use this squeezing mod myself, the switches are certainly very fun to type on, less mellow and slightly stronger than regular green's, yet a secondary sweep was necessary to make the board perfect, I removed the remaining flimsy switches and replaced them with re-modded ones, now my board is perfect, strong/clicky and ping-free at the same time, combined with the eraser mod: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=70178.0

(This post extends the method I discovered/described here: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=69319.0)

[Oobly]

The ping is caused by springs twisting as they compress and "jumping" around at either the base or slider. This sudden release of twist pressure makes it resonate. It can also be caused by springs simply resonating with the slider bottoming out shock.

While this mod should also work to stop the ping by stopping the spring from moving at all, it can also be prevented by simply lubing the springs with an appropriate lube so they don't "jump" but rather twist without interference. The lube also acts as a vibration damper for bottom-out resonance. And it's easier and more consistent than this mod.

As far as the "buckling spring" thing... nope. You need a spring that is longer with respect to it's diameter than MX springs and preload them at a specific angle to get any kind of even vaguely consistent buckling.

[KHAANNN]

The ping is caused by springs twisting as they compress and "jumping" around at either the base or slider. This sudden release of twist pressure makes it resonate. It can also be caused by springs simply resonating with the slider bottoming out shock.

While this mod should also work to stop the ping by stopping the spring from moving at all, it can also be prevented by simply lubing the springs with an appropriate lube so they don't "jump" but rather twist without interference. The lube also acts as a vibration damper for bottom-out resonance. And it's easier and more consistent than this mod.

As far as the "buckling spring" thing... nope. You need a spring that is longer with respect to it's diameter than MX springs and preload them at a specific angle to get any kind of even vaguely consistent buckling.

I'm very tempted to try the lube mod in a future keyboard, but I'm worried the lube might have side-effects if it jumps onto the sliders, causing sluggishness, also it might wear over time and attract dust, these are my concerns, I also don't have access to reliable high viscosity lubes

But after all these trials, I do believe the lube will solve ping issues, I will look into it, thanks for the advice

I was also under the impression that the red/brown/blue springs were immune to spring ping, but it seems they might actually be enhancing the ping more with plate resonation, as you claim
However, when tested individually, they don't seem to ping when depressed, that's why I'm symphatetic to lubing now

I'm also trying all these on WASD V2's, gonna switch to KBP V60's soon, then to Infinity's, I have a hunch those keyboards might not suffer from the ping issue as much, might even be usable without any mods, at least I hope (I will have a better understanding after inspecting these new keyboards, I also looked for a PCB mounted keyboard, only Vortex Race was available, decided to skip that trial)

Ideally, a keyboard/switch combo should be usable without mods, all these modding/trials really wore me down, I'm probably going to stop and settle soon

[Oobly]

I both sympathise and agree with you. A good mechanical board should be free from issues like ping, plate resonance, etc, but unfortunately they are part and parcel of the current batch of switches / boards.

Maybe Gaterons / Kailh are less susceptible to ping? Anyone with some experience of these wish to chime in?

I don't mind doing the lube mod since I always do other mods to my switches anyway, so it's very little extra work, but for someone who just wants to type without irritation and without having to mod their board, it's not the nicest situation.

Lighter springs have less tension / twist to them and so tend not to do the "jumping" that causes ping as much, although you can get Browns to ping if you really try hard I had ping on my KBT Pure with Clears (PCB mount board) before I lubed them (especially my spacebar switch, which is the most pressed), so it's not just plate mount that have the problem. The plate can exacerbate the issue, though, and make the pings easier to hear.

I really like your fix for plate resonance. It ticks all the boxes in terms of what can prevent it (changing the resonant frequency, damping / absorbing vibrations, putting the plate under different tension).

For what it's worth I tried making an MX spring buckle and modified a Brown switch for the experiment, but the dimensions of the spring are just wrong. For such a short spring you need one even thinner than normal buckling springs and the centre post needs to be removed to allow the spring to bend / buckle, but it's possible to mod an MX case, slider and contacts to make one with the spring acting as a contact. I may try again at a later date.

[Dihedral]

The ping is caused by springs twisting as they compress and "jumping" around at either the base or slider. This sudden release of twist pressure makes it resonate. It can also be caused by springs simply resonating with the slider bottoming out shock.

While this mod should also work to stop the ping by stopping the spring from moving at all, it can also be prevented by simply lubing the springs with an appropriate lube so they don't "jump" but rather twist without interference. The lube also acts as a vibration damper for bottom-out resonance. And it's easier and more consistent than this mod.

As far as the "buckling spring" thing... nope. You need a spring that is longer with respect to it's diameter than MX springs and preload them at a specific angle to get any kind of even vaguely consistent buckling.

He didnt say it caused buckling. He said it caused a similar feel to buckling springs.

[KHAANNN]

On my latest build I decided to also lube the switches while squeezing them, during the build I realised that lubing is the ultimate solution to the spring pings, squeezing is a nice back-up in case the lube wears off, however the lubing works so well that, when the spring sound is completely prevented, there are additional sounds that come from squeezing (sometimes tines of the spring overlap one another and cause additional sounds, happens 20% of the time, hard to correct, but mostly correctable)

So I will likely not torture myself and just lube the springs on my next build

On the long run, I guess the lube should eventually wear down, turn into a gunk on the switch bottom, and that gunk should be equal to what my squeezed spring mod does, so even in the long run, lubing should win

Now, even in a dead silent room, there are no pings, only pure bottom out sounds from clears, very soothing

Has anyone used lubed springs for a long time and checked the state of the switch?

(Edit: I stopped using Green's, this latest build was with Clear's, with Green's the spring mod also eliminates the flimsy clicks, but for tactile/linear switches, it's too much work for a little gain)

[Den441]

Great post, very informative. I am planning on doing a cherry green build soon, so I will have to bookmark this. After using buckling springs, I just can't go back to blues. The greens I have tried, I enjoyed.

[OperationT]

What are the additional sounds that you are getting from squeezing, can you describe the sound? Did you mean that this sound was from the spring overlapping itself at certain parts?

Also, you said that the springs get a little stronger after squeezing. Would you be able to guess about how much stronger? I'm planning to do the ergo clear mod with either 62g or 65g springs, so I might have to account for the spring getting stronger from the squeezing.

[KHAANNN]

What are the additional sounds that you are getting from squeezing, can you describe the sound? Did you mean that this sound was from the spring overlapping itself at certain parts?

Also, you said that the springs get a little stronger after squeezing. Would you be able to guess about how much stronger? I'm planning to do the ergo clear mod with either 62g or 65g springs, so I might have to account for the spring getting stronger from the squeezing.

I did this mod at my first tactile switches too, clear ones, since I had nothing for comparison at the time, it worked ok. tho

However, later on, I skipped squeezing and started only lubing the springs, when I returned back to my original keyboard that had the squeezed springs with tactiles, I could notice all kinds of tingling sounds coming from the springs, they are basically the sounds springs produce when one tine overlaps another - very annoying (sounds a bit like a squeaky bed spring, not noticeable on clicky switches but noticeable on tactile's)

This mod works ok. only for clicky switches, shouldn't be applied for non-clicky switches at all

In hindsight, for clicky switches, just lubing the bottom of the switch works better, unless the user wants some chaotic clicky switches, this mod is worse than lubing
(I have one perfectly switch-bottom lubed clicky switched keyboard, achieved an extremely pure clicky experience, so I completely moved past this mod at this point)

I suggest you buy some Krytox lubes and just lube the springs instead of squeezing them: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=34332.450
(Just lubing the switch bottom works, for clicky switches, lubing more than the bottom causes issues, but for tactile switches, go ahead and lube anywhere you want, it doesn't cause any issues)